Easing Into Worldcon

My plans of sleeping in this morning were torpedoed by an e-mail received shortly after my last post reminding me that the CanSMOF (Montreal) board of directors was meeting this morning. I met up with my fellow board members, we went to breakfast, and dealt with accumulated business.

On the way back to the hotel, where Lisa was able to sleep in, I took a picture of the banners on the streets around the convention center that welcome MidAmeriCon II to Kansas City.

( Kansas City Welcomes Worldcon )

After some of the lightning-fast internet connections at the IHG hotels along our route of travel here this past week, the trickle of bandwidth we have here in Kansas City (upload/download speeds of <1 MBPS) is disappointing. It also means we may not be able to upload the high-definition versions of the Business Meeting videos after all, or at least not until we get somewhere with enough bandwidth to be able to do the job.

Today, if possible, Lisa and I need to go confirm that the room designated for this year's WSFS meetings is set up correctly for the video recording. Also, after the Opening Ceremonies is the WSFS Mark Protection Committee Meeting. The MPC meeting has been put in a room vastly larger than it needs to be, but that's because the room in question is sitting idle at 6 PM today and the convention has no small board rooms available for 15-person gatherings, so we'll make do.

I anticipate donning my WSFS captain's uniform sometime this afternoon, Opening Ceremonies being a "formal occasion" and all that.

Worldcon 2016 Day 1: Open to the Public

Today was, relatively speaking, the least-scheduled of our five days of Worldcon. After the CanSMOF Board Meeting, I came back to the room, and instead of my WSFS Captain's uniform, got into my Colonel Chinstrap outfit, and Lisa and travelswithkuma (Lt. Hayes and Pvt. Bear) and I set forth as the Imperial Airship Corps command team. Regrettably, I forgot to get anyone to take a picture of the three of us with my camera, although many other people did take our pictures. It was very entertaining. Lisa had a telegraph key strapped to her wrist that would make click-clack sounds from the relay on her belt, so she would send dispatches from the Colonel. Maybe we'll have a chance to get dressed up again sometime this weekend.

( Opening Day )

After the Opening Ceremonies, the WSFS Mark Protection Committee had a short meeting to confirm that there was nothing more than what is in our written report that we submitted to the Business Meeting. Linda Deneroff and I then went and found Lisa and we headed off to dinner, and ran into Andrew Adams and Emeeli Aro who were also looking for dinner. We set out to use the free streetcar to take us uptown, where we ate at the Homestead Cafe. I had a nice blackened catfish. It's nice to get out for dinner. I'll be surprised if we do that very often. We walked back to the hotels and convention center.

( Wednesday Night in the Fan Fair )

Earlier than we would have liked, we headed back to the hotel. Lisa and I got an early look at the room where the Business Meeting will be held, but the tech setup will not start until tomorrow morning. We have to be over there at 8 AM to get set up for a 10 AM start. Other days may be easier, but Thursday is likely to be a little frantic. And we're not the only people working hard on this. I left Business Meeting Chair Jared Dashoff and Secretary Linda Deneroff dealing with the copying of hundreds of copies of WSFS agendas. Everyone is working hard to make this event a success.