Westercon 76 Day 1: Opening and Ice Cream
Jul. 4th, 2024 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeMuch to my surprise this morning, I woke up at 5 AM, just like any work day. Moreover, that was 5 AM Mountain Time, and thus 4 AM Pacific and an hour earlier than my normal work days. In any event, Lisa and I slowly got moving, and, earlier than we originally expected, joined Linda Deneroff and Scott Sanford for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
Linda was looking for a few groceries and asked the hotel where the nearest grocery store was. There turns out to be a WinCo foods only around 15 minutes from the hotel by road. After breakfast, I took Linda to WinCo and we both got stuff. There was enough room for both milk and orange juice in our fridge, and I got some cans of root beer, which didn't have to be refrigerated all at once.
Convention registration opened later that morning, and we got our badges. Lisa and I replaced the lanyards (which we both dislike) with clips, as we carry extra clips with us for this exact reason. I staked out our spaces in the fan tables area, where Westercon 78 site selection is located, flanked by the LA in 2026 Worldcon bid on one side and the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon bid and the Westercon 77/BayCon 2025 information table on the other. (I am responsible for those last two.) Site Selection ran from 2 PM to 6 PM today.
LA in 2026's table is to the left, while Linda sits behind Site Selection and Martin Pyne stands to the right.
Programming started at Noon, but I spent most of my day helping at Site Selection. We helped explain to people that while there was no bid on the ballot, there is a write-in for BayCon 2026, and yes, that does mean that if it wins, there will be two Westercons in the same place in a row. Some people were unaware that there are no rules against this.
There was not a huge rush of people voting, and that's partially because there do not seem to be a large number of people here. I wasn't counting, but surely it it was under a hundred.
We closed site selection at 6 PM, and an hour later the Ice Cream Social opened on the hotel's pool deck.
There having been no official Opening Ceremony, Westercon 76 chair Charles Galway officially called the convention to order with the Gavel of Westercon. When one person commented on how there had already been a full day of programming, I explained that all of that had been the "cold open," while the gavel ceremony was the Opening Credits.
Probably because of our too-early start, both Lisa and ran out of energy early. She turned in for a nap late in the afternoon, and I did not stick around that long at the Social. We took dinner in the room, with Lisa making us kippered herring sandwiches on sourdough bread with some packets of mustard saved from a stop earlier in our trip at a Maverik convenience store.
Tomorrow is a longer day. Site Selection will have split hours of 10 AM-Noon and 2 PM-6 PM because the Future of Westercon panel is at Noon and Linda and I want to get some lunch before reopening for the final hours of voting.
There's nowhere to eat around the hotel other than the hotel restaurant unless you drive, as there are no sidewalks on the local roads. One could walk on the roads themselves, but there's at least some traffic to dodge. The hotel's restaurant is not normally open for lunch, but they are opening specially for Westercon, with lunch buffets today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Today's theme was Italian; tomorrow's Mexican, and Saturday's International. At $17 (beverages extra other than water and lemonade), it seemed reasonably priced to me, and it was thanks to both the breakfast and lunch buffets that tonight we ate lightly with just a sandwich.
I did not see any notices of parties, but there is a Hospitality Suite on the second floor, although it was only just opening when we stopped by to have a look and confirm where it was. I'm turning in early and hoping to get more sleep for a longer day tomorrow.
Linda was looking for a few groceries and asked the hotel where the nearest grocery store was. There turns out to be a WinCo foods only around 15 minutes from the hotel by road. After breakfast, I took Linda to WinCo and we both got stuff. There was enough room for both milk and orange juice in our fridge, and I got some cans of root beer, which didn't have to be refrigerated all at once.
Convention registration opened later that morning, and we got our badges. Lisa and I replaced the lanyards (which we both dislike) with clips, as we carry extra clips with us for this exact reason. I staked out our spaces in the fan tables area, where Westercon 78 site selection is located, flanked by the LA in 2026 Worldcon bid on one side and the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon bid and the Westercon 77/BayCon 2025 information table on the other. (I am responsible for those last two.) Site Selection ran from 2 PM to 6 PM today.
LA in 2026's table is to the left, while Linda sits behind Site Selection and Martin Pyne stands to the right.
Programming started at Noon, but I spent most of my day helping at Site Selection. We helped explain to people that while there was no bid on the ballot, there is a write-in for BayCon 2026, and yes, that does mean that if it wins, there will be two Westercons in the same place in a row. Some people were unaware that there are no rules against this.
There was not a huge rush of people voting, and that's partially because there do not seem to be a large number of people here. I wasn't counting, but surely it it was under a hundred.
We closed site selection at 6 PM, and an hour later the Ice Cream Social opened on the hotel's pool deck.
There having been no official Opening Ceremony, Westercon 76 chair Charles Galway officially called the convention to order with the Gavel of Westercon. When one person commented on how there had already been a full day of programming, I explained that all of that had been the "cold open," while the gavel ceremony was the Opening Credits.
Probably because of our too-early start, both Lisa and ran out of energy early. She turned in for a nap late in the afternoon, and I did not stick around that long at the Social. We took dinner in the room, with Lisa making us kippered herring sandwiches on sourdough bread with some packets of mustard saved from a stop earlier in our trip at a Maverik convenience store.
Tomorrow is a longer day. Site Selection will have split hours of 10 AM-Noon and 2 PM-6 PM because the Future of Westercon panel is at Noon and Linda and I want to get some lunch before reopening for the final hours of voting.
There's nowhere to eat around the hotel other than the hotel restaurant unless you drive, as there are no sidewalks on the local roads. One could walk on the roads themselves, but there's at least some traffic to dodge. The hotel's restaurant is not normally open for lunch, but they are opening specially for Westercon, with lunch buffets today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Today's theme was Italian; tomorrow's Mexican, and Saturday's International. At $17 (beverages extra other than water and lemonade), it seemed reasonably priced to me, and it was thanks to both the breakfast and lunch buffets that tonight we ate lightly with just a sandwich.
I did not see any notices of parties, but there is a Hospitality Suite on the second floor, although it was only just opening when we stopped by to have a look and confirm where it was. I'm turning in early and hoping to get more sleep for a longer day tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-05 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-07 02:42 am (UTC)Thanks to this post I have remembered I need to pack a lanyard and a belt clip for worldcon.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-14 05:57 am (UTC)