I Only Wish Worldcon Was That Important

[kevin_standlee]

I think he really means it when he says, in support of his paranoid delusion that Worldcons held outside of the US would be High Profile Terrorist Targets requiring High Security:

Worldcon is easily accessible and the Worldcon is a BIG Name event… and if you think that an event that features so many writers and media people with an International profile isn’t a BIG event in the UK then I humbly submit to you that you are wrong.

As I pointed out to him, the Worldcon, while important within our community, isn't even important enough to the UK publishing industry, let alone anywhere else. In 2005, we couldn't get the publishers to pay attention to the Glasgow Worldcon, despite the UK authors being nominated for Hugo Awards, because it was a minor event of little importance to them.

I simply find the idea laughable that a World Science Fiction Convention would be a significantly important target compared to high-profile sporting event or political conference. If the terrorists start targeting as low as us, then long before then the entire world will have shut down because you won't be able to step outside your door without setting off the bomb on your doorstep.

Comments

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

The Baltimore Police and Otakon have a full building evacuation plan (IIRC) and have had to evacuate the building once due to exploding Manhole covers. They evacuated the building (at a third of the size it is now) in about 10 minutes. They are prepared for terroism at Otakon. They deeply doubt that it will ever happen, but since 9/11 (or in case of fire or Exploding Manhole covers) this is important

Worldcon isn't at the size or importance to have to go that far. I would at least think the con should work with the venue to have a plan to do a full evacuation in case of fire at a very least.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Comicon - now THAT's an event. But yeah, any average Man U game is much more important a target than Worldcon.

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

Minor nit. The editors at the UK publishers were generally very supportive of Worldcon. The problem was that their PR people worked at a corporate level and were not interested in anything to do with science fiction. What we ended up with as a compromise was that some of them did events with their authors in bookstores so that they didn't have to have anything to do with the convention.

[howeird]

So let me throw out a whole new idea: with the enormous rise lately in the number mainstream sci-fi/fantasy movies and, presumably, fans, should WSFS and the local Worldcon organizers be marketing the cons with the object of making them big enough to be a terrorist threat magnet?