(Backdated, actually composed on August 2 because I was too busy yesterday.)

As with most Worldcons, I usually have a lot less to do, especially when there is no "overflow" WSFS Business Meeting. I did have a meeting, however: the organizational meeting of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee and Annual General Meeting of Worldcon Intellectual Property (the non-profit corporation set up to hold WSFS's intellectual property, particularly in those places that don't recognize unincorporated societies like WSFS.)

( MPC Details )

After the MPC meeting was the Closing Ceremony. I always attend the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. I reckon it is a reflection of how well CoNZealand built a virtual community that I had many of the same feelings of sadness at the ending of our annual gathering. It certainly wasn't the same as an in-person gathering, and I hope that we will once again be able to meet in person again by next August (although I understand how dicey that currently looks), but the event this year did evoke some of those same feelings.

The Closing Ceremony included a virtual "gavel handover" after CoNZealand co-chairs Kelly Buehler and Norman Cates banged the gave to official close the convention and then handed it off-screen to DisCon III co-chairs Colette Fozard and William Lawhorn (properly masked, I might add), who brought the Gavel of WSFS from off-screen and said, "We're on the clock now!" For logistical reasons, the gavel in New Zealand was the "stunt double," with the Gavel of WSFS having already been shipped from where it has often resided between conventions in my home.

I finally had an opportunity to look around the convention's virtual exhibit hall after the Closing Ceremonies. When I showed it to Lisa, she wished that she'd known what was going on, because she thinks that she and some of her friends who part of the ActiveWorlds virtual community could have build a "private world" (open only to CZ attending members) that did something similar and might have been a little easier to navigate. It was an interesting build, though. I won't link to it because it's unclear whether or not it will be preserved and if so, whether non-members will be able to access it.

There was still some programming after the Closing Ceremony (as there often is, just as there's often programming before the Opening Ceremony). The final program item was the last feedback session. This was pretty large, with at least five Zoom screens of 25 people online. Not surprisingly, the issues around the 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony were addressed. Kelly and Norman handled this earnestly and honestly, and I would like to think that their distress as they took responsibility for the unhappiness of many people was obvious. I certainly could see it. I know how they must feel. I hated disappointing people at ConJos&eactue; in 2002, and as far as I remember, we didn't have quite as high-profile displeasure vented toward us back then.

( On to the Old Pharts )

Soon enough, it was time for the Old Pharts' Induction ceremony. It's not secret, but I put it behind a cut because photos.

( Welcome New Members )

Lisa attended the party as well, although she doesn't like to be on camera that much, as she's normally the person behind the camera. She sat off to my right.

We stuck around until about 2 AM PDT, which is phenomenally late when your usual days start at 4:30 AM. Fortunately, it was now Sunday morning my time, so I didn't have to set an alarm, but I also didn't have enough brain capacity left to write anything, and that's why this post is actually being written around 3 PM Sunday afternoon.

It was good to see people. It would have been better to be in the same place with them.

This morning I found that CoNZealand had sent me new and better photos of the 2020 Hugo Award trophies, so once I logged off from my half-day of Day Jobbery, I updated the 2020 Hugo Award Trophy page. This took longer than I thought it would. My idea to take a nap prior to the panel at 2 PM PDT (Question Time for Discon III) that I wanted to attend evaporated, but at least I had time to get some lunch.

At 3 PM it was time for what was for me The Big Event: the official announcement of the 2022 Worldcon Site Selection, about which there has been much internet drama over the past week, with Open Letters complaining about the WSFS Board of Directors, me getting quoted in the Guardian, and being accused of all sorts of things of which I'm pretty sure that I'm the exact opposite, but it would take too long to go into it all here, so I won't.

To the surprise of virtually nobody, Chicago won the bid to host the 2022 Worldcon, with 90% of the vote. The bid from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia got about 6% of the vote, while the remainder went to None of the Above and an assortment of write-in bids. You can see the longer form announcement, including a link to the details, at the Worldcon web site. The newly-seated 80th Worldcon will be called Chicon 8.

An advantage of a virtual Worldcon is that I'm at my home office, with my full-size keyboard on my desk, not pecking away on my laptop perched precariously actually on my lap as I try to update the Worldcon website. While the newly-seated Worldcon made its presentation, I was updating Worldcon.org with the new Worldcon information. Thanks to Alan Stewart, the site selection administrator, who sent me a copy of the detailed results, I was able to get almost everything updated before the announcement panel ended.

While I was working on making the changes, I got an e-mail from the Chair of the JeddiCon bid informing me that Jeddah was rebidding for 2026. I was already in the process of removing 2022 bidders, so it was easy enough to create a new entry for them by moving their old one while pulling the Chicago in 2022 bid off the site. As I noted elsewhere, people who are unhappy with the Saudi bid now have several years to organize other bids or support other bids, and have no excuse for claiming that they were unaware that this bid existed. Frankly, I don't think they had any excuse anyway. None of this information is secret if you pay any reasonable amount of attention to Worldcon. It's only people (including many people who attend Worldcons) who never pay attention to future Worldcon sites until just a few days before the vote (if that) who are taken by surprise and who get angry that They Were Not Told.

Anyway, I did get everything updated, the results Tweeted and posted to Facebook, and even had time to get some dinner and go out for a walk with Lisa before the party block (starting at 8 PM PDT) started. Lisa and I hung out in the Chicon 8 party until nearly 10 PM, which is very late for me, because I still have to be up at 4:30 AM for work.

It's funny, but there's one part of this virtual convention that's just like an in-person Worldcon for me. Thanks to my commitments to keep the WSFS web sites maintained, I've attended little programming and I still haven't seen the exhibits.

Tomorrow is Hugo Day, and also (if it's set up so that we can see it) the WSFS Business Meeting. The Business Meeting is set for 3 PM PDT (10 AM Saturday in New Zealand) and is supposed to be pro forma, but I'm enough of a WSFS geek to want to see it anyway. Besides, I haven't missed a single Business Meeting since 1989 and I'm going through withdrawal.

The Hugo Awards are scheduled for 4 PM PDT (11 AM Saturday in New Zealand) and will be broadcast live (no CoNZealand membership required) over The Fantasy Network. TheHugoAwards.org will not be doing our customary live coverage, but we'll be tweeting the results as each category is announced, and we'll have the full results including the detailed breakdowns of nominations and placements as soon as we can after the ceremony ends. I will be very busy.

I think I'm going to be glad that due to the time difference, there's no Worldcon on Sunday my time, as I'm going to need a lot of sleep, even without being there in person.

Today was the first day of CoNZealand, the first virtual Worldcon. I had to work at Day Jobbe, but was able to start looking in around 1 PM my time as things were starting to come together. I did not attend any panels, but I spent time "hanging around" on Discord around the areas marked as the Hallway (where I denied having any interest in bidding for a Worldcon for Tonopah), the Con Suite, and the UK and Chicago Worldcon bid tables until the Opening Ceremony.

( Respecting Tradition )

With the next days filled with Worldcon stuff and with Lisa and I trying to not go grocery shopping on weekends anymore, we calculated that today was the only day we had until sometime next week, so we made a trip to Reno for a shopping run. By the time we got home, it was time for the convention parties.

The parties are arranged into several "bands" to try and cover lots of time zone ranges. Band 3 started at 20:00 PT and included the Chicago in 2022 party. Parties were in the form of Zoom meetings. You enter the party "lobby" and ask to be sent to the party (breakout room) you wanted to attend. If you wanted to change parties, you could leave the room and return to the lobby to be sent to other parties.

Lisa and I spent the evening sitting in the Chicago party. We would have stayed later, but it's already too late and I still have to work tomorrow, albeit only a half-day. I may have to try and get a nap in tomorrow after work and before more convention stuff.

It's nowhere near as satisfying as a real Worldcon, but I do like spending time talking with my friends and other fellow fans, even if we can't do so in person.