Worldcon 2009 in montreal August 6th - 10th, 2009!

[Olos Nay]

www.anticipationsf.ca/

who's coming to montreal in 2009 for WORLDCON???

Palais des congrès de Montréal from August 6th - 10th, 2009.

more details as it comes.

[Leda EmBorr]

Now that's a big event to plan for!

[Olos Nay]

as soon as I know who to contact about it, I'll start looking about having some TJA tables there.

but so far they have very little information.

[Olos Nay]

The current take from most people involved in any sphere of fandom locally isn't favorable for an active participation on our part for the WorldCon.

Their ConCom took decisions that isn't the most thrilling at this point...
-Their prices are unexpectedly high, 3-4 times the price of Dragon*Con.
-They offer the week pass, nothing else. No can do taking only the time you're there
-They are still looking for volunteers, yet anyone who'd be volunteering are expected to buy the weekly pass. (paying to work?)

This week, the person they had put in charge of recruiting volunteers resigned. I still don't quite know how to get a fan table... their website is kinda cryptic to me.

I understand they have long term relationship with their participant, being the most ancient scifi convention and all, but most of Montreal Fandom was hoping for something different. It feels like its some kind of closed circle and we're not exactly welcomed. They aren't much about "media" either, movies and TV being abnormal for their convention, being mainly focusing around literature.

Do we have "worldcon regulars" who can confirm/infirm what we've been subtely reading from the concom's actions?

[Stey Fann Jull]

Im willing to go but always depending on how much it cost. It would be sad if its really not worth the price.

[Stey Fann Jull]

I went on the website and for now, it dont look too nice like what they do in the US. But thats my opinion. Master Nay can you tell us more?

[Olos Nay]

The info I could gather talks about a 250$ pricetag for the week pass. They don't have shorter pass.

From what I understand of Worldcon, its a litterature-driven scifi convention. They are from the years pre-TV and are based mainly of scifi novels. "media" is not something they are accustomed with, and have little to no interest in movie-related scifi.
They do have a masquerade, and costume are welcomed, but somehow I feel like its less our place then conventions like Dragon*Con, Polaris, Con*cept or events like ComicCon/toyCon.

I might be wrong. Before I learned about Montreal hosting this specific worldcon, I never knew about them.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

I've been going to Worldcons for awhile (my first one was Chicago, 1982). The 2008 Worldcon was in Denver, and it was just as spread out between hotels and convention center as the Montreal one will be. I will likely be wearing a Jedi costume most of the time because it's a good 'street' costume.

FYI: usually I don't know who the Guest of Honor is, but for Denver I actually have read all that GoH's books - Lois M. Bujold. SF and fantasy books. And she got her writing start with Star Trek fanzines in the 70's.

The Guest of Honor for Montreal is Neil Gaimon. Aside from books, he is also well known for authoring comic books and the movie 'Coraline', that just came out, is based on one of his stories. There may be some literary people who have some attitude about media but there are many more fans who are cool about it.

The programming at a Worldcon WILL be book, writing and publishing oriented. SF media would only be a side topic like costuming, filking, science, horror, etc. So, if you want lots of media you really should go to DragonCon. However, Worldcons in California generally have a strong SF/fantasy media track.

[Stey Fann Jull]

WOW 250.00$ for a pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL

[Olos Nay]

Thanks a lot Ani-Chay, we really needed inputs from regulars.

The con-com so far isn't giving us a good taste. They act like "its worldcon so people will come no matter what we do" type of attitude, repelling most of the local scifi fans. Its really a shame.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

I'm sorry the Anticipation Con-com have got their noses in the air -- this is not a good recipe for a Worldcon. I checked last year's Worldcon web page and they had day memberships -- they were still mighty expensive though. That's why a lot of people get theirs 1-2 years in advance when the price can be half of that.

They have NO excuse for being down on media SF with Neil Gaimon as their GoH; he's VERY media-friendly. I'm sure there will the Coraline costumes in the Masquerade.

FYI: the Anticipation memberships are $250 Canadian, $200 US --- which is still fiercely expensive. Worldcon is run by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and is entirely non-profit with a publicly available budget. Any profits go toward future Worldcons. One of the nicest things about Worldcons is a very full programming schedule (comparable to DragonCon) with lots of interesting things, but with a fraction of the crowding. None of the guests are paid (the GoHs gets expenses paid) but most of the pro publishers, artists and writers take the expenses off on their taxes. I have only scene media guest, actors or movie people, at Worldcon when its in California and they're doing publicity for something.

Incidentally, the 1976 Kansas City Worldcon had a big Star Wars display at it, for publicity reasons and Mark Hamill was there -- waaaaay back when nobody knew anything about Star Wars. Steve Sansweet attended Worldcon a few years ago in Anaheim and had a retrospective about SW that included some of pictures of that.

[Stey Fann Jull]

For me it might be a bit too expansive 250.00$ But im still willing to do somethings after the convention with you guys

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

We can have dinner sometime during the convention or just after? Since the convention is so spread out then there are a lot of places to meet that aren't part of the convention itself.

[Olos Nay]

No matter if we manage to participate to the con or not, I am willing to do some on-the-side events like pictures and dinners. In fact, its a must.

You guys need to get some smoked meat while in Montreal, or bagels, or poutine...
I can also assist anyone willing to do some sightseeing. The Con is right next to Chinatown and very close to the main streets of downtown Montreal.
If some other are willing, I suggest we get to some older buildings for a photo shoot in Jedi gear somewhen in afternoons.

For the non-adept, Montreal never sleeps and the standard closing time is 3AM.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

I'm planning on arriving the day before the con (Aug 5) and leaving the day after (Aug 11) so there will be plenty of opportunities for dinner. Any reasonably close photo op places would be fine for me.

I'll be wearing Jedi most of the time because of all the walking for the con. AND because it's an international flight I get 2 suitcase, 70 pounds each without an extra charge (unless the airlines start charging for that by then).