Worldcon 2013 wrap-up

A few thoughts on the flight back from the World Science Fiction Convention, in no particular order:

• It’s been too long since the last time we went to a Worldcon.
• Paul Cornell kept the toast very well in hand — it was a real treat watching him be master of ceremonies at the masquerade and the Hugos.
• Kudos to the program committee for the Spanish language track — a U.S. Worldcon that acknowledges the good stuff that’s not written in English is all the better for it.
• Tarnation on the program committee for the Spanish language track — I need more books like I need a hole in my head (or a hole in the apartment’s floor, more likely), yet here I am, ordering Three Messages and a Warning.
• The panel discussing harassment and con harassment policies could easily have gone another few hours. I look forward to the dialogue — and action! — continuing. One thing I heard and a couple things I saw made it clear that the need to work for more inclusivity continues. For example, the choice of which Rostler’s Rules were on the slideshow prior to the masquerade included weight-shaming; we are better than that.
• To whoever put up the “SMOF zone” sign on the door to the room holding the WSFS business meeting: I get the joke, but if you want broader participation, make it triply clear that all con members can participate in WSFS business. If you don’t want broader participation, I rather suspect a fannish corollary to Gilmore’s Law will be drafted — but it doesn’t need to come to that. For more background, I recommend reading this post by aiglet12.
• An opportunity was missed in regards to the People en Español event that shared the convention center with Worldcon. I hope that future cons will consider opening the dealer’s room and exhibits to the general public. I also hope that they will consider opportunities for cross-programming with other events should they present themselves.
• I now know that I can blame the Daleks for con time. WAIT! WAIT! OBEY! WAIT!
• Despite a few rough edges, I’m glad we went. I’m looking forward to LonCon next year.

Worldcon 2013 wrap-up by Galen Charlton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.