netmouse | 2008 worldcon site selection

I am torn about what site to vote for for the 2008 worldcon. I know quite a few people working on the Chicago Bid, and I'm sure they can run a terrific con, though I've never been to a Chicago worldcon. But, frankly, I'm leaning toward voting for Denver.

Here's why:

Denver's a great city. I like the area, and I don't get out there enough
I go to Chicago all the time. And frankly, I'm not all that crazy about it (though it has my favorite skyline in all the world and, yes, they do have good hot dogs.)
Chicago has had a lot of worldcons (this would be their seventh) - I feel for fairness and for the impression we give non-Americans, we should vary where the con is held more than we do.
I like Kent Bloom (chair of the bid). I met him at a smofcon and he seemed both nice and ept. I like people working on the Chicago (and columbus) bids too, but I see them fairly often. I haven't seen Kent in years.
It seems like the bid committee has negotiated a good deal for their hotel and facilities, at least according to their reports
I like the idea of having the convention earlier in August, so as to be before school starts and not conflict with dragoncon. (not that I go to dragoncon, but hey)

The Chicago bid web page is more slick. The group has also given themselves more time to bid, and accordingly put more time into it, and they have a theme. But I'm still leaning toward voting for Denver. Anyone want to try to talk me out of it?

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There's much, much more to a bid than its website, of course. And that's where things get even more mixed for me. Dave McCarty and crew have done an utterly excellent job of giving the Chicago bid real legs in the last 18 months. That goes a long way toward making me willing to go to another Chicago Worldcon much though I'll hold firm to my vow to not host a party in the Chicago Hyatt, a vow I made following the experience of running a Minneapolis in '73 suite there in 2000. Never before or since have I had the misfortune of hosting a party in such a party-hostile hotel environment. And that's saying a lot, especially given that I ran the hospitality division at ConJose and had more than the typical party-host experience with the San Jose Fairmont in the process. Much as I treasure the memory of winning Kurt Baty's and Scott Bobo's "Best Party of the Worldcon" award at Chicon 2000, I still haven't been able to forget the sheer awfulness of scrubbing the tile entry to the suite each day before going to bed a couple of hours past dawn. Why was I on my knees scrubbing the floor? So the suite wouldn't look dirty when the maid arrived. I cleaned much of the damned suite myself *and* left extortion payoff tips to avoid the multi-hundred dollar cleaning and damage bills other parties were getting hit with. And, yes, I'm still bitter.

I'm very pleased the Chicago bid seriously considered other properties; I'm sorry none of them worked out.

My major concern about the Denver bid is its relationship with the local fan base, which is weak at best. Counter-balancing that is my belief that Kent, Mary, and crew would run a solid Worldcon, and especially that lots and lots of very talented folks would gladly contribute their helping hands, legs, bodies, and lives for the duration. Add to that the fact that I believe Kent and Mary plan to run the kind of Worldcon that has a good chance of not eating those talented folks alive.

At this point, I think both Chicago and Denver would continue doing a good job of linking into The Permanent Floating Worldcon Committee while also welcoming and using new folks reasonably well. Columbus completely loses out on this point, and for me it's an important one.

Eighteen months ago, Chicago didn't have a chance of my vote. I'm still leaning in Denver's direction, but the fact I've gone from certain to undecided, the fact that I have to think about it at all, is a strong tribute to all of the good Dave's done with the Chicago bid.

Okay, so summarizing and short bullet points just aren't my strength. :-) That's how this response ended up split into two parts -- the entire thing exceeds LJ's reply limit.

Hope there's been some interesting food for thought within.

Its funny Geri but Tammy, Kim Kofmel and I were throwing 3 parties in the same hotel that weekend and dodged that bullet.

Mind you as Tammy points out we threw more modest parties, at least we tried, being down the hall from Torcon gave us alot of business.

...we threw more modest parties, at least we tried...

Oh, I know that one well. The Minneapolis in '73 suite was between the elevators and the Boston bid parties. We'd never before been on the main party path, or had that many people flow through in a night.

I'm very glad your mileage varied.

2008 worldcon site selection

Part 2 of 2: The bids themselves

Re: Part 2 of 2: The bids themselves

Re: Part 2 of 2: The bids themselves