Worldcon

ixoy

Anyone else heading to Worldcon? For the unaware, it's the biggest convention worldwide for sci-fi & fantasy authors. It's slightly different to a standard convention and is much of a networking event for authors, and aspiring authors, as anything else. It has various events and lots of panels (quite specific ones too) some of which are panelled by various authors.

It's in Dublin this year for the first time, making it accessible. You can sign up to have a coffee/walk with some of them and so on as well as just probably make conversation if they're amenable.

There's a full list of authors here, some of which will be doing panels and so on (no idea who is doing what yet). If you look at the list you'll see some favourites here - GRRM, Steven Erikson, Patrick Rothfuss, Adrian Tchaikosky, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch and loads of others.

Does that say it's 270 euro to attend?

ixoy

bluewolf wrote: »

Does that say it's 270 euro to attend?

Not quite. €270 to become a full member, which gives you access to all of the days plus stuff like nominating/voting in the Hugos.
You can get day passes which vary in price - €50 for Friday and €75 for Saturday or Sunday. I've gone for a Friday and Sunday pass, so that's half the cost of a full annual membership.
Tickets aren't on sale anymore but you can pick some up at Dublin Comic Con it seems.

Ave Sodalis

I've only just heard of it now, when Steven Erikson posted he was going on his Facebook page. I didn't know it existed and now I'm a little bit miserable that I won't get to go. There's an incredible list of authors! If Brandon Sanderson was also going, I probably would have just went to Comic Con (which I was going to give a miss to this year), and got tickets even though I won't get off work for it. I'm tempted to do it anyways...

ixoy

If people are looking for tickets, it's worth checking out the Dublin2019 chat here where some people are putting tickets up for sale.

beauf

I only realised this was on today.

What a poorly promoted/advertised event.

super_furry

Yeah, I'm literally just hearing about this now. Seems like it's really more of a niche industry thing and not really for the 'general public'. There are some really cool guests - Diane Duane and Steve Jackson among others - but it's also saying it's totally sold out.

ixoy

Agreed. I was aware last year (as they were at Comic Con) but forgot until recently as I saw nothing. I posted here because I figured others hadn't.. Albeit with one day to go. That's also because they didn't announce the programme until then.

It's a bit exclusive and seems like you have to know about it already. They really should have advertised it more here though. I know it's somewhat targeted at existing Worldcon members but it should have local blood. For context, last I checked, there's 2500 Americans going and about 500 Irish despite it being here..

GerardKeating

beauf wrote: »

What a poorly promoted/advertised event.

Well, it sold out, so cannot have been that badly advertised/promoted. I saw a lot of mentions of it, but paid little attention to them.

super_furry

Ahhh jaysus, just seeing that Steven Erikson and a Kieron Gillen are there, and it's literally down the road! Really wish I'd heard of this all sooner.

ixoy

So if you do get a chance some point in the future, I'd recommend a Worldcon.

I went two days - Friday and Sunday. I attended 11 panels there (each 45-50 minutes). I got into every panel I wanted, generally queuing about 20 minutes beforehand.
Topics of the panels I saw were things like "Exploring the Kuiper belt", "Mythology in fantasy" , "King and Colony: Alternative political models in fantasy" and so on. Lots of variety elsewhere too. The panellists varied in quality but you'd get at least one author and one expert in the area (so an astrophysicist for the Kuiper belt for example, or someone in academia for a panel on speculative biology).

Of the authors on the panels, I saw most of Joe Abercrombie (he's good at his points and quite funny too!) and Adrian Tchaikovsky (good speaker and comes across as an intelligent man). Saw some others I'd read like Paul Cornell and Yoo Han Lee. Fun to see the people I've read in real life.

I got autographs from the likes of Charles Stross, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Joe Abercrombie (who had to sign my Kindle as I'd no suitable book), Paul Cornell and Ben Aaronvitch. If I'd had time I'd have maybe gone to signings for some of the others but I needed to prioritise.

I did see Steven Erikson wandering around but he was with people so I couldn't interrupt him. And some short, quite quite stout American dude in his '70s wandering around an art gallery (and being courted by the artist with the most expensive paintings) hoping nobody would ask him when he'd finish his next damn book.

Aside from the autographs, panels and some chit chat, I also managed to go to Scott Lynch's reading from 'The Thorns of Emberlain' (got about 20 minutes of material and it definitely made us all laugh), which as the fourth book in his Gentlemen Bastard's sequence should be out in 2020.

So yeah, from a reading point-of-view, I don't think I'll get to attend anything remotely like that for a long time. Glasgow are aiming to host it in 2024 which would be handy anyway - it's in New Zealand next year, which isn't quite as close...

JoZeb

It was a great convention and really good for the island of Ireland, as was Titancon/Eurocon the following week which was a more chilled out affair with less queues but fewer big names and a much smaller dealers room (athough it had Direwolves).

For anyone into the convention scene in Ireland, Octocon is on 13th October in Blachardstown and both Titancon and Octocon plan to run next year. I'm involved in Titancon (getting more involved by the minute, it seems) and we'd love to see support continuting!

TheIrishGrover

I didn't realise this was such a big deal Con-wise until afterwards. Congrats to all involved. Have never been to a con but I'd like to, especially to support the home-grown scene.

JoZeb

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

I didn't realise this was such a big deal Con-wise until afterwards. Congrats to all involved. Have never been to a con but I'd like to, especially to support the home-grown scene.

Octocon is on in 2 weeks time and Titancon next August. Come along! They will be smaller affairs but from those small affairs did this year’s great events happen