World Fantasycon 2013

[ladymoonray]

It's no good, I need to have a rant

Comments

[swisstone]

Hear, hear.

[hirez]

[FX: Applause]

[marypcb]

The badge replacement fee is very common at the tech conferences we go to (on the no sharing, no selling access principle, where a conference fee is $3k and you get meals and training sessions and parties). I always think of WFC as a pro conference. But the programming stuff sounds full of fail

[ladymoonray]

The thing is, if it's a conference, it needs to stop calling itself a convention. Otherwise people might expect it to behave like one.

[purplecthulhu]

Never heard anything along these lines at the professional conferences I attend. But then we don't pay 3k either.

[nmg]

What he said. I can only assume that tech conferences are a very different beast from academic conferences, even those in the computer science area.

[girfan]

I'm one of the people who bought a ticket at the beginning of the year. A few of my favourite authors are going. But, one I really wanted to see had to back out (due to personal reasons not connected to the convention). I was happy that a few more of my favourites were still attending.

I was unable to book into the official hotel but got a good rate from one a few streets away. Travel was a problem, mainly due to the travel industry penalizing everyone during half-term, even if you never had a child (train fare for 2 last year was just under £50 and I am paying over £70 for just me!). It would have been nice if the con planners took this into consideration.

But, now that I have seen various issues (that you highlighted), I started regretting wanting to go. It's too late to back out without losing a few hundred pounds, so I will still go, attend the bits I want to attend and have fun with the people I know who are going. This may mean room parties or just hanging out.

I went to the last 2 Fantasycons and there weren't any of the

[ladymoonray]

There is a particular individual who seems to be being held responsible for a lot of this, but I'm not close enough to know whether that's the case or not.

To be honest, it doesn't matter where it's coming from. It needs to stop.

[girfan]

I looked at the website and there is no committee member listing, just one for those attending. But, on a site with info for all the past WFCs, there are people listed. One of the people listed is someone I know who is level headed and a good person. I don't know anything about the 2nd, but the 3rd person I've heard both good and bad, but I kind of don't think they would be responsible some of the problems happening-I could be wrong.

Like the £75 replacement fee. I don't remember this being part of the Fantasycons I have attended in the past (I've been to 4), and I certainly would have remembered that!

The hotel in Brighton for the last 2 Fantasycons had no disabled issues that I heard of. How hard is it to have registration in the lobby (or nearby) where it's accessible for all? I should think that if a hotel is hosting such a large convention, they would have thought of this (being an older building is no excuse-I saw the photos of the convention spaces and they are modern).
*sigh*

[fjm]

There are only three people organising it.

None of them are involved in Worldcon

The Worldcon exhibits team spent Saturday in the first of three meetings to make sure that the Exhibits hall plans are both accessible and comfortable for those with mobility, and other issues.

[jhaelan]

And this kind of thing is why I took G to Nine Worlds as her first con

[ladymoonray]

<3