Loscon report

[caprine]

(Now unlocked per hazelchaz's request.)

Loscon 38 was lovely, if a bit low in attendance

Comments

[scifantasy]

The New Orleans bid was apparently spurred into high gear after rumors that a group of fen was planning to carpetbag a bid.

[caprine]

Which city's fandom was playing opportunist in these rumors?

[scifantasy]

I don't remember, unfortunately.

[caprine]

How many major con bids have ever actually been won by carpetbaggers? Are they more mythical than real?

Carpetbagging, others

[hazelchaz]

Portland fans ran a Worldcon in Reno this year.

"Boston for Orlando" (2002) was certainly a quite serious bid, that lost.

I don't think the Chicago-based Las Vegas bid (1999) was credible.

Re: Carpetbagging, others

[hazelchaz]

Sorry, Boston-Orlando was 2001.

Carpetbagging, N.O. La.

[hazelchaz]

In the case of N'awlins, the rumor mill is approximately correct.

SCIFI wanted to support a Worldcon in New Orleans, and if there was not a local fanbase that had built back up, we were seriously looking at starting something. We investigated, even started talks with the con-vis bureau, and soon ran into the local group that was thinking about the same thing. We immediately backed down, turned over our contacts to them, and have dropped back to a cheerleader role.

So, my party was endorsed by both the L.A. and the La. groups, although it was not subsidized by either.

[scifantasy]

Dunno. To a certain extent I don't care--if it gets cities like New Orelans out of their funk to say "we may have screwed up, but we're not just going away," so much the better.