Worldcon 75 Day 4: Batten Down the Hatches
Today's WSFS Business Meeting took four hours including the first half-hour of Site Selection business and half an hour of Worldcon Chairs Photo. I'm pleased that this part worked out, and that we got the chairs reorganized in time to call the meeting back to order at 11:00 for the roughly 2 1/2 hour Second Main Business Meeting.
Lisa took photos and video of the former Worldcon Chairs gathering. I'm uploading the video to the YouTube Worldcon Events channel as I type this, so it should be online soon. I'll post the photos as well as soon as I can find the time.
Lisa and I had lunch with Linda Deneroff and Elanor Busby in the food court, which also gave us an opportunity to spend the "groats" (tokens for hours worked as a volunteer, redeemable in most of the convention center food outlets). Lisa went off on her own while I spent the afternoon in two separate back-to-back panels with overlapping subjects: "How to Start a Worldcon Bid" and "Friends Don't Let Friends Run Worldcons."
By the time my last panel was done, we were already reaching dinner time. Lisa and I met up with Linda and Elanor again. I suggested going downtown, but Linda told me that a bad storm was moving in, making it a bad idea to go off-site. We managed to get a table in the restaurant. Shortly thereafter, the threatened storm (which apparently had moved here from central Europe, where there were people reported killed by it in Poland) arrived, blowing open the door next to our table, and sending the large gathering of fans on the patio running for cover.
In a few seconds, the patio furniture was scattered by the strong winds and heavy rain. Soaked fans poured through the door along with a lot of rain.
Later, after the worst of the storm passed, I nipped outside and took this picture showing what a mess the storm made of the people doing a smelting workshop on the opposite side of the square in front of the entrance to the convention centre.
After dinner, we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel (which it turned out we didn't need) and took the #9 tram back down to the S-Market (which has a better selection than the Lidl within walking distance). Linda came with us in order to get out of the hotel for a while.
Returning from our shopping errand, Lisa turned in, while I went downstairs and met Linda. I was able to show her where the ATM is located in the convention center, and pick up issue 7 of the newsletter with the Business Meeting report I submitted this afternoon. (Turns out that I made a mistake - I'd forgotten that one of the items I reported as coming up tomorrow had already been killed by being postponed indefinitely.)
Linda and I walked through the Winter Garden, where the Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon victory party was in full (and very loud) swing. Neither Linda nor I had any stamina left, and I fear that I'm finally starting to get some sort of con crud despite trying to use hand sanitizer and drink lots of water. We both headed for our respective hotel rooms.
There is a bunch of "housekeeping" I need to do, but just getting the video files off of Lisa's camera and starting the upload of the Worldcon Chairs Photo is proving to be about all I can manager. I must get more sleep. There's one last Business Meeting tomorrow, followed by the Closing Ceremonies. I'm really glad that we're not leaving Helsinki for a few days and that we're staying here in the same hotel. I'm not sure I could face doing move-out tomorrow or even the next day.
Lisa took photos and video of the former Worldcon Chairs gathering. I'm uploading the video to the YouTube Worldcon Events channel as I type this, so it should be online soon. I'll post the photos as well as soon as I can find the time.
Lisa and I had lunch with Linda Deneroff and Elanor Busby in the food court, which also gave us an opportunity to spend the "groats" (tokens for hours worked as a volunteer, redeemable in most of the convention center food outlets). Lisa went off on her own while I spent the afternoon in two separate back-to-back panels with overlapping subjects: "How to Start a Worldcon Bid" and "Friends Don't Let Friends Run Worldcons."
By the time my last panel was done, we were already reaching dinner time. Lisa and I met up with Linda and Elanor again. I suggested going downtown, but Linda told me that a bad storm was moving in, making it a bad idea to go off-site. We managed to get a table in the restaurant. Shortly thereafter, the threatened storm (which apparently had moved here from central Europe, where there were people reported killed by it in Poland) arrived, blowing open the door next to our table, and sending the large gathering of fans on the patio running for cover.
In a few seconds, the patio furniture was scattered by the strong winds and heavy rain. Soaked fans poured through the door along with a lot of rain.
Later, after the worst of the storm passed, I nipped outside and took this picture showing what a mess the storm made of the people doing a smelting workshop on the opposite side of the square in front of the entrance to the convention centre.
After dinner, we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel (which it turned out we didn't need) and took the #9 tram back down to the S-Market (which has a better selection than the Lidl within walking distance). Linda came with us in order to get out of the hotel for a while.
Returning from our shopping errand, Lisa turned in, while I went downstairs and met Linda. I was able to show her where the ATM is located in the convention center, and pick up issue 7 of the newsletter with the Business Meeting report I submitted this afternoon. (Turns out that I made a mistake - I'd forgotten that one of the items I reported as coming up tomorrow had already been killed by being postponed indefinitely.)
Linda and I walked through the Winter Garden, where the Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon victory party was in full (and very loud) swing. Neither Linda nor I had any stamina left, and I fear that I'm finally starting to get some sort of con crud despite trying to use hand sanitizer and drink lots of water. We both headed for our respective hotel rooms.
There is a bunch of "housekeeping" I need to do, but just getting the video files off of Lisa's camera and starting the upload of the Worldcon Chairs Photo is proving to be about all I can manager. I must get more sleep. There's one last Business Meeting tomorrow, followed by the Closing Ceremonies. I'm really glad that we're not leaving Helsinki for a few days and that we're staying here in the same hotel. I'm not sure I could face doing move-out tomorrow or even the next day.