From: "Michael Nelson" <mike.nelson at seahunt.org>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: A DC hotels question
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:28:41 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eva Whitley [mailto:eva.whitley at gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 12:16 AM
> To: WSFA members
> Subject: [WSFA] A DC hotels question
>
> Why, exactly, would using the Wardman Marriott and the Omni
> not work for
> a Worldcon? I assume there's a problem because they're not being
> discussed yet it seems like Washington wants a Worldcon. And they had
> enough space in 1989, when we were bidding Discon 3 for 1992.
>
> Personally, I like the location as it's right across from the
> zoo. Isn't
> Worldcon sort of like a zoo? --Eva Whitley

A Worldcon could be squeezed into the Connecticut Avenue
hotels.  We briefly talked about splitting the Worldcon
into a Day Con and Night Con because there's not enough
large function space in any one hotel.  We would have the
art show and dealers' room in one of the hotels.  Day
programming would probably have to be split among several
hotels along with videos, films, gaming, etc.

I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for the "big
tent" events like the masquerade and Hugo Ceremony.  Since
there would be no large function areas available to host
these events, we would turn a medium-sized space into a
real television studio and broadcast the events to various
small function rooms.  There would be room for a small
studio audience of a hundred or so people -- maybe we
could have a lottery to decide who would get a chance to
be in the live audience.  I figured that high definition
video will be standard by 2011, so Kathi and her crew
would be able to produce a pretty good show.

And if we arranged for shuttle buses to travel up and down
Connecticut Ave., we figured we could host a Worldcon there...
if we put a cap on membership.  We don't believe the site
could comfortable host more than 4,000 fans.  There's a lot
of Worldcon fans with mobility issues and we really want
to limit the distances between parts of the convention they
would have to travel under their own power to a few blocks.

These arguments also apply to the Crystal City site.  No
central facility or adjacent buildings with enough large,
medium, and small spaces to accommodate all of the various
activities of a modern Worldcon.  Worldcons are a queer
(in the old sense) duck.  We require an incredible variety
and amount of small, medium, and large function space
when you consider the relatively small number of members
we have compared to a typical professional trade show or
conference.  And the mobility issue is becoming an even
more serious issue as we age.

But these are only my own personal opinions.  I was really
surprised that Denver beat Chicago and Columbus for the
2008 Worldcon.  People are going to do a lot of walking
or waiting for public transportation during Denvention 3.
Maybe fans don't mind walking around to different hotels
to reach all the various Worldcon activities and those
two sites are prefectly acceptable for a DC Worldcon.

But I decided to play it safe and chose to support a DC
Worldcon bid at the DC Convention Center and what may
someday be a convention center hotel.  I really don't
know what the previous DC Worldcon bid committee was
thinking when they bid the Connecticut Ave. hotels.
There are just too many tradeoffs and compromises in
using that site for a Worldcon.

If another DC area Worldcon bid is born, I really hope
they choose a site that will allow us to host a Worldcon
without any limits -- the best darn good Worldcon we are
capable of putting together.  But if some Don Quixote
comes along and believes that one of the smaller windmills
would be a wonderful site for a Worldcon, I will join
the other Sancho Panzas and support their quest.

Michael