From: "Robert MacIntosh" <macbuccfo at msn.com>
To: WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: A DC hotels question
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:48:52 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

>From: Eva Whitley <eva.whitley at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
>To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
>Subject: [WSFA] Re: A DC hotels question
>Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:53:53 -0500
>
>Michael Nelson wrote:
> > --- Robert MacIntosh <macbuccfo at msn.com> wrote:
> >
> >>The bid for '92 included the Hilton, which about 1.5 miles further
> >>down
> >>Connecticut Ave. That hotel has the space for the "Main Tent"
> >>functions,
> >>allowing us to put dealers and art show in the Omni and Marriot (it
> >>were a
> >>Sheraton then). Of course, even then traffic at rush hour on
> >>Connecticut
> >>would have travel nearly impossible. Fortunately, the Sheraton got
> >>greedy
> >>and saved our collective back sides. Why? Because there was no way in
> >>hell
> >>it would have ever worked. We all went to MagiCon that year.
> >
> > So the DC in '92 bid was planning to put the art show
> > and dealers' room in separate hotels.  Did they talk
> > about where exhibits would go?  Was anyone thinking
> > about creating a space for people to gather -- the
> > ConCourse concept?
> >
> > Worldcons are like gypsy caravans -- camping someplace
> > for a few days and then moving on.  I like the "central
> > campfire" gathering spot idea that Noreascon 3 formalized
> > back in 1989 as their ConCourse and wonder if the DC in
> > '92 was thinking about that or hoping a "heart" for the
> > 1992 DC Worldcon would form naturally.
>
>With all due respect, I don't remember any Worldcon using the ConCourse
>idea before Boston, but I do wonder if that concept owes anything at all
>to the DisCave. It's not like people from NESFA don't come down to DC
>for cons.
>
In discussions held with some of the NESFAns around the time of N3, they
admitted that they got the basic concept from our caves in the old pit.
Absolutely nothing wrong with others using good ideas developed for one
convention, so long as copyrights, trademarks and logos aren't effected.
Frankly, if I remember correctly, WSFAns at the time sorta got swelled chest
that one of their ideas aided and abetted Worldcons.
> >
> > And where would the con suite be placed if all the
> > evening activities were going to move to the Hilton?
> > Perhaps separate day and evening consuites?
> >
>
>The first 10 or so Worldcons I went to did not have Con Suites. I'm
>still not convinced they serve a useful purpose at the Worldcon level,
>but I am in a distinct minority in that matter. (OTOH, a con suite is
>vital at the regional level, particularly on Friday night.) --Eva
>
Consuites are a necessary evil IAM they are expected. If Worldcons had not
started using consuites, leaving those affairs to the local and regional
conventions, I suspect folks would continuously offer up the idea of
starting consuites. They are a part of fandom, will remain so until somehow
the heart of the convention truely becomes the ConCourse, which requires a
Convention Center to hold that space open all hours of the day. I don't see
that happening anytime soon.

Bob MacIntosh