Goin' to Kansas City...

[gerisullivan]

It's official. Site Selection voting results were reported this morning to the WSFS Business Meeting in London.

MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, will be held August 17-21, 2016, in Kansas City, Missouri.

As is usual, the reveal at the Business Meeting included the announcement of the convention's guests:

Guests of Honor:
Kinuko Y. Craft
Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Tamora Pierce
Michael Swanwick

Toastmaster:
Pat Cadigan

Yowser! As all who know me will already know, I'm thrilled that Patrick & Teresa are among the Guests of Honor. Do go read Patrick's post on Making Light. MidAmeriCon II will mark the 40th anniversary of Patrick's first Worldcon; 2016 will bring the 30th anniversary of my meeting P&T at my first Corflu. Just a few months later, the Wimpy Zone Fan Fund brought them to Minneapolis for Not-A-D-Con on Memorial Day weekend, where they first met, oh, a few other people....

I hope to never forget the experience of sitting at the SOP (Standard Operating Perkins) listening to coffeeem and Teresa in conversation. It was marvelous.

So, yes, here we are, decades later, in what Patrick so appropriately calls "the endlessly strange future." Only this little piece of it isn't endlessly strange to me: it's utterly fitting. I'm looking forward with pleasure to honoring Patrick & Teresa along with Kuniko Y. Craft, Tamora Piece, & Michael Swanwick at MidAmericon II. I look forward to toasting them along with Pat Cadigan; that's sure to be a hoot. And I hope bunches of you reading this will join me in the fun...and the lamb ribs at Jack Stack BBQ!

Comments

There will be barbecue

[lesliet-ma.livejournal.com]

Or so they say. Waiting in the business meeting for the announcement of the winner, we noticed Patrick and Teresa were there, so kind of guessed two of the GoHs. And then Michael Swanwick came in...

Re: There will be barbecue

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Grin. I was fantasizing last night about ways to get the GoHs into the room early and hidden behind a curtain or something. Until we have true beaming technology, that is.

'Cause it's not all that often that a Business Meeting regular like yourself is among the GoHs announced at the meeting. :-)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I am additionally pleased that it's to be called MidAmeriCon II. Resurrecting the names of earlier Worldcons in the same city has not always been in fashion in recent times.

The nickname for that previous Worldcon, "Big MAC", was driven in part by expectations that it might be very large, having been selected two years earlier at the largest Worldcon yet held, something else it has in common with its successor. In the end it wasn't quite that large, and I expect neither will be this one, but I say "Big MAC II" it is.

Just don't resurrect the hospital bracelets.

[quadong.livejournal.com]

I am also glad of the reuse of this name.

I've heard some grumbling about "having" to use the name set by previous generations, and so had thought that the tradition was inviolate. Given your comment, I took a closer look at the Long List and saw, to my surprise that it has been violated a good handful of times: by Glasgow, San Francisco, and Brighton, at least. (Did I miss any? I won't count Chicago since everyone called TASFiC Chicon from the start, I believe.) Glasgow's only sorta counts (Intersection/Interaction), and I see a good reason not to call an SF con SFCon. Brighton's name change seems to be without obvious reason.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Big MAC is back! Congrats to the whole bid committee!

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, we had Pat Cadigan as Toastmaster first (at The Convention Which Will Not Be Named).

[parsleigh.livejournal.com]

We plan to go - always wanted to visit KC so this is a good excuse!

[quadong.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

In her guest editorial "People’s Programming" in Janus 11 Susan Wood writes about organizing the legendary Women in Science Fiction panel at MidAmeriCon. We should have a Women in Science Fiction track.