Convention Reporter

A warm welcome to Rene Sears on our Dragon*Con team. Also welcome back John Scalzi (though please note that he’s Twitter only, he’s still on vacation from Whatever).

The hastag for Dragon*Con appears to be #dragoncon and we have a tracker up for that now.

Wi-fi in the convention center at Melbourne was excellent yesterday so we anticipate no problems bringing you the Australian Awards ceremony tonight. News on the Hugo Awards coverage will follow once we have confirmed the timings.

The good news from Wellington is that we have succeeded in tethering a couple of laptops to iPhones so Errol Cavit and I will be hosting live coverage of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards tonight. Coverage should begin here at around 8:00pm Wellington time. There is apparently a cocktail reception at 7:00pm. We nobly promise to still be sober at 8:00.

Thanks to a malfunctioning computer I was unable to blog properly from the final two days of Eastercon. Here’s a belated report on those days.

Sunday was filled mainly with panic as I needed working hardware and good Internet access for the various program items I was reporting live from. I did take time out, however, to attend a panel on European SF. This was the second of two such panels. I wrote about them on the translation awards web site.

I reluctantly skipped Mike Carey’s GoH interview (conducted by Paul Cornell) to mess with computers, during which time I did at least confirm that the netbook would work fine with an external screen. That wasn’t much consolation on the day though. Thankfully the hotel had a good supply of power points and I was able to cover the BSFA Awards live using my laptop. You can replay that coverage here. The award winners are listed here.

Thankfully the award ceremony did not take too long, and I was able to get to the Virtual Conventions panel in good time. I wasn’t able to get the laptop connected in that room, but much to my delight I managed to run the Cover It Live session on my iPhone using the public mobile phone network. You can replay that here, and listen to Jim Mowatt’s audio recording of the panel here. I was particularly pleased to see a number of people attending the panel in Second Life, where they were able to watch the coverage on a virtual “big screen”. Here are a bunch of avatars doing just that:

Many thanks to Bill, Spike and Glenn for helping this to happen.

Thanks are also due to Mitch Benn whose live concert drew most of the Eastercon audience off the hotel Internet for the evening and allowed me to get the laptop up and running in good time for the live webcast of the Hugo Nominees announcement. I even had time to record a short interview for Star Ship Sofa, which you can listen to here.

The announcement event was, I think, a great success. The room was packed by the end of the panel, though it did take a while for people to file in after the concert finished. We had 140 people online during the coverage, including many nominees, and a further 61 people have watched the replay. Although it won’t always make sense to have this announcement at Easter, and the next three are liable to take place in the US in meat space, I’m very much hoping that this becomes a regular feature of the fannish year. Many thanks to Vincent Docherty and his team for making it happen.

Star Ship Sofa did a broadcast with a bunch of guests watching the nominee announcements as they went live. You can listen to that here. I got a real buzz out of listening to them commenting on my coverage.

Monday saw my final panel of the weekend: I got to moderate a panel that included Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod. This was about the use of dialect in literature, and the consequences for the accessibility of books. None of the panel really wanted to talk about accessibility, and we spent a lot of the time talking about writing in Scots. With Iain and Ken on board, that was a lot of fun.

I did also attend a panel that Paul Cornell did on religion in science fiction. That was very interesting, and I was lucky enough to have a god speak to me through the Internet during the panel. Fluff Cthulhu tweeted me from Tokyo (he, Feòrag and Charlie Stross are guests at Hal-con this weekend).

There was a dead dog party, but I flaked and got some sleep instead.

Overall I thought it was an excellent convention. I’m sure a few things did go wrong, but I didn’t notice anything serious. The thing that concerned me most was the venue. In many ways it is ideal for an Eastercon. It is a nice space, and very easy to get to both from the M4 and central London. The Heathrow location is ideal for bringing in members from the continent and from across the Atlantic. However, with almost 1400 people in attendance it was starting to get quite crowded. I understand that the same venue will be used in 2012, when George R.R. Martin is due to attend. That could cause major crowd control issues.

Also the hotel food is pretty bad. I only ate in the restaurant once — for breakfast with Anne Murphy on Tuesday morning — and that was bearable. The “buffet” food laid on for con attendees, however, was awful, and by Monday I took to eating in the next-door McDonalds instead because the food was so much better.

The good news is that there are reasonable restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, you just can’t see them from the front door. There’s also a Starbucks in the nearby Sheraton. So it is possible to eat tolerably well.

Crowding, on the other hand, is hard to fix. The con staff did an excellent job of putting up signs encouraging people to do one way flows, not block passages and so on. No amount of signage, however, can fix narrow corridors, and looking at the hotel web site I think the largest room only holds 700 people. A London Eastercon ought to be able to attract 2,000 attendees, and the Radisson is too small for that.

If all goes according to plan, we should be hosting four live events from this year’s Eastercon.

On Saturday there is a panel on SF&F and Social Media. The panelists are planning to run this as a live event and take questions off Twitter as well as from the audience. UStream coverage is also planned. Hopefully we’ll be able to embed that in our coverage.

On Sunday we get the ball rolling with live coverage of the British Science Fiction Association Awards.

Immediately following that our reporter, Cheryl Morgan, has to hot-foot it to the panel on virtual conventions which will also be live online. Cheryl is moderating that one, and will be taking your questions through our live coverage.

And finally, the big event of the weekend: the 2010 Hugo Award Nominees Announcement. Hugo Administrator, Vincent Docherty will announce the nominees in a live panel. The information will go out on the Aussiecon 4 Twitter feed, and Cheryl will host a live online event covering the announcement. We expect a few of the nominees will drop by to celebrate. Make sure you are with us for this one.

I haven’t actually managed to get to the Hospitality Suite yet, but everyone I have spoken to has been very positive about wi-fi access so I have gone ahead and created a CoverItLive event. Last I heard Jeff was planning to start the awards around 9:15pm, so I’m planning to go live from 9:00pm. Hope to see you online then.

One of the events that is taking place tonight is Ann & Jeff VanderMeer’s Last Drink Bird Head party. Assuming that the wi-fi continues to work in the Hospitality Suite, I’ll be covering the awards ceremony live (I’m planning to go check that out as soon as I can get someone to mind the office for me). In the meantime, here’s John Anealio’s song which he has written especially for the book launch.

Neil Gaimen musings about the Hugo and Charlie Brown

Kevin Standlee on Hugos and after hugos

John Scalzi says “Hello Hugo!”

Jay Lake on Hugos and important meetings

@Pyr_Books Io9 at Hugo reception

@Pyr_Books Two Hugo losers.

@EZF_TopAuthors RT @brendacooper: Some #worldcon pics from Saturday and Sunday, includes a few Hugo winners. #anticipationsf

Some of the best dressed at the Hugos!

@digitalstatic Don’t forget! #minicon & #mplsin2073 are sponsoring the Official Anticipation Dead Dog Party – 19:00 Consuite in the Delta #worldcon

Today’s post can not start anywhere without congratulating all the nominees this year and whoops of joy for those who won.

We have good cause to celebrate as our own Cheryl Morgan won the Hugo for Best fan writer.

Pablo kept the Tor site updated as the night progressed with the list of winners and their field of competition. The new Hugo Logo was unveiled and can be seen here on the Hugo website along with the list of winners and a picture of this years award.

Alma Alexander promises pictures, in the meantime tells all about her last 2 days in Montreal. Bob Neilson discusses whether size matters. Jay Lake assures us that both pre- and post-[hugo-]parties were great fun. Jenny gives a charming description of the night of the Hugos. I can imagine being there. John Scalzi is happy with his Hugo. Kate Heartfield discusses what counts as SF prior to the Hugos.

Kevin updates on the Hugo logo and Hugo winners enthusiastically. Neil Gaiman thanks Charlie N. Brown and talks about his Hugo.

For those of you reading in French Lionel Davoust has updates.

terilee07 has a good reason to attend conventions. I went to my first only a few years ago and would have to agree wholeheartedly.

Photos from Rani Graff here. Photos from the Masquerade here.

I won’t go to twitter because mostly attendees are in recovery and congratulations are still coming in from all over.

@TheHugoAwards Ladies and Gentlemen, Robots and Aliens, we now present the 2009 Hugo Awards.

Hugos Live

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:19pm: Forrest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award goes to Andrew Porter. http://is.gd/29IRS #tor #scifi #hugo

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:22pm: The first Fandom Hall of Fame Award goes to James Gunn. #tor #scifi #hugo

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:28pm: The winner of the Hugo Logo Contest is Jeremy Kratz. http://is.gd/29IRS #tor #scifi #hugo

@TheHugoAwards: And now, this year’s trophy, designed by Dave Howell. It has a granite base designed to look like an asteroid. Again, photos later tonight.

@LonesomeRobot: This year’s Hugo’s are cool-lookin’. The base is an asteroid-like rock with rocket exhaust shaped like maple leaves. #worldcon

@TheHugoAwards: Stanley Schmidt will present the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

@TheHugoAwards: The Campbell Award goes to David Anthony Durham

@jackwilliambell: Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan #worldcon09

@TheHugoAwards: Best Fan Artist goes to Frank Wu.

@LonesomeRobot: Fan Hugos: Cheryl Morgan (best writer), Frank Wu (best artist), Electric Velocipede (best fanzine) #worldcon

@jackwilliambell: Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales #worldcon09

@TheHugoAwards: Best Related Book goes to Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, John Scalzi

@jackwilliambell: Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded – John Scalzi #worldcon09

@rangercraig: #worldcon09 Best Dramatic Presentation WALL-E

@CanuckLibrarian: Doctor horrible’s sing along blog wins hugo award for best short form presentation #anticipationsf

@JohnGunders: Dramatic Presentation: Short Form goes to Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog, Joss Whedon #hugos [mixed feelings: it was up against Dr Who]

@TheHugoAwards Best Editor: Long Form goes to David G Hartwell

@TheHugoAwards Best Editor: Short Form goes to Ellen Datlow.

@TheHugoAwards Our brand new category, Best Graphic Story, presented by Neil Gaiman, goes to Girl Genius, Kaja and Phil Foglio.

@TheHugoAwards: Best Professional Artist goes to Donato Giancola

@TheHugoAwards: Best Short Story goes to “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang

@jackwilliambell: Best Novelette: Elizabeth Bear #worldcon09
(“Shoggoths in Bloom”)

@rangercraig: #worldcon09 Best Novella The Erdmann Nexus

@LonesomeRobot: And the Hugo for Best Novel goes to ‘The Graveyard Book’ by Neil Gaiman. #worldcon

That concludes the announcement of the 2009 Hugo Awards. Thank you for joining us.