Balticon 50’s come and gone. It was not without controversy. There with problems in double booking panelists and showing incorrect panel locations. Some panel rooms were on floors used for guest accommodations and resulted in complaints about noise. There were also some issues involving hotel security staff. BSFS posted an apology for the problems on its Facebook page.
By way of defense, the con was in a new hotel, and was very much larger than any previous Balticon, both in the way of guests (with G.R.R Martin as GOH) and in attendee count.
Not that any defense is needed. My reply to those who have complaint would be to refer to Theodore Roosevelt’s words:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Balticon is run by volunteers who did yeoman’s duty in pulling together and managing, as best they could, the amazing program. My own personal regret is that I didn’t volunteer to help.
I had the pleasure of seeing, at the opening ceremonies, two BSFS Writer’s Circle comrades accept awards for first and second place entries in the BSFS 2015 Amateur Writing Contest, Chris Rose for “A Thousand Solomons” (the story’s printed in the program), and T. Eric Bakutis for his story “Hunted”.
The highlight of the convention was the ‘Bring ‘em Back’ program, which attempted to bring back as many Balticon guests of honor as possible. Here’s the (partial) result:
From left to right: George R. R. Martin, Jo Walton, Joe Halderman, Jody Lynn Nye, Charles Stross, Connie Willis, Larry Niven, Peter S. Beagle, Steve Barnes, Steve Miller, Sharon Lee, Kaja Foglio, Phil Foglio, Harry Turtledove, Allen Steele, Donald Kingsbury, and Nancy Springer.