MidAmericon II, the 74th Worldcon, was held in Kansas City from August 17th through August 21st. I’ve attended a fair few regional cons, but this was only my second Worldcon- the first was Buckoneer (Worldcon 56) in Baltimore. I commuted to that one; this time I had a hotel room, into whose bed I could pass out exhausted each night. It made a big difference. Worldcons will only be truly practical when cloning or time travel is perfected, so you can be in more than one place at once. Exhaustion notwithstanding, I had a ball. How could it be otherwise when you get to spend time with legends and giants?
A few highlights (out of many great events:)
The Heinlein Society presence in the Exhibit hall, including RAH museum exhibits- awards, murals, correspondence, even the typewriter he wrote some of those great novels on. It was great to get reacquainted with the reason I became a fan in the first place.
Best panel, hands down (in my opinion): Friday afternoon’s “SF Predicts the Future the Way a Shotgun Kills a Duck”, discussing the uses and abuses of SF as a futurist vehicle, and making it abundantly clear why it’s more effective than other futurist approaches. That reason being who does it- exemplified by the panelists, Charles Gannon, Gregory Benford, Joe Haleman, Larry Niven, Greg Bair, and David Brin. Yep, all of them on one panel. At the end they got a well-deserved standing ovation.
A morning walk, exploring downtown Kansas City, chatting with Cat Rambo and Michael Swanwick.
Closing ceremonies. Pat Cardigan, as toastmaster, ran through Bob Tucker’s Beam’s Choice routine. She and Michael Swanwick both put a pretty good dent in that bottle. All of us in the audience were invited to do the arm swoop, and were thus inducted into a grand SF tradition.
And a host of other things.
The Hugo awards (and Neil Gaiman’s acceptance speech) put the nail in the coffin of the Sad Puppies sad business. If not, hopefully the Business Meeting voting did. It takes a while to turn a great ship, but it happens.
The 2016 Campbell Conference was held concurrently with MidAmericon2, and the academic track panels added an academic, but not too serious, overlay to the already impressive program.
Kansas City BBQ and steaks- vegetarians, this was not your Con.
And a whole lot more. Worldcon. What more can you say?