Hah, so it turns out even attending virtually, and not especially intensely, the post-convention fog is real.
Day Two Virtual Worldcon
This was my busiest day for panels.
First off was Food and Fantasy, with Amadin Ogbewe, Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, Uchechukwu Nwaka. It was a lively discussion covering fantasy, horror, folklore, and sf. This is a perennially entertaining panel topic, since each panel’s specific mix of people always leads to a fresh perspective. One thing I learned this time was about children turning into yams!
Women of the Arthurian Legends with Brian Grinnell, Brittany Torres, Gina Saucier, Kim Iverson Headlee, Louise Marley/Louisa Morgan. The description referred to the Pre-Raphaelites and even mentioned two art show participants separately from the panelists so maybe I was expecting something a bit different, but the actual panel didn’t really cover the visual arts – except in terms of movie/tv adaptations – and spent quite a bit of time on the general Arthurian myth which felt a bit of a wasted opportunity. But there were also some tech problems at the start, so I may have missed things there.
And finally, there was Linking Personal Projects and Commercial Commissions by GOH Donato Giancola. He’s a very fun speaker, with a lot of energy, and the talk covered his whole career, really fascinating stuff.
Day Three Virtual Worldcon
SFF’s Role in Revolution on the African Continent with Anuoluwa Ngozi, Gabrielle Emem Harry, Khaya Maseko, Naomi Eselojor, Nkereuwem Albert, Soila Kenya was, as you can probably imagine, a heavy topic that lead to a wide-ranging discussion of politics, grief, loss, resilience and the frustration at its necessity, queer identity, and so much more.
Puerto Rican Speculative Fiction with Ben Francisco, Carolina Cardona, E.G. Condé, Karlo Yeager Rodriguez dealt with some serious topics, but was another broad ranging with and generally fun panel. I have to say I am intrigued by Cardona’s robot gentleman.
I popped into the Fan Funds Auction briefly, mainly just to see folks I know doing their thing. Craig Glassner as on Voice of Virtual, and several of the usual gang was on screen, so that was nice. I had to leave early anyway, but probably could have gotten someone in the room to submit bids if I really really wanted to. Last year there was a lovely auction catalogue, but it is a lot of work to manage virtually and internationally.
The Edmonton 2030 Worldcon bid threw a virtual bid party, so I got to attend one party this year! There were several Zoom rooms with scheduled talks/presentations, but mainly I hung out in the social room with Alison, John, and whoever happened by. This included C.Z. Tacks, who is on the Brisbane in 2028 bid committee and gamely answered a LOT of questions about the bid. Eventually there was a presentation in that room as well, so John and I called it a night.
Final Day!
Due to timezones we had to decide whether to stay up several more hours, or set an early alarm, or sleep through the Hugo ceremony. I voted for sleep, really the reception and after party are the best bits of the finalist experience (especially if you’re pretty sure it’s not your year anyway). When I woke up I was not a Hugo winner (booooo) but Sara Felix was (yaaay!). If you’re reading this you’re probably familiar with all her wonderful work in general and specifically for the Glasgow Worldcon, so well deserved there.
We went out for an enormous consolation breakfast at one of the more decadent local joints, and then eventually it was time for the last thing I wanted to see. This was another Giancola talk, Drawing Between the Lines, but unfortunately there was a problem with the audio – I gave it fifteen minutes or so, but eventually wandered off. Looks like tech fixed it eventually, so I’ll have a look at replay options.
And that’s it! There is a week of replay left I think, so maybe I’ll have a look at that and maybe post some final thoughs. But overall some good virtual content, lots of tech problems unfortunatelly, heroically response by the virtual team on Discord – particularly Gail Terman and Andrew January – but ideally you don’t want to need a heroic response in the first place.
