Also, we really must figure out how we'll Gather Light while there. Probably pick a nearby pub. Suggestions welcome!

I look forward to it.

As I said in the open thread, I'll be waving good wishes in the general direction of Loncon from other parts of the UK during the con; and, waving across time, from London the previous week.

(And, as I also said in that thread, anyone interested in a week-before-Loncon gathering of light, please say so.)

abi, you'll do fine. You'll be in a room full of people who are specifically there to hear what you and the panelists have to say about a subject you're all knowledgeable about. And I think you've got a good sense of when the conversation's starting to go wrong and how to steer it back on track.

As for the Gathering of Light, I hope that a time and meeting place are selected before the 13th, since I'll be offline and (without phone) from then on.

abi:
I'm pretty significantly introverted myself. Nonetheless, I have found being on a panel or giving a public talk about something I'm interested in - even to a large audience - is much easier and in many ways less anxiety-provoking than, say, socializing informally with a party full of people I don't know that well. * **

To give a public talk to an audience, you simply start talking about something you feel passionately about, and words come out, and there you are!

In a panel or group, it's even easier, because other people say something Interesting or something WRONG, and you will immediately think of all kinds of things you want to say on that topic, and then you're set when it comes to your turn again. (If nobody on your panel has the common courtesy to be ALL WORNG, then you can always agree with something somebody said, and see what you can add to it.)

Pro-tip 1: Simply speak as if you were holding forth to a few interested friends about this topic, only slightly louder. Be excited!

Pro-tip 2: If you're worried about getting started or remembering what you want to say about the topic, prepare one or two 3 x 5 cards per panel with each one having a few short phrases or sentence fragments on topics/points you'd like to mention. If you feel momentarily stuck, look at the card, find your reminder, and then look away from the card and start talking about it. By not memorizing whole sentences you want to say, and just having a memory-jogger, you're forced to find your phrasing for it on the spot, and that gets you started talking, rather than reciting. *** (OTOH, you may get to the end of the allotted time and find that you never remembered to look at your card. That's OK too.)

* As it happens, I was just talking about that Saturday night, at a party, to some people who I didn't know all that well. It was OK.

** Fluorospherians should consider themselves excepted; I don't imagine I'd have any difficulty finding conversation topics with any of you.

*** Reciting isn't talking and doesn't help with talking, IME.

It's nothing you don't do all the time.

A useful trick: people who are introducing themselves tend to run as short or as long as the first person who does it, so begin by introducing yourself, and make it short and snappy.

Stunt moderation under difficult circumstances -- i.e., the kind that generates all the stories -- has a single underlying principle: don't be afraid to temporarily halt the panel/break the fourth wall/go meta. If you have a participant whose behavior can't be accommodated within the context of the panel, you cope by stepping outside it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I found that my experience in wrangling a chaos-filk circle transferred well. :-)

It might be useful to write down some ideas or questions that you'd like to bring up during the course of the panel. You may not get to them all, but having them there to jog you if you hit a blank spot can be reassuring.

I will not be at LonCon, alas. So you guys have a terrific time for me!

<sigh>

1. Questions are not extended debate, unless you think the questioner belongs on the panel (and it's uncommon, but not impossible, to recruit an audience member if they are really good on the subject). One short follow-on from the questioner is usually okay, with the accent on "short." If there are not a lot of people with questions, it can be okay to take a second question from the same person, but be sparing with this.

2. Establishing a queue of the order in which you'll take the next 3 or 4 questions is Good Form. This can be done with names, eye contact, or pointing and saying "You, then you, then you." And don't go much beyond three: say, "And then we'll move over to the other side of the audience" if you have a dozen waving hands. Establish when you'll be checking in again.

3. Many, if not most, moderators and panelists prefer taking questions after the panelists have had a chance to speak. Setting up ground rules on this, at the beginning of the panel, can be very helpful (particularly if you know this is going to be a controversial topic or you have someone Famous on the panel). This is as simple as saying "We've got a big topic for the panelists to cover, so we're going to hold questions until the last 15 minutes." Most people will go along if they know what the rules are. There are enough panels where questions start 10 minutes in that the rules aren't at all obvious to everyone.

There are other simple rules of conversation management that you already have a great deal of information about, abi. From my experience of you, and of moderating convention panels: I believe you have the skills to do an excellent job, and the personality and ability to bring things back onto track if that needs to happen.

tl;dr: manage questions with appropriate respect for all sides. You can do this. Wish I'd be there to watch!

Do you mean offering your personal reactions and thoughts on the other panelists' comments - "I think Mr. Vader's comments on the immorality of the Jedi Knights' role in maintaining slavery within the Republic were original and profoundly thought-provoking. However, I'd really like to hear Mr. Kenobi expand his comments on the need to work within the existing political structure to effect change."

Or is there more to your meaning than that?

Which means that if the room goes dark I'm the one who'll be Making Light.

I have advice, but I have NO idea if it's useful for anyone but me, really.

I have two views on public speaking. The first is that I really dislike it. The second is that I actually like it.

I hold both of those views at the same time, but over the years, the second viewpoint increases and the second decreases. Doesn't stop the flutter just before I "go on stage", but at least it is now down to "the flutter starts just before and goes away when I say 'Hi'".

The last longish bout of "public speaking" I did was 10 hours (5 tech talks of about 2h duration, timed for 45 minutes of talking and 1h15m of Q&A), in 4 days, at the beginning of May. Eagle-eyed fluorospherians with good memory may recall the "comments mentioning being in Sweden" followed by "comments mentioning being in Amsterdam". Ayup.

I am pretty sure, as far as I can be, from a pure-text medium that you will do just fine. Especially as a moderator.

I'll also be at Shamrokon the week after (with a short break, doing two tech talks at work's Dublin office, because that is apparently what I amuse myself with while on holiday).

RUNNERS: Anyone who is going to be around and wants to go to a parkrun (free, friendly, 5K timed run, 9 o'clock Saturday morning, lots of locations) let me know and I'll look up how best you can get to one.

We definitely need to start talking about Gatherings.

dotless ı @5: I could make it to such a gathering, probably. I live on the outskirts of London.

I'll be commuting in to Loncon. Must look up late night buses.

More important, if I really don't want a given work to have any chance of getting a Hugo, is it better to put them below "No Award" or omit them entirely? I've read the voting rules, but I'm still unclear.

This rule has never actually been triggered, but there's a lot of concern that it might zap one or more categories this year.

Note that we're talking 25% of the total number of people who actually vote, not 25% of the people eligible to vote.

As to your other question, I believe it's most effective to simply omit the choices that you rank below "No Award."

That would be Roddy Doyle?

I would guess Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame.

Thanks.

No, it was a snarky comment to the effect that the work of the Arthur Conan Doyle of the Professor Challenger stories could not by any stretch of the imagination be said to have featured little or no fantastic content.

Or does that just make you head spin in the opposite direction?

Name

Although Doyle is often referred to as "Conan Doyle", it is unclear whether this is a compound surname. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his Christian names, and simply "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather. The cataloguers of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat "Doyle" alone as his surname.

Steven Doyle, editor of the Baker Street Journal, has written, "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'." When knighted he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle. Nevertheless, the actual use of a compound surname is demonstrated by the fact that Doyle's second wife was known as "Jean Conan Doyle" rather than "Jean Doyle".

I would be the last person to suggest that anybody's double-barrelled unhyphenated surname is anything other than what they say it is, but it does appear that Arthur Conan Doyle was less than consistent about it.

For comparison, we were married under an odd quirk of California law (since eliminated) that allowed us to avoid paying about $100 in fees, but which in consequence meant we didn't get a proper marriage certificate either. For a long time this didn't actually prevent us from getting official ID showing our adopted "Nielsen Hayden" surname--getting it fixed on our Social Security cards was easy, and we were even able to get passports in that name in 1985. But in 1995 it turned out that the US had tightened the rules for what name can appear on your passport, so we actually had to get a court-ordered name change, which cost a couple of grand in legal and court fees. In other words, it does seem that we have fought harder for "Nielsen Hayden" than Arthur Conan Doyle fought for "Conan Doyle".

My only public speaking experience is best man's speeches, which have been nerve-wracking before but then awesome during and after (for me - the audience seemed appreciative, but who knows?). So my advice would apparently be over-prepare, be nervous, and then enjoy the heck out of it. Your mileage may vary :D

I'm in London for the run up to the con, but sadly missing the weekend (family commitments).

Oh good. That worries me when it comes to the lesser-known categories (such as "editor", sorry; even splitting categories between the two of us means we miss some.) We got as many as we could, though.

Please have lots of fun in London. Even with that last panel, where nobody's going to comment.

I found this article (with worked examples) most useful for clarifying the various Hugo voting options>

And regarding Hugo voting, presumably we don't have to vote in every category, provided we spread ourselves fairly. I've been panicking a bit recently when realising that I didn't have time to do everything. I've covered all the fiction categories, Graphic Story, Best Related, Fan Writer and the art categories (these last being easy to do quickly), and I never intended to vote on dramatic presentations or podcasts. I will look through the Long Form editor lists and see if anything strikes me, though I feel that, even with a list, you really have to have read a lot of SF over the past year to be able to judge that fairly. But it seems to me that I would also have to read quite a lot to judge the Short Form editor or magazine categories, and I don't have the time for it now.

Tom Whitmore's advice @20 is excellent. I would add something very basic which is that you should find out ahead of time from your panelists what they want to talk about specifically, so you can then ask them to talk about those things.

Only once have I moderated a panel where it was real work. I had to keep a local personality from talking endlessly while the guest of honor sat there politely saying nothing. So I fed the guest of honor lots of questions. The local personality settled down. It was fine. Afterwards the guest of honor thanked me, which was nice. But it did not require any special skill on my part, just doing my job.

Have a list of leading questions to keep the conversation going and on track. It can help to consult with the panelists by e-mail in advance (if possible) to discuss formats and directions and topics.

Evaluate expected panelist behavior on the basis of past experience (or the experience of friends you trust). Try to have a sense of whether you're going to need to rein someone in or give someone extra encouragement to participate.

As others have said, don't be afraid to be heavy-handed in managing speaking time and turn-taking (both on the panel and in taking questions). There are few things more miserable for a panelist than to have to sit through a fellow panelist monologing for more than half the panel time and waiting vainly for the moderator to do something about it. (I was once a panelist in one of these where -- after about 15 minutes of a married couple on the panel indulging in a back-and-forth conversation that locked out all the other participants -- I picked up a book and started ostentatiously reading until one of them noticed. Yes, it was rude, but it got the point across and they had the sense to be abashed. But the moderator should have stepped in long before.)

Sub-topic of the above: if you have an excessive talker -- the sort of jumps in on all the open-ended questions first and/or goes on and one -- direct your questions and prompts to specific panelists.

This may sound like I'm focusing on all the negative possibilities, but the thing is: a set of excellent, engaged, socially-ept panelists need almost no moderation and you can just let them take it away. It's the problem children who can turn a great panel concept into a trainwreck.

All the stuff about moderation, I'm reading it as a guide to what a good panellist should avoid.

And if you're curious about furry fandom, don't expect me to illuminate things. The stories I write, and the setting I use, is firmly in the inter-war period, starting with Berry & Co and a touch of Bertie Wooster, a sprinkling of Bulldog Drummond, and lots of airships and aeroplanes. As for the combination of Mission Impossible with the Marx Brothers, that was not me, honest.

And some things are quite different. Extra chains of Pacific islands can do that to you.

Maybe I shall have something to say about the way that science fiction fandom couldn't have started at any other time in history.

Meanwhile, they are planting some 800,000 ceramic poppies around the Tower of London, setting a blood-red sea in the moat. A hundred years ago there was some sort of war, you see...

I'm partly nervous just because I don't do a lot of congoing (geography and schedule being what they are), and the last time I did go to one (World Fantasy in Brighton), I had a miserable, isolated, socially-anxious time for much of it. I am assured that Worldcon Will Be Different, and I believe those assurances. And yet I am having anxiety dreams and assorted random tenseness.

Em @9:
It will be Minecraft-specific, though post-Minecraft games that have had similar effects may come up.

It can never be as bad again. You've learned from it and know what to anticipate. You're doing homework to protect yourself as well as fulfill your obligations.

And you are a stronger, faster-on-your-feet person than you were then. I've seen growth and progress on many fronts from here in that time frame, and you started pretty far up even then.

I can remember when we didn't have electronic voting. I suspect that the ballot counting will be fairly fast: how many paper votes do they need to process?

So the short time needed to do the final preparation of the awards maybe isn't as short as we think

I'm pretty much 100% a lurker on the blog (I'm also a bit shy when it comes to internet commenting...), but it'd be lovely to put a few faces to names at the conference.

Now, I need to get back to finishing off my Hugo voting form (13 year old me would be bewildered and excited about the chance to vote in the Hugos, but older me is mostly annoyed that I haven't found enough reading time to be a fully informed voter...).

And a pleasant couple of days at BucConeer in '98 on my way to a conference in Wisconsin. The really fun bit was arriving in Baltimore blithely assuming I'd find accommodation somewhere. Just as the volunteer on the help desk was explaining how unlikely this was, a woman walked up to state that her group were looking for one more person to share their suite... Timing! :-)

Not all the names here can be easily linked to names in the program guide, but it is a good bet that anyone here will have something interesting to say.

Prowl the fan village.

Volunteer helpers are welcomed. even newcomers, but don't commit to too many hours.

It's a British con, so you have the chance to stay nearly sober.

It's a very long weekend, so don't forget to look after yourself.

As somebody nearly local, you have the chance to visit the area and report before the con. I'm thinking there might be places where Google Earth and Streetview are showing construction work which has now finished. I'm thinking of the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street as an example, but I am not likely to go down that way.

I realised I hadn't responded to my final program schedule notice. Whoops. I am sure there will be updates to the program guide, both webpage and the App forms.

*Translation: if you want non-lager (what Americans call craft beer) over here, ask for real ale. If that's not available, you might be able to get bitter, and Guinness or another mass-produced stout might be an option. I have to say that my experience of large convention centres doesn't leave me much hope there WILL be decently drinkable beer available.

** What Americans call hard cider. NOTE: if you ask for cider, you WILL get an alcoholic drink.

*** There was some Woodpecker left. :-(

Quoting from the Loncon pages: [...] this is a British convention so you can rest assured that we’re thinking about good local beer. And cider. And wine and spirits and soft drinks too[...]

Big suppliers have little suppliers,
In their accounts to furnish 'em,
And little suppliers have lesser suppliers,
and so, ad infinitum.

I think Intersection was the Glasgow convention where this moose (and various other pyromaniacs) did the firework display. (Funded by one of the publishers.)

If so, the site (which has since been built over) was best described as "a warehouse in a shallow grave" and was really difficult to dig holes in.

Meanwhile, I've just discovered that an old friend I've not seen for about 20 years is coming to Loncon! And we should get the chance to catch up properly beforehand.

The Clyde is wider than you think, but the one wonderful advantage of having a river between the display and the audience is that debris doesn't ricochet off water.

It's even more exciting when you're actually underneath the display and the debris is falling all around you. (We were all far too busy to watch the effects though.)

Roy G. Ovrebo @74, Andrew Wells @76: I'm a card-carrying member of CAMRA. I get fed up of going to conferences held at large hotel chains and finding that they have six different mass-produced lagers (all chilled) and not a single real ale, even bottled. I can understand not having it on hand pumps if there's not a huge demand, but bottles do last. Back in the Autumn I was at one where they did have some bottles of real ale, but kept it refrigerated. I took to asking for one to be taken out of the fridge, about 30-60 minutes before I wanted it.

There are one or two fans who drink more than is wise, but my experience of British fans is that the impressive personal consumption is well spread over the weekend. It's not some binge over two or three hours in a bar.

There's still some advantage in most British conventions being small enough to use a hotel as a venue, though the licensing system is more flexible these days. And I know of one or two hotels with frequent experience of a con. Trouble was, sometimes the new events manager didn't believe his staff. It was almost a tradition for the con committee to maintain an emergency team with CAMRA guides, the phone numbers of local breweries, and a transit van with a sober driver.

As an historical example, perhaps a third of a century ago, NACODS, one of the coal mining unions had a very good reputation. They were the senior miners in charge of safety down the mine. There were sometimes political differences between NACODS and the NUM (National Union of Miners). NACODS members routinely crossed picket lines, to do maintenance work on the mines and keep them fit you re-open at the end of a strike. The NUM leaders seemed to be crazy on this particular issue.

NACODS got invited back to venues. There were training courses for Accountants, keeping up to date on tax law, which made the Bullingdon Club look sober and respectable.

I remember hearing that fandom had a rather good reputation in the events hosting business, but the Worldcon is at a whole different level of event.

Let's leave the ExCel staff tired but happy.

abi
iamnothing

abi
iamnothing
Dave Bell
Xopher Halftongue
Lenore/jonesnori

The next step, after the list is made, is to pick a time that, hopefully, is ok for everybody. I personally favor meal times but am flexible. Probably we can meet up somewhere near the ExCeL entrance before proceeding to the venue. OK?

The Hailo website

It's fairly new. It is controversial. But it may be a big help for somebody from out of town. And I did learn from them that all London black cabs are wheelchair-friendly. There is a minimum fee on the service. There are other public transport options.

As I said, I have it on my smartphone. I may never use it, but it is there. And it is almost like living in a science-fiction world.

This is my first con since I was a little kid and I'll be contributing to two panels as well, so I am both excited and nervous. I've been reading all the great advice on this thread for moderators as a bit of a how-to on being a pleasant and effective panelist as well. Any other tips on being a good panelist would be gratefully appreciated.

Is it kind?
Is it useful?
Is it necessary?
If it's not at least two of those, don't say it.

The panelist's version:

Is it amusing?
Is it relevant?
Is it interesting?
If it's not at least two of those, save it for later.

This undoubtedly needs some tweaking, and I present it here for the tweakification that the Fluorosphere is so good at providing.

I resemble that remark. But I'm getting too old for it, and I reckon I won't have the time anyway.

Iamnothing, please add me to the GOL list. I'll be there if it doesn't crash totally with my volunteering.

Crazy(and trying very hard to not let herself hemorrhage spoons by volunteering to organize a demo/workshop of what little she knows about Oriental brush calligraphy... though she will have a selection of materials with her for practice purposes)Soph

chris onna bus.

As I think I've said on previous open thread(s), I'll be there and unless there's a conflict of schedule, I'd attend a Gathering of Light.

The actual ExCel site is on the northern branch of the DLR, which ends at Beckton. Go back towards Canning Town, and take the DLR to Woolwich Arsenal. There's the Royal Artillery Museum there, if you're into such things.

There are several transport choices. Woolwich Arsenal Pier will give you a route up-river, some pretty classic views of London. Or there is the Woolwich Ferry, a little to the West, and catch a 473 bus back to the ExCel.

Going up-river by water, you pass the Thames Barrier, and then the river curves, the Millenium Dome comes into site, and the trip pauses at North Greenwich Pier. Here you can transfer to he Emirates cable car, cross the river, and then it's a short walk to DLR Royal Victoria and back to the ExCel.

There's a reason in the fares structure to avoid Woolwich Arsenal DLR, it's the one DLR station in that travel zone.

Back at North Greenwich Pier, you can continues to Greenwich Pier, which gives you the Cutty Sark and, in this anniversary year of the Longitude Act, the Royal Observatory. There's Cutty Sark DLR and a line under the river, through Canary Wharf, and can take you back to the ExCel or in to Tower Gateway DLR and Bank DLR.

Or you can travel by water under Tower Bridge to Millenium Tower Pier. This gives you a good view of HMS Belfast, which is a museum, and of the Tower of London, which is a Royal Palace that you can visit.

This time I may make the effort to visit. The queues are intimidating. The moat is being filled with ceramic poppies in commemoration of the British War Dead of the Great War.

A little further up-river is the Globe Theatre, adjacent to Bankside Pier.

The Palace of Westminster, the UK retirement home for Scurrilous Rogues, is passed on the last leg to Millbank Pier. Or there is the London Eye, if it is not being used to defeat an alien invasion.

I've concentrated on the water, because this is what I used, all those years ago. And London is a City of the River.

I shall mention the foot tunnels at Greenwich and Woolwich. I used the Greenwich foot tunnel, as the DLR didn't cross the river. The Woolwich tunnel is next to the ferry.

Most of London's Public Transport runs frequently, ten minutes or quarter of an hour. The river services run hourly.

So much has changed since I traveled the river that my experience doesn't tell you anything useful. But it is a different view of London.

dotless ı @5: I could make it to such a gathering, probably. I live on the outskirts of London.

Since you're the only person who's responded so far, it's up to you whether you think it's worth schlepping in. If so, we're most free Wednesday and Thursday this week (modulo small-child-related schedule limitations). If not, no worries; we're keeping ourselves occupied.

Technically we'll still be in London on the 12th when I see more people will be around, but our schedule at that point is packed with last-minute-before-we-leave visits with friends that couldn't be scheduled earlier, so I'm guessing we'll just wave in everyone's direction, and wish everyone a wonderful Worldcon.

- if the real ale at the con (5 different types will be made available I'm told) isn't enough, there's the Great British Beer Festival at the Olympia 12-16 August.
- the Royal Observatory at Greenwich has a steampunk exhibit, and the National Maritime Museum has a Longitude exhibit. Not far from Excel on the DLR network.
- the Underground will be running steam trains on the Metropolitan line on the weekend 16-17 August. Do note that this is the other end of London from the Excel though.

(Travelling around London is actually easy and can be quite cheap. I reckon on getting an Oyster card and loading it with a one-week Travelcard for the stretch between my hotel and the Excel, plus some pay as you go money.)

An oyster card is by far the best idea if you're planning to do much public transport hopping - you lose out £3 to get the card itself, and have to top it up, but then it automagically pays the cheapest applicable fare when you travel (you tap in and out on tube journeys, which are variable based on zone, but just in on buses, which are fixed) and tops out when it hits day travelcard price. Oyster works on all public transport. TFL are the transit authority and their website has all the info, including which stations have good disabled access.

It's also worth knowing which stations it's easier to walk between - I've been told the tube journey between Leicester Square and Covent Garden is the most expensive trip on earth, per metre, but it's less than a 5 minute walk.

Those who haven't visited recently may not be aware that you can no longer pay the driver when you hop on a bus - you need to have an oyster card, contactless credit card, or have bought a day travelcard (there are machines in all tube stations but not at all or even most bus stops).

Note: even if the barriers are open or non-existent, it's ESSENTIAL to place your Oyster card on the reader on your way into and out of the station or they will sting you for the highest possible fare. On the bus, you just use it as you get on, not when you get off (and on the Tramlink, of anyone gets out that far).

There are discounts available with the Visitor Oyster Card, but there was nothing I thought significant.

It's getting late enough for delivery that I would be inclined to buy a card on arrival. And that would have to be at the Underground station.

I'm not sure if the Travelcard option was the best choice for me, but it gives me a lot more flexibility.

GBBF: if you're approached by a 6' ginger-bearded chap in standard-issue IT uniform (open collared shirt and slacks) who's interested in saying "hi" but suffers a dearth of conversational gambits, don't panic - it's probably me.

It seems to me that, if we are to avoid the symphony (Friday evening) and Sunday evening, we're down to either Thursday or Saturday.

Both of them clash with occasions and mess with availability. Nothing will be perfect. My preference would be slightly for Thursday, because that way I'll know more faces for the rest of the con, but either works for me (as does Saturday).

Opinions?

The updated list:
abi
iamnothing
Dave Bell
Xopher Halftongue
Lenore/jonesnori
dcb
Steve Halter
Em
Victoria
TomB
Roy G. Ovrebo
crazysoph
Russ
Cadbury Moose
hedgehog
Gray Woodland
green_knight
Ingvar M
Andrew M
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden

If I (or you) don't make the GoL, I'll be at the Access table a lot.

I'll be dressed sometimes as myself and sometimes as Éowyn. I may be in the company of kids dressed sometimes as themselves and sometimes as a member of the Night's Watch and Merida.

We went to see this yesterday, and found it disturbingly effective. My vision kept shifting between "a flood of pretty shining ceramic flowers" and "every one of those is someone's corpse."

They are apparently taking advance orders for sale of the poppies, for delivery sometime after the installation goes away.

dcb@123: I'm sorry it didn't work out, but I certainly understand. Good luck with the manuscript.

If one doesn't already know you, how does one tell the difference? =:o)

My preference is also for Thursday, but I think at least one person won't be there until Friday.

That would be me, because of my awesome organisational skills (which I think are in a cardboard box in Hell). But if I can't make a GoL on Thursday I'll find people on F/S/S/M.

In the absence of other ideas, or much knowledge of the venue, I would suggest we appoint some central location to meet, say at about 7:30 on the Designated Evening, and decide which of the local bar-type places to go at that time. I can then tweet and/or post on ML where we will be, and anyone not with us can consult that information. I'll also undertake to make sure Patrick and Teresa are aware of the location.

Oh, what the heck, just to get in the mood, try this.

Oh, you expected this?

Oh, and in terms of touristing, I'm doing a fannish walking tour on the Wednesday before and Tuesday after the con, for those that might be interested:

Walking Tour

More than a couple of meetings does dilute the experience, but I think the ML commentariat is large enough to manage two.

I use an alcohol-free "restoring" mouthwash that is also anti-dry mouth. (I have dry mouth since my...since becoming hemiglossic. Is anything remotely like that available in the UK, or should I bring it from home?*)

I also use fragrance-free shaving cream. Is that available? (That I'm not sure I can bring even in a checked bag...it's in a pressurized can.)

Do these things have different names in the UK? What should I ask for? And are they sold in grocery stores or at the chemist's?

*I've realized I have to check a bag. Haven't taken this long a trip in over 20 years.

Sometimes the same trade names are available over here, sometimes not!

I wonder if they'll provide an American/British English glossary again like they did at Intersection?

Custom House Pharmacy is on Freemason's Road, a couple of hundred metres from the NW corner of the Excel

The Asda store near Beckton DLR also has a pharmacy.

British usage, pharmacy includes prescriptions, but has a full range of lesser medications. Some need to be sold by a pharmacist, but don't need a prescription.

Asda is a supermarket chain, usually with a full range of goods. They often have a cluster of associated stores, a bit more specialised. They have an Opticians at Beckton, and the George clothing range.

Boots is a chain store, but still significant in the pharmacy business. Asda would sell "ordinary" shaving foam, big-brand and maybe own-brand. On what I recall, Boots would have a wider choice.

They probably have a lot more info at the con. But Google Streetview shows a Post Office, a chippie, and a Dry Cleaners on Freemason's Road, but the pics are a couple of years old. It has the feel of a typical cluster of local shops, running a couple of blocks.

Stratford DLR looks good for various British banks and is close to an area shopping centre.

If it rains like this, next weekend, I am going to get soaked. Who gave that hurricane a membership?

(A couple of weeks ago my husband and I managed a day in the Lakes and repeated that walk (except I only swam in Rydal Water because we didn't descend all the way to Grasmere). My clothes were not -quite- dry when we got back in the car, but close enough.)

(2nd try)

Not sure where you'd find them in your part of the world (I imagine it's short days for ordering online), but my local hardware store carries them. Is there a lab supply store in your area? See also a snooty upscale sporting goods store? (That's the department where McGuckin's displays them.)

It is still something that I will consider when I am in better health.

I have a tablet with a mobile-phone account, a little awkward for voice but good for text messages. It would be foolish to reveal the number here, but I shall have to arrange to pass it around.

Now back to sleep.

We can meet at the voodoo board if there's going to be one, but I don't know if there is. Does anyone? I'll ask on Twitter and see.

I hear there will be free wifi at the con. We'll see how it performs under stress.

We will meet at the giant tree in the hospitality hall. It's apparently going to be difficult to miss.

I have a preference for the Great Tree Steve. but that's not in these parts.

Place: under the Great Tree, Thursday. But what time?

Meanwhile, the latest list, for Thursday 7:30 pm at the big tree in the hospitality hall:
abi
iamnothing
Dave Bell
Xopher Halftongue
Lenore/jonesnori
dcb
Steve Halter
Em
Victoria
TomB
Roy G. Ovrebo
crazysoph
Russ
Cadbury Moose
hedgehog - non-attending
Gray Woodland
green_knight
Ingvar M
Andrew M
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Nix ?
Dave Luckett

Likewise, if there wants to be a second meetup on Saturday, that's also cool.

(iamnothing, thank you for tracking names. And I'm glad the lodging issue is resolved.)

We'll be moving about embodied|empresenced as a beam. I've already done one practice run and it is quite sfnal to be suddenly in an empty office building thousands of miles away, wandering about searching for a window to look out over the Thames, and seeing one's robotic reflection.

Wow!

Thanks to all those who have made this possible.

(so hard when one want's to do the con, and crawl all over the city/country)

If there's also a Saturday GoT, that's a delicious extra.

Crazy(and beginning to also pull together her kit for the journey...)Soph

PS of interest to people who like Chinese landscape paintings and related topics - the British Museum has what looks to be a a rather yummy exhibition focussing on the Yangzi River. I'm planning on trying to slip out between interesting panels but the schedule is making that deliciously difficult. Still, I may just have to bag something on my wish-list in favor of it.

Once I have a plan, I'll try to yell about it here and other quarters to see who might like to join an expedition with me to this exhibit.

Really looking forward to meeting so many of you.

Cool! I want to do that! When will this service be available to J. Random Members?

crazysoph: They're doing Game of Thrones on Thursday? Cool! Let the beheadings begin!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

In other news, I was worried about my mouthwash when I ought to have been worried about my rubbing alcohol. Apparently isopropyl rubbing alcohol isn't sold as such in the UK, for some reason I haven't been able to discover. I find that denatured ethanol (called "surgical spirits" here) leaves an unpleasant residue on my skin, so that's out.

Since I cannot spend the entire con worrying about this, I'm going to make one more trip to the chemist's, and see if they have alcohol wipes. If not, I'll use some commercial antiperspirant or deodorant, since I also can't be stinky all con. Just have to deal with the smell and itchiness (but of course I haven't used a commercial antiperspirant in a long time, and they may have improved).

Meanwhile, I found an own-brand dry-mouth mouthwash at Boots. I did not find one that combines that with enamel strengthening, but then I didn't find any with that property at all. Methinks it may be a claim that's not allowed in the UK. But I'll be able to moisten my mouth before bed!

And I found fragrance-free, dye-free shaving cream at the same Boot's (I should have just looked for the white cap, which apparently means the same thing here as back home, though back home I haven't seen it on shaving cream), though now that I think of it I'm in the habit of splashing rubbing alcohol on my head after shaving it, so I may not shave after all. I get very tired of stubble, though. Perhaps I'll brave it.

Which is to say, I don't think the closing shift will be an obstacle to you coming. Which makes me happy; I'm looking forward to seeing you again. It's been too long.

I'd predict that by 2019 these will be a commonly uncommented sight at cons. 2014 and 2015 will be experimental**, 2015-2016 will bring demand (and wider competition in the telepresence space***) and a set of cultural norms****, and by 2017-2018 rentals will be available.

* I'm fascinated by the sense of hereness the new devices give, less the old "I'm looking through a window at" and more "I'm wandering around at." How you interact with a person changes- you might move a webcam during a meeting, but it'd be very rude to just pick up and move a telepresent person.
** we've already learned quite a lot that could help the next people who wish to attend a con this way.
*** the good+ quality telepresence devices currently look about 10x more expensive than electric scooters and other mobility rentals (very quick check, I'm seeing about $1000+ to buy and $40+/day to rent scooters-- is this about right?). This (and their business model) makes them feasible/reasonable for business conventions, but not yet for cons.
**** more on this next week

At the moment it is a toss-up whether I shall be there or not. The advantage of the GoL is that if I am travel-wearied I shall not feel committed to staying until the event concludes.

Heck, I might skip the Hugo Ceremony as well.

I'll be fascinated to see how this plays out. I imagine for some purposes, just running the in-house video feed to the user directly will be a superior experience (e.g., Hugos and masquerade). I wonder how useful they will be in noisy conversational circumstances; I predict that eventually they will be equipped with aimable parabolic mics. Will they (or do they already) have aimable cameras? (Interestingly, a crucial feature I find myself using a lot when playing with Google Street View is the ability to look up.)

Also: what behaviors will evolve to, frex, attract attention when it's one's turn to speak?

If there are a bunch of them rolling around, will they get "dressed up" (as with "Sheldon's" Green Lantern t-shirt) so you can tell "people" apart? They're short (looks like 3-4 feet tall, designed to address people sitting at a conference table); it'll be interesting to see how that affects conversational dynamics.

One function that will be new at Registration is afixing badges to these things. (And what will they be called? I'm sure a clever name will evolve for them.) Or maybe the con (or the hotel) will just lay in a stock of them, and they will be "dressed" by the user with a distinctive "frame" around their image on the screen? (Which makes them not recognizable from behind, of course.)

Will multiple members go in on sharing a single device? ("Hey! It's my turn to drive!") Handy if member A wants to go to programming but member B wants to stay up all night going to parties and filking. (I imagine the rental will be by the device-hour, so this might not offer much advantage.)

Will they be allowed into the art show, what with the traditional prohibition on photography?

And then, of course, there's Scalzi's anticipated issues with restaurants and such.

crazysoph: They're doing Game of Thrones on Thursday? Cool! Let the beheadings begin!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Ack!

And,... yeah. I don't know why I'd typed a T instead of an L, but I'm guessing it was a similar shapes thing that slipped inside what is usually a much better guard.

Crazy(and still calling that thing a brain fart, rather than a "senior moment", *hawk-spit*)Soph

1. There are only three (3) three-prong outlets in our Aloft room,
2. One of them has a squid (like a plug strip but with extension-cord-style outlet ends) plugged into it (via a US to UK adapter),
3. Said squid currently has only two things (of five possible) plugged into it.

The sad thing is, we probably won't remember this the next time we cross the Atlantic.

All hail our squidly power-adapting overlords!

I really appreciated that conversation. Please do say hi again. I'll give you a sticker. :-)

It'll be my first Worldcon. Really interested to see what the folk arriving early have been getting up to. Today is an ordinary work day for me; I'll be getting the bus to London early tomorrow morning.

I am looking forward to Loncon and hopefully being brave enough to de-lurk in person for the GoL.

If there are a bunch of them rolling around, will they get "dressed up" (as with "Sheldon's" Green Lantern t-shirt) so you can tell "people" apart?

We don't have to wait for this custom to evolve in the future.

If there are suitably creative people at Loncon, with access to suitable materials, the Kathrynbot could be costumed right now!

Is it too late to enter the Masquerade?

Wish I could help, but I will be sitting out the Worldcon in Illinois, botless.

As for distinguishing people, no doubt a feature using Bluetooth or something similar will superpose the name "Kathryn from Sunnyvale" when your Google Glass gaze falls upon the robot. If control shifts to Brad, the text will presumably be updated.

I did look, but realise I've been counting your distinctive characteristic as "tall husband with a van dyke", and haven't seen one of those all evening. Were you wearing a hat?

Maybe run into you tomorrow :)

All
B. and I will likely do our first runaround (t)here in London Thursday, pending working through various tech issues and the 7 hour time difference.
If you see the two/three* of us say hi.

* almost always at least two, one or two empresenced, plus our awesome friend who has brought the Beam and empowered us to run this experiment

I might be able to split time slightly and attend both, though. If there's a Saturday GoL, I will be at that one, no matter if I manage to get to the one tonight.

Now, take personal electronics and cross to the other side of the tracks, to get badged up and maybe find abi (at the con, with stickers).

(Sorry if this is a duplicate; Mozilla's acting strangely.)

Brad is currently attending parties. I'm giving a talk shortly so might only get to tomorrow's early morning parties this afternoon.

Hmmm. I'm thinking we need a new doubly-presenced future tense

Winning quote from the panel, a group effort:

Kari Sperring [discussing feminism projected back into the steampunk era]: "But they are still wearing corsets."
Mary Robinette Kowal: "Yes, but the corsets show. They're basically wearing their underwear on the outside."
Zen Cho: "Like Superman!"

(laughter all round

Tune in tomorrow to hear more on "As the Panel Turns"...

:-)

https://twitter.com/Gollancz/status/500744849403154432

My cousin Kate has just found out that she's been accepted to Cambridge to read History at Caius. I'm carrying around a congratulations card which I am asking various interesting people to sign - if you spot me (5'4", round, short dark brown hair, sunglasses on top of head, carrying a blue/black tartanish Reebok backpack and currently wearing a blue T-shirt) and would like to be one of the multitude of strangers to congratulate my cousin, please feel free! I've got a backup card if the current one (which features guinea pigs) fills up.

Crazy(but still? Sco-o-o-o-o-ore! *more happy dancing*)Soph

Just sayin'....

Cassy <please?>

I've met several people, some of whom were inordinately excited to meet me (I eat this stuff up (though it can be a bit embarrassing when it's actually happening), and they get over it really quickly). It's really cool, and if I weren't feeling really fried (being the Chief Minion of Access is surprisingly tiring—or maybe not so surprising, since it entails running from floor to floor getting signs made, putting signs up, taking signs down and putting them up in a different way, writing additional information on signs to clarify/partially negate the information on them, making food runs when the Area Head must. eat. and will not leave the desk, etc.), I would try to list them all, but I'm bound to leave some of them out and hurt someone's feelings. So let me just say that if I met you for the first time at LonCon3, SQUEEE! I'm just as excited to have met you as you are to have met me.

(One of the aforementioned people who was inordinately, etc. was a young woman who wound up providing terrific help to Access, and I'm very very glad I met her.)

(The kids and I were also delighted to receive awards. There was squeeing.)

- Em, who is now on her second card-for-Kate, and now has signatures from many excellent folks.

(And then I waved Martin and the kids off; they're driving to the Chunnel, taking the train under the water, and heading north to Amsterdam; it was the only way to both go to the Hugos tonight and school tomorrow morning. I haz a sad nao.)

-----
* OK, actually, they ran into me, because I stood still and encouraged them to do it. Just so we could say they had.

I have my attending membership and have pencilled in the vacation time! (And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be counted as a Real Live Published SFF Author, despite the apparent stigma of being published by a lesbian press.)

In the small world department, I posted a squee about the Hugo Award results on my FB page and my cousin -- who as far as I know isn't particularly fannish -- indicated a personal acquaintance with the Skiffy & Fanty folks.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/crazysoph/640645/23948/23948_900.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/crazysoph/640645/24290/24290_900.jpg

I may try for a better picture of the crown on its own - even though the costume was also a lot of work, I'm especially proud of the crown. Alas, just haven't slowed down enough to take a decent shot...

Crazy(and thanking everyone for their forbearance!)Soph

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/crazysoph/640645/24479/24479_900.jpg

If anyone I recognize comes within an ass' bray, I'm going to see if I can't get him/her/it to sit here and guard my recharging laptop, while I get both of us drinks!

Crazy(and hoping this is at least more entertaining than "Do my homework!" ;) )Soph

It's been great to meet people, at the GoL of Thursday, the smaller gathering on Saturday and various round and about the con.

Xopher, from what I saw, you did a great job on Access.

@196 et sequelae: Agree abi did a fine job as moderator. And yes, that sequence was great!

Serge Broom @199: It was about the pronunciation of "Antigua".

Congrats to CrazySoph, abi and kids for your awards! I really enjoyed the costumes.

Em @209: Congrats to Kate. ACabridge is a great place!

Presently enjoying "Before the Dawn" fantasy rock musical.

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to?

I had a FANTASTIC time yesterday late afternoon/evening: first I attended a three-hour filk rock musical, "Before the Dawn" the development of which started with a single guitar riff in 1985 - the year before I met two of the people most involved. I've not seen them since Glasgow Worldcon (Intersection) in 1995 and in the mean time they've grown their own drummer (and very good he was too). Chatted to a friend who, prior to this con, I'd not seen since 1993, then bumped into Xopher and Lenore, chatted some more, then Abi came along... We commandeered a table and some chairs in the Fan Village, gathered two or three more people, drank cider being provided by the Helsinki in 2017 crew, and had a pleasant time until I had to leave or risk missing the last train home. A lovely way to finish the con.

Abi: hope you got up and got to Paris okay!

Not if you're thinking of Kwee-beck. kuh-beck if speaking English, kay-beck if speaking French :)

Thanks. I know what you meant here, but it's important for others to realize that I was only the Minion in Chief for Access, which was being run with great energy and dedication by Lenore Jones (jonesnori of this parish) and Vanessa May. Julia Jones did so much work that she was field-promoted to Staff.

I am only an egg.