Most of you will already know about the particularly virulent strain of con crud that struck Wiscon last weekend (and to those of you still recovering, my condolences). Getting sick at cons is something we all know about. I seem to be fairly tough, but Kevin makes a habit of it. This one, however, was different. Not only was it much more virulent than usual, it also made the local news.

Wiscon has had an excellent relationship with the Concourse Hotel, and I’m delighted to see that the local health officials are being sensible about this. But it does highlight a potential issue, and helps illustrate why you don’t get con suites at British conventions.

You see, people at American conventions don’t just eat hotel food. They eat food at room parties too. If the Madison Public Health Department hadn’t been convinced that the disease was brought to the convention by attendees, they would have been looking at party food as well as what the hotel served. I have no idea what the legal situation is in Wisconsin, but in the UK the hotel could have been liable for bad food served on its premises, even if it had not served the food itself. And that’s why they don’t like people running room parties.