Late last year I blogged about an editorial by Mike Resnick from Baen’s Universe. Mike had a bunch of good points, but also said some things that very much annoyed some people. Not long afterward, an article by Mike and Barry Malzberg appeared in the SFWA Bulletin. This was pretty much more of the same, including more dubious statistics purporting to prove that Worldcon was about to keel over any die any year now.
So I wrote something in response, and that article has just seen print. Somewhat to my surprise, it is the lead story in the latest Bulletin, and is available online. Doubtless people will very soon be complaining that I am once again proving myself a Menace to Fandom who is Hell-bent on Destroying All That We Hold Dear. I may have managed to tick off a few pros too.
Having had a quick read, I have discovered one error. I originally wrote that the Netherlands and Japan Worldcons both, “drew over 3,000 attendees”. Then I got some better data in (thanks, Peggy Rae!) and it turned out that the correct number to use for Yokohama should be 2852. Somehow the right number got in, but the change of “over” to “around” didn’t. My apologies for that.
Also, of course, I will no longer be able to attend SMOFcon 28. I will have to leave Kevin and the rest of SFSFC to run that without me. But I do hope that someone from SFWA will turn up and talk to the assembled SMOFs.
And now, a piece of raw egoboo.
Article is very good. Full of interest and ideas. And as someone who would be a once in a decade attendee (whenever I finally get to BE an attendee) I think it hits many good points.
But then I’m a newbie so…..
Just for reference (two errors! oh noes!), Barry Malzberg doesn’t have a ‘t’ in his name.
Otherwise, yay egoboo!
Fixed, thank you!
As usual, I disagree with some of your analysis, and Mike’s. Worldcons generally work hard on outreach. It is true that the skill set of people involved varies, but there isn’t a magic bullet that will bring in a bunch of people. A lot of intelligent, creative people have devoted a lot of thought and effort to this problem, and many solutions have been attempted and/or implemented.
I’ll also disagree that attendance numbers matter much at all. For what it is, Worldcon is pretty successful. It’s main focus is literary SF. If you were able to fractionate the literary SF audience in other events, e.g. DragonCon, Comic Con, etc., Worldcon would likely compare very favorably to these other events. I have nothing against media-oriented events, I attend them occasionally, but Worldcon has no more need to become DragonCon than Smofcon does. And DragonCon isn’t a failure because it’s a quarter of the size of the San Diego Comic Con, it’s just a different event with a somewhat different focus and audience.
The exhibit-hall membership is an interesting suggestion, but again it is based on the fallacy that price is an important consideration for Worldcon attendees. I again have to make the point that membership cost is maybe a fifth of the overall cost to members, but it is the part that defines the overall experience. If attendance numbers were the criterion of success, and they aren’t, the path to success and growth would be to move upscale, become more elitist, charge more for membership to make an even more worthwhile experience for attendees. If it costs a thousand bucks to attend a Worldcon, adding a hundred dollars to the membership cost won’t affect people’s ability to pay but it could make the experience much greater, and that would bring in more members. For Worldcons and for some other conventions, the function space is the primary cost element, so there isn’t necessarily a lot to be saved here. Take the programming away from a convention and what you end up with is a gate show, and that’s not the direction some of us want to go.
But the real way to grow fandom is to do it locally. Build better local conventions. If some of those people go to Worldcons, and some will, that’s great.
I’m sorry we won’t see you at Smofcon. Maybe they can figure out some kind of remote participation.
In case it comes up, I will state that I am talking here as me and not as any of the hats I wear or have worn, or for anyone I know. There. Now I can comment.
Two points:
1) I like how you’re repeating the same stuff over and over, here and elsewhere. That consistency means it will eventually get through to folks. I know it affected the way I worked on the parts of Anticipation that I had to do with.
2) This has been repeated many times, but I do think folks need to consider in what *ways* we want Worldcon to be like the media cons. You understand this, but I do not think other people in fandom who also want to rejuvenate (pun intended) Worldcon necessarily do.
*We do want authors there,
*and press coverage that takes us seriously,
*and a diverse attendance with more young people.
(am I missing anything?)
I celebrate how media cons are more diverse and younger than sf cons, but when we bring changes I do hope that we can avoid the kind of infuriating congestion large media conventions tend to fall prey to. After a weekend spent partially at PAX, I for one remember why I do not go to anime or other media conventions; there was fun stuff to do and see but you couldn’t do or see it. I do not pay to stand or sit in line for HOURS. I ended up leaving the Hynes to go hang out in the Interactive Fiction Suite, which was crowded but somehow not anonymous and unpleasant the way PAX had felt; more like a popular room party.
I know that younger fans (I’m 30) may think they’re at a dumb event if there aren’t lines everywhere, but I think we can educate them. Because I guarantee that we’ll lose a sizeable number of dedicated fans and see it shrink again if the event gets too big, and I think the folks who want to turn Worldcon into Dragon*Con (I know you don’t) should remember that.
I especially like the online aspect of your suggestions for this reason, because I might pay to watch panels online for a convention I expect to be more congested than I’m willing to handle. Especially if the ones I missed were sort of TiVoed so folks could watch them over the following week or so before being taken down and archived. Just some thoughts.
So overall, kudos.
You appear to assume here that every single member of the convention — or at least, the only ones who matter — travels long distances and stays in a hotel near the convention site. You’ve completely marginalized the local attendees by this. Indeed, the very structure of WSFS marginalizes anyone who doesn’t attend every year and doesn’t have a “if they hold it, I will go” attitude.
Not for the “commuters” — those people who live so close to the site that they sleep in their own beds every night. For them, the membership cost is 100% of the overall cost.
Some of those commuters are potential long-term members, but if they’re frightened away by sticker shock, there will probably never be another chance to reach them.
Incidentally, sticker shock can affect even “regulars.” The previous Australian Worldcon ran up its prices fairly steeply, assuming, more or less, that “The only people who matter are having to spend thousands of dollars to fly here, and therefore they’ll never notice an extra $50.” There were people I know who balked at the extra cost up front, and therefore never made the effort to build up the substantial sum it takes to travel that far.
I read your excellent article, and I think the exhibit hall membership is a fantastic idea. I think it would really help draw in local folks and the short-drive commuters who don’t plan to stay overnight.
Did you read the blog post recently (can’t remember whose blog!) describing a heartwarming encounter between Stan Lee and a young fan/writer at (I think) Comic Con? The blogger used the term “flesh glacier” to describe the crowds. Personally, I don’t want crowds to get so big I can’t get where I’m going. A healthy attendance level is fine.
This was a good article and I want to respond to a few points.
“What’s wrong with Denver?” Nothing, really. These smaller and more remote worldcons are needed from time to time in order to attract people in those areas to fandom. The 1981 Denver worldcon spurred fanac in the Great Plains and Mountain regions with several smaller conventions starting as a result of people having been to the worldcon. Personally, I was thrilled that there was going to be a worldcon that I could drive to. This is also a good reason to keep the worldcon as a movable convention.
There are many simple things that we could do to promote the worldcon locally. I thought the bus ads in Denver in 2008 were a really good idea. In 2002, I suggested several times that we should try to get an interview with an author on KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny. Alas, it never happened. I would think that special promotions at book stores and libraries in the months leading up to a worldcon could be very effective.
While I’m a little uncomfortable with the idea of “Exhibits Only” memberships (How about “Programming Only” memberships, too?) I think that they could have much the same effect as the current “Taster” memberships, but would be much easier to administer. They would also need to be heavily promoted in the local area.
I am also in favor of some kind of discounted membership for persons under age 25. While not everyone under 25 would necessarily have the financial need for a discounted membership, it would still encourage younger folks to give the worldcon a try.
When I asked “What’s wrong with Denver?†I was asking why it got such low attendance compared to other US Worldcons. You are absolutely right that Worldcon should look to go to places like that anyway. We just have to understand that such an event will, inevitably, attract fewer actual visitors.
As to “programming-only” memberships, I don’t see any demand for them. I’ve met plenty of people who only want to gawp and shop, and have no interest in sitting for hours on uncomfortable chairs listening to a bunch of talking heads (at least that’s the way they see it). I don’t know of many people who are sufficiently engaged with fandom and the industry who would want to attend panels yet have no interest in any of the exhibit space.
Well said; I know you’ve said a lot of this lots of times before, and it gets aggravating to have to repeat yourself…
Couple of nitpicks: Dragon*Con does have a substantial amount of book-related programming. The only thing really unique about D*C is its decision to never move to a convention center despite its size, and spend that money on bringing in more big-name guests.
IMHO, the crucial thing about D*C staying in one place is that that place happens to be CNN’s backyard. Our allegedly national media has always been really terrible at covering things outside commuting range of its various headquarterses, so for years D*C was simply the only convention many people had heard of. (These days, CNN acknowledges the existence of Comic-Con as well.) Worldcon can’t replicate that simply by being stationary; it’d have to specifically stay in NYC (since the other areas with media headquarters are already claimed by Dragon*Con and Comic-Con).
Nippon 2007 allowed the general non-paying public into the exhibits area and dealers’ room, although this was mainly as a way to reassure dealers they would have enough business, rather than general publicity for the con (though I’m sure it didn’t hurt). There was also a discounted one-day membership rate for residents of Yokohama.
On the topic of aging, a datum from the anime world: There is some concern there over how they “lose” people around age 25. So we may be talking about two complementary experiences which will continue to coexist as they do now.
On the topic of aging, a datum from the anime world: There is some concern there over how they “lose†people around age 25. So we may be talking about two complementary experiences which will continue to coexist as they do now.
But I have friends my age and older who are into anime . . . and I even found three panels interesting at Anime Boston (the only Anime con I’ve attended) the one time I went.
The problem is that they seem so huge and noisy and shallow and teen-centered that I don’t want to go to them. And I’m sure there are other anime fans that feel the same.
Perhaps our traditions can learn from each other — the anime fandom benefiting from sf fans’ conrunning experience, and sf fans benefiting from anime cons’ fresh approaches to similar problems and publicity chops.
I’ve already seen this start to happen in the costumer end of the world . . .
Sorry, I should have been clearer. By “lose” I meant in terms of con attendance, not that anyone thinks people over 25 stop liking anime.
Indeed, there are a lot of things anime and Worldcon con-runners could learn from each other, and it would be neat to get them together in a situation where they could. (Say, Cheryl, when is the SMOFCon 28 site going to have a description of its DIY program approach up? I’ve made mention of it on the anime con-runners’ mailing list, but it would help to have something on the official site I can point to to reassure people more that there won’t be a designated gatekeeper trying to keep the evil taint of anime off the program.)
I’ve asked SMOFCon’s head of programming what the plan for putting up more specifics is and will post material to the SMOFCon web site when I have it.
Given the individuals involved in organizing the convention, this seems extremely unlikely. Also note that this year’s SMOFCon parent organization has had as many as three directors in common with FanimeCon’s parent organization.
Personally, I’d be delighted to see more cross-fertilization of ideas between groups, and the convention’s theme of “building bridges” reflects this. I think everyone has something they can learn from everyone else.
“I am also in favor of some kind of discounted membership for persons under age 25.”
Ask & you shall receive:
“Renovation Announces Reduced Membership Rates for Young Adults”
http://www.renovationsf.org/pressrel05.php
This is a great article – I can only hope if you say it enough times, others will pick up the meme and it will finally begin to stick ;>.
As for specifics – I think Reno is ripe for some interesting “new things” :>
As a not very wealthy fan I would like to point out that if Worldcon is to survive it can’t assume all attendees are rich. Price IS an important consideration for me. I need to spend the least possible amount of money to get there, stay there and attend the event..so I stay on the floors of strangers and try to incorporate it into travel I am already doing. The cost of entry can make or break my decision to even TRY to get to the event in any year.
But then I don’t count because so far I haven’t had the money to attend Worldcon.
Good article.
I would just have added two things:
1) I think one of the things that makes Worldocn unique is the “international-ness” of the event. I’m sure people come from all over the world for ComicCon and DragonCon, but nowhere do you get the feeling that stuff from Europe, Asia or Australasia is being featured (maybe I’m dead wrong and there’s tons of panels on European SF and the place of Africa in SF at DraconCon, but it’s certainly not pushed in their publicity. Worldcon tends to do that (“X members from Y countries will be attending!”). Also the “it’s your chance to go while it’s nearby” angle can help convince people to show up. I know I used that line often enough and it does give a certain cachet to Worldcons.
2) All authors, artists and other personalities attending the con should be made available to press for interviews (via phone, or e-mail) before the convention. It’s simply a matter of adding a question about being available for interviews pre-con and/or at-con to the programme participant questionnaire. The con then has to let it be known to journalists who can be interviewed and provide the contact info. One problem is that many con organizers don’t realize that this can (should!) be done and SFWA members could encourage this by offering to do so. In addition to helping the con, they would also help themselves.
Re: anime con attendees, I know there was an attempt to run an adult only anime con last year — not one with X-rated content only, but one that was more sedate and where older anime fans who get overwhelmed by the teen-factor would feel more comfortable. I don’t know how much of a success it was, but it certainly sounded interesting.