World Fantasy Conventions and Worldcons are very difference animals. The former has a membership cap, a limited program in the sense of it being deliberately kept to something like a maximum of two track simultaneously panels and two readings at a time, an juried/invitation only-by-juring art show, no masquerade, hall costumes frowned on, very high percentage of writers/editors/agents/artist/publishers.... Worldcons are 20 rings circuses, with around ten percent of the members of the convention on the program, as many or twelve or more panel discussion items going on at the same time, typically two tracks at least going on of film/video/anime playing and a track of promos for forthcoming features in TV/video/anime/film, a track of concert sets of music, two or three rooms given over at night for music-making with some being "themed circles" and others "open filk" with the music running for as long as people stay in rooms, two or three tracks of author readings, "big tent" events of the Hugo Ceremonies where the Hugos get given out and the Masquerade--the ur-presentation costume competition--with other big tent events tending to include such things as one or more dances, soemtimes a "meet the program participants" event with refreshments and/or a meet the Guests of Honor event, Opening Ceremonies, Closing Ceremonies, other large "extravangza" event(s) if any... Once upon a time there were Hugo banquets and speeches, including the Guest of Honor Speeches, in conjunction with the banquet. That tradition ended long ago as a tradition, though occasionally a Worldcon will have a large food function, very occasionally even a banquet.
What else--Worldcons have hall costumes competitions with ribbons handed out for exception hall costumes. Worldcons have awards ceremonies other than the Hugo such as the Chesleys for SF/F artwork usually being given out at ceremonies held at the Worldcon by ASFA, the Assocation of Science Fiction Artists. Other awards which usually get given out at the Worldcon include the Sidewise Award, and others which I am blanking on.
There are meetings of special interest groups, lots of them--SFWA usually has a business meeting of its members at the Worldcon. ASFA holds a meeting (see Chesleys above...). Subfandoms for e.g. George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones universe often rent suites or rooms and throw parties, some open, some limited to the subfandom--Worldcons have a traveling party board constructed by "Filthy Pierre" years back to list the open parties on, for people to go buy and write down--they also get listed in the daily newletter... there is a newsletter, which may even have multiple issues on the same day on some days.
There are tracks of programming aimed at children. There is art and music programming--program items which are hands-on workshops, programs items which are how-to demos (when he was Artist GoH, Bob Eggleton ws "artist in the fishbowl" painting a complete oil painting in several hours), program items which are people explaining how they create/created books or artwork. There are discussion groups and kaffeeclatsches, the latter being e.g. a writer and ten or so people signed up in advance to sit around a table for an hour and converse.
There is the consuite, open to everyone at the convention to come and partake of the hospitality.
There is an army of volunteers, I worked on Registration at last this past year's Worldcon next to people from the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia, and one year a significant fraction of the artshow setup volunteers were from Japan, with someone doing live translation from English into Japanese relaying setup instructions...
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 07:24 am (UTC)What else--Worldcons have hall costumes competitions with ribbons handed out for exception hall costumes. Worldcons have awards ceremonies other than the Hugo such as the Chesleys for SF/F artwork usually being given out at ceremonies held at the Worldcon by ASFA, the Assocation of Science Fiction Artists. Other awards which usually get given out at the Worldcon include the Sidewise Award, and others which I am blanking on.
There are meetings of special interest groups, lots of them--SFWA usually has a business meeting of its members at the Worldcon. ASFA holds a meeting (see Chesleys above...). Subfandoms for e.g. George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones universe often rent suites or rooms and throw parties, some open, some limited to the subfandom--Worldcons have a traveling party board constructed by "Filthy Pierre" years back to list the open parties on, for people to go buy and write down--they also get listed in the daily newletter... there is a newsletter, which may even have multiple issues on the same day on some days.
There are tracks of programming aimed at children. There is art and music programming--program items which are hands-on workshops, programs items which are how-to demos (when he was Artist GoH, Bob Eggleton ws "artist in the fishbowl" painting a complete oil painting in several hours), program items which are people explaining how they create/created books or artwork. There are discussion groups and kaffeeclatsches, the latter being e.g. a writer and ten or so people signed up in advance to sit around a table for an hour and converse.
There is the consuite, open to everyone at the convention to come and partake of the hospitality.
There is an army of volunteers, I worked on Registration at last this past year's Worldcon next to people from the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia, and one year a significant fraction of the artshow setup volunteers were from Japan, with someone doing live translation from English into Japanese relaying setup instructions...