Review of Dublin 2019 - An Irish WorldCon

Dublin 2019 - An Irish WorldCon is named so because of being the first WorldCon to be held in Ireland. It is held on August 2019 from the 15^th to the 19^th at, of course, Dublin.

About WorldCons

WorldCons are big conventions dedicated to the fantastic genre in English language. They are held once a year since 1939 with only one interlude, of four years, during World War II - which makes the 2019 WorldCon the 77^th edition. They are travelling events, changing their city from one edition to the next – though they may come back later.  After having the opportunity to experience LonCon 3, the 2014 WorldCon, I gladly enlist Dublin 2019, the next WorldCon in Western Europe. And after having the opportunity to compare two of them, now I have a view on WorldCons which I can share.

Election

The election of the place for 2019 is held with the usual two years in advance, at the 2017 WorldCon. Dublin's bid, the only one, is confirmed by vote then.

Website

The website, available at the domain http://dublin2019.com/ , announces the event much in advance. It provides practical information about how to get to Dublin and find accommodation, and full information about the event and how to register and pay for membership.

The Dublin 2019 website - copyrights for the design and photographs correspond to its authors

The website is complemented with a page on Facebook and profiles in Twitter and Instagram.

Previous information

No less than five progress reports are publicized before the event, and of course through the website too.

Inscription

There is a supporting (non-attending) membership of €40. The attending memberships for the full event are divided into four categories depending of age, with a discount until February 2019:

• Infant (0-5): €5.
• Child (6-12): €80 (€70 with discount).
• Young Adult (13-25): €160 (€130) with discount).
• Adult (26+): €260 (€210 with discount).

Day passes are also advertised. My inscription, made in February, costed me 235€ with some extras I don't recall at present.

Venues

The venues are the Convention Centre Dublin (CCB) and the Point Square building which holds the Odeon theatre and the Gibson hotel. Together, they provide about thirty rooms for the events, ranging from the 700-seat Auditorium to the smallest 20-seat room. Most rooms are equipped with projectors and screens, the ones at the Odeon theatre being actual cinema screens. Because of performing its usual function as movie theatre, the Odeon stops hosting WorldCon events at 18 h.

However, attendance at WorldCons is so much large that all places get inevitably crowded. As a consequence, the staff limits the access to the rooms by counting carefully the number of people entering the rooms and allowing no people in excess, as to develop some expectation of breathable air. As further consequence, queues are formed for each upcoming event, and the staff organizes the queues the best they can, informing the people on the number of available seats in each room and putting adhesive tape on the carpet to indicate where to queue up. As an even further consequence, attendees at all rooms are required to leave the room at the end of every event so it becomes available for the people who are queuing up to enter – which is fair of course, but takes away the last hope of avoiding queues by choosing the room with the events you like the most and staying there all the time.  Rather, every time you exit an event you are likely to be left out for the next hour because by the time the event ends the queues for the next events are already long enough to fill the rest of the rooms.  The only rooms that seem to never get full are the biggest ones: the Odeon Screen 1 at the Point Square building (open only until 18 h.) and Liffey-B at the CCD (used only half of the time).  The only way to avoid losing the next hour is to leave the events early so you can get a good place at the queues for the next events.

Well, this is inevitable: successful conventions are crowded conventions, and the more minds involved the richer the convention is. However, it must be pointed that in central hours at Dublin 2019 the queues grow so long as to fill all available space. In spite of the staff mastering queue compression, the place at the Liffey and Wicklow levels is so full that the people arriving by escalator almost has no space to step out of it. Also, at the Point Square building the entrance to the Odeon theatre is so small that the queues have to be formed two levels below, so entering the rooms is slow and reduces the event time in several minutes. An event as extraordinary as the WorldCon has extraordinary space requirements, and there are only few venues such as the ExCeL London that can held it in a comfortable way.

The Convention Centre Dublin as seen through the harp-shaped Samuel Beckett Bridge

  

Staff

The staff at Dublin 2019 is competent, and provides an attention that is both helpful and warm. The staff is large, and is complemented by volunteers, so it is more than enough. The venues are equipped with plenty of bathrooms, and in the CCD there is also cloakroom, coffee shop and childcare.

The Welcome Pack

The Welcome Pack is the name I come up with for the goodies every attendee gets on arrival:

• Dublin 2019, The 77th World Science Fiction Convention, a gorgeous 176-page book in colour introducing the guests, the artists, the topics, the awards and the World Science Fiction Society.
• Fáilte/Welcome, Dublin 2019 An Irish WorldCon Pocket Convention Guide, a 192-page black and white, tiny-lettered comprehensive guide of the venues, opening times, code of conduct and all of the events.
• Events Guide, a 24-page black and white guide of the most highlighted events.
• And, of course, the member badge.

In addition to this, Program Changes Sheets are issued and made available so everyone can stay updated to the changes in the programme.

 

The convention book

The Events Guide

The member badge

The Pocket Convention Guide

One page of the Program Changes Sheet

  

Bulletins

All along the WorldCon, several bulletins on paper are provided for free. Also, the relation of Hugo Award nominees and winners is made available.

 

The first of ten bulletins of The Salmon Of Knowledge

 

The only issue of The Trout Of Doubt, an humorous, self-parodic follow-up and goodbye from the same creators of The Salmon Of Knowledge.

 

Voting

WorldCon members get to vote the Hugo and Retrospective Hugo awards (Retro-Hugos for short) and also the city for the twice-next WorldCon.

Stands & Exhibitions

The rooms at the ground level of both the CCD and the Point Square buildings host the stands and exhibitions. Of course there are the stands for the candidates to host future WorldCons, and also one stand for the EuroCon to happen one week later, with plenty of information about Belfast. Stands offer all kind of merchandise, from t-shirts to jewellery.

Programme

The programme has a huge quantity of events - at any one time there are a dozen different events, including academic events, podcasts, autograph sessions, book launches, classes, fan chats, interviews, group readings, meetings, media, Kaffeeklatsches, literary beers, quiz and game shows, presentations, readings, talks, workshops, board games, role-playing games, and a programme specific for children aged 6 to 12. If anything, I am surprised at how small the media programme is.

The biggest events are held at the 700-seat auditorium: The Opening/Retro-Hugos Ceremony (Thursday), The Orchestral Evening (Friday), Masquerade (Saturday) and The Hugo Award Ceremony (Sunday), and The Closing Ceremony (Monday). For the first four, passes in the form of wristbands are required – they are provided at the Box Office for no cost.

The Pocket Convention Guide describes the events with the name, type and participants (with the moderator marked with an M), and also a small synopsis.

And now, to the programme... or rather, being this a single-authored article, the small part of the programme that the author manages to attend.

Events for Wednesday the 14^th

Wait, isn't the WorldCon to begin on August the 15^th? Yes, that's what you and me think... the dates are on the header of every page of the website, aren't they? Unless the afternoon of the day before you are casually browsing the programme and then you come across the first event, and it is set right now in the Science Gallery of Dublin, and you rush there to find that yes, there is an event but you are late and the room is already full, but fortunately they kindly offer you access to an overflow room that shows the event on a big screen through video-conferencing.

19:00 h.: Oppy or Armstrong? Autonomous vs human space exploration. Panel with Noelle Amejenda PhD (M), Jeanette Epps, Aliette de Bodard, Dr Inge Heyer, Geoffrey A. Landis. Well, poor Armstrong doesn't stand a chance – it is all set for Oppy. The panel explores the many issues that preclude space exploration for humans, mainly medical issues, and then goes on to celebrate the growing versatility of the new masters of space, the robots.

On an unrelated and surely unnecessary note, after the WorldCon I happen to visit the Science Gallery and find that it has the exhibition with the least exhibits of Dublin, and furthermore the exhibits are a curious combination of science and art which I find to be unsuccessful at both.

Events for Thursday the 15^th

10:00 h.: Retro Hugos discussion. Panel with Heidi Lyshol (M), Robert Silverberg, Jukka Särkijärvi. At the 2019 WorldCon are elected awards for two different years: Hugos for 2019 and Retro-Hugos for 1944. This panel discusses the nominees for the Retro-Hugos.

11:30 h.: So long, and thanks for all the fish. Panel with Dr Claire McCague (M), Lionel Davoust, Linnea Sternefält, Becky Chambers. In spite of the title, taken from the hilarious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Saga, this is a serious, academic event dedicated to the transmission of information between species. A promising topic from Biology which I feel that the event falls short from addressing in all its interesting complexity.

12:30 h.: How to build and evil empire. Panel with Lee Harris (M), Diane Duane, Verity Allan Steve Jackson, Rebecca Roanhorse. This event, held on the biggest Odeon screen, has plenty of attendance, all of us interested on the topic of building evil empires – but then, of course, fictional ones. Participants go on to assure us that there is no law of nature preventing us from creating an invincible evil empire, but because of inexplicable reasons literature and media screw up every time adding fatal flaws that cause their downfall.

13:30 h.: Ships and colonies. “Space Travel, Electric Propulsion, and Sci-Fi” by Rachel Moloney. “Interstellar Commerce. A Relativistic View”, by G. David Nordley. “Are Human Colonies in Space Moral?” by Dr Kelly C. Smith. Event composed of three different academic presentations on the topic of space colonization. Moloney's presentation about astronautical engineering is very technical. Nordley claims that interstellar flights can achieve a duration as short as fourteen years, which would allow for commerce, but this claim doesn't stand by Moloney's data and feels unconvincing. Lastly, Smith takes on the extreme difficulties of life in space and the moral dilemmas that arise from that.

A volunteer introducing the event

Kelly C. Smith delivering his presentation

 

14:30 h. Science, religion, and the art of storytelling, Talk by Brother Guy Consolmagno. This is a surprising talk, beginning with the speaker himself: you don't expect one people to be both a scientist and a Jesuit, hence his 'Brother' title. As it turns out, he's the director of the Vatican Observatory, and a good-humoured person too, which allows him to jokingly introduce himself as “an observer from the Vatican”. Speaking about Storytelling and Religion sets the topic in a way as to expect Fantasy and Religion to be described as two similar prime materials for storytelling, but the talk goes in the opposite direction: why scientific research needs storytelling to make good progress.

16:30 h. Computer History Museum presentations. Presentation by Christopher Garcia. Yes, computers are so much old now as for a Computer History Museum to exist. Curator Chris Garcia, a good-humoured American of Mexican origin, very resembling of film-maker Guillermo del Toro, talks about the stories and anecdotes in Computer History.

18:00 h. The Enchanted Duplicator. Play. Mr. Erwin S. (Filthy Pierre) Strauss (M), Ms Rowan Jessop, Adi Loya, Mark Bernstein, Ms Yulia Syromolot, Mr Ralf Bayer. This musical 80-minute play tells a story that is quite relatable to all of the attendees: the boy at the small town who is despised for being different, his discovery of conventions as the place for people like him, and him joyfully joining the fandom. As for the rest, I cannot summarize it because I leave as of this point, close to half-time. I reckon musicals aren't my cup of tea, and besides there are two things that are putting me off: the music is non-original (famous songs with new lyrics) and the story seems to stop advancing, as if there was no more plot and the play became only a collection of songs.

Booklet for The Enchanted Duplicator

 

20:00 h.: Opening Ceremonies, featuring the 1944 Retro Hugo Awards. Ceremony hosted by charming Ellen Klages and Dave Rudden, with the performance of the choir Songs in the Key of D. The ceremony is a sophisticated one that opts to have couches on-stage as to receive the many people that present and deliver the Retro-Hugos, so they can comfortably sit there the rest of the time.

Booklet for the Opening Ceremony and the 1944 Retro-Hugo Awards

My slightly unfocused photograph of the ceremony

 

Events for Friday the 16^th

10:00 h.: How I learned to stop worrying and love Hollywood. Presentation by Stephen Cass. The title, aptly referencing Kubrick's satiric film about nuclear war, serves the purpose of introducing the topic: Hollywood is the weapon of Massive Veracity Destruction. Stephen Cass brings us hope: through the hiring of Science advisors, Hollywood films are improving their realism. Still, some less optimistic voices show their concerns in questions time, such as mine.

11:30 h.: How we became LV426. Talk by Lex Beckett. LV426 is the fictional world where the action of the films Alien and Aliens take place, but this talk is all but fictional. The speaker exposes that pollution and global warming are making more and more areas of the planet sterile.

12:30 h.: Computing before computers. Talk by Henry Spencer. A quick but exhaustive review of the history of computing up to the early XX century, passing through all of the major calculating machines from abacus to Babbage's machines. Being an specialist on the topic I know all about it beforehand, but Spencer's complete and succinct exposition still makes the talk worthwhile to me.

14:00 h.: An interview with Parris McBride and George R. R. Martin. The interviewees, silver-haired love-birds, are the Guest of Honour Martin and his partner McBride – so this is an event that focuses on their shared history rather than literature. Being convention enthusiasts, and having met for the first time at a convention, they share many stories about their experiences at conventions.

17:00 h.: Let's do the time loop again. Panel with E. Lily Yu (M), Shivaun Hoad, Laura Antoniou, Eliza Bentley, Ira Alexander. There are more time loop stories than you know, and this panel is about them. Several examples are discussed and analysed, with some conclusions as the usual purpose being to express a moral.

Events for Saturday the 17^th

11:30 h.: The camera lies. Panel with Rick Wilber (M), Sakuya, Zaza Koshkadze and Stephen Nelson. Technology solves old problems at the expense of creating new ones- modern technology can fake any audiovisual. This panel is realizes this new situation and discusses how to deal with it.

15:00 h.: Nonhuman and interspecies communication. Panel with Manny Frishberg (M), Dr Claire McCague, Dr Bob, Christianne Wakeham. This biology panel reviews interspecies communication in the animal kingdom, down to microbial level.

Events for Sunday the 18^th

10:30 h.: The author as a fellow traveller on the hero's journey. Panel with Dr Kristina Perez (M), Michael Swanwick, Karen Simpson Nikakis, Naomi Kritzer, Daryl Gregory. This panel explores the relationship between authors and characters and examines how much strong this bond can be, with some authors reckoning that their protagonists are just themselves in disguise.

13:00 h.: Internet, censorship, control and influence. Panel with Rebecca Gomez Farrell (M), PRK, Kelvin Jackson, EI. Panel on an interesting, hot topic: the control and censorship of Internet. Sadly, most of the panellists aren't knowledgeable on the topic and therefore the discussion becomes optimistic to the point of delusion. On question time I cannot but remark the failure to address mandatory hot topics as the “Copyright in the digital market” European Union Directive and the ongoing War on Encryption.

14:30 h.: Perry Rhodan: world's greatest SF series. Talk by Robert Corvus. Well, this German series might or might not be the greatest (it lost the election of the best European Saga of all-time to the Spanish Aznar Saga), but at the height of its 3,000 novelettes there's no doubt it is the biggest. Robert Corvus explains the basic outline of this still-running Saga and its usual elements.

Robert Corvus introducing the Perry Rhodan Saga

Promotional material given away at the event

 

15:30 h.: Latest results from asteroid missions. Panel with John Coxon (M), Brother Guy Consolmagno, Bill Higgins, Dr Michele Bannister. This is an illustrative panel in one of the least-known aspects of astronautics: the asteroids missions. An ever-growing number of asteroids is being visited by automated spacecrafts. The panelists provide a complete update on this subject.

The panelists below a presentation slide showing 19 asteroids and comets already visited

 

16:30 h.: Eurocon: a way to experience Europe. Panel with Carol Connolly (M), Brian Nisbet, Carolina Gomez LagerLöf, Ian Watson, Cristina Macía. Being less than 200 kilometres and one week away from the EuroCon, of course the moment is right for an EuroCon presentation. The presentation is fun and good-humoured, and some anecdotes are told.

17:30 h.: Reading: Sue Burke.  Burke, novelist and poet, reads with her mesmerizing voice some poems and also excerpts from her prose.

Promotional material given away at the event

 

19:00 h.: Is there any other life in the solar system? Interview with Dr Laura Woodney, Dr. JA Grier. Though described as an interview, this is more of a play: both doctors assume lawyer-like roles for opposing cases, that are the existence of life in places of our solar system other than Earth, and the non-existence. This smart formula works great to get the audience engaged and explain what the current data on the topic is.

20:00 h.: The 2019 Hugo Awards Ceremony. On a stage dominated by a model of the iconic harp-shaped Samuel Beckett bridge, the ceremony is hosted by Afua Richardson and Michael Scott, and benefits from the performance of a reduced line-up of the Irish Video Game Orchestra.

Booklet for the Hugo Awards Ceremony

The Auditorium moments prior to the Hugo Awards Ceremony

 

The Hugo Awards list made available for everyone

 

Events for Monday the 19^th

10:00 h.: A Critical Miss, presented by Tantalus Ireland. Play created and performed by Ms Conor Lennon, Ms Aisling McCabe, Mr Feidhlim Malone, Mr Bob Robertson, Mx Axel Sparrow, Miss Sarah Lenihan, Caroline Keating, Mr Jonathan Shortall, Mr Samuel McKeague, Orlagh Collison, Stephen Cullen. Innovative play that divides the stage between the real-world role-playing-game players, sitting at the game table, and the fantasy-world characters in the game. The play is a lot of fun, with some outstanding performances such as the ones from the fairy queen and the elf.

12:00 h.: How plausible are the fictional diseases? Panel with Sam Scheiner (M), Tricia Tynan PhD, Dr Keren Landsman, E. C. Ambrose. The panellists discuss the fictional diseases, usually to discard them as implausible (i.e. contagion by spotting infected people).

13:00 h.: Keeping the show on the road: low Earth orbit and beyond. Panel with Dave O'Neill (M), Eric Choi, Dr JA Grier, Michael Cassutt. This panel dedicated to the current state of astronautics has knowledgeable, intelligent panellists that describe accurately the missions in progress and in project. All topics are discussed, from travelling to Mars up to space elevators, providing a complete picture of the present of astronautics.

16:30 h.: Closing Ceremonies. This is a brief ceremony to close the convention with a speech of chair James Bacon thanking from the bottom of his heart all of the staff and the volunteers. There is music too, and then the introduction of the city for the next WorldCon: CoNZealand at Wellington, New Zealand. A video is played on the on-stage screen, showing the two chairs introducing the country and the city (with of course a mention to the Lord of the Rings Saga), and then asking themselves whether they are forgetting something... only to realize they should be present in Dublin, not New Zealand, so they jokingly run off the screen – just to appear, one second later, running into the stage.

Musical performance at the Closing Ceremony

 

Conclusions

The number of attendees, about 5,600, is not close to the top of those 10,000 attendees at London 2014 but still above average. The venues turn out to be small for such attendance and therefore the experience becomes somewhat uncomfortable in the central hours, though the staff does everything they can to help the attendees. Also, the Odeon theatre becomes unavailable from 18 hours on, so for the last part of the day the CCD is the only venue.

The programme is carried out quite uneventfully, and it is an extensive program with a big number of quality events of all kind. If anything is below expectations is the exhibitions and, above all, the media programme which is almost non-existent.

All in all, an exciting, stimulating, priceless experience.