The 2011 Worldcon Site Selection process has an important deadline next week: ballots that are mailed need to be received by Anticipation by July 15th. The mailing address is in California, where Site Selection Administrator Glenn Glazer lives. If you're planning to vote by mail and haven't done so yet, please send your ballot in as soon as possible to help ensure it arrives on time.

Although Reno is the only bid to have formally filed for 2011, we're still hoping to see a strong turn out to support both the selection process and our bid to bring the Worldcon to Reno. Voting also ensures that you get the best deal on joining the 2011 Worldcon, as every voter gets a Supporting Membership for 2011 and a guaranteed conversion rate to full Attending Membership of no more than $90 for a minimum of 90 days after the selection process is completed.

After the July 15th mail-in deadline, ballots can be cast in person at the convention. Voting at Anticipation will run until 7:00 PM EDT on Saturday, August 8th, 2009. If you're not going to be in Montréal, someone who is can hand-carry your ballot to the convention. Over the years, I've done all three -- mailed my ballot in advance, had a friend hand-carry my ballot, and voted in person at the Worldcon. Any of them will work.

For more information, please visit the Reno in 2011 website and the Anticipation Site Selection webpage in English or French.

Thanks!

Tonight at the Reno in 2011 at Fiestacon (Westercon 62) I will be firing up the laptop with web cam and broadcasting live from about 9:30 PM until about 10:30 PM. 

We will be on Ustream ( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/corwyn-of-amber ). Drop by and see what is doing!

Reno in 2011 is at Fiestacon (Westercon 62) and will be hosting parties on both Friday and Saturday nights.

Reno in 2011 Party, Room 102 at the Sheraton Bloomington, Minneapolis, MN, Saturday, July 4, 2009 starting around 8:00 pm and going until quite late.

The poster on Basque restaurants is way cool!! (Gee, I thought I had a photo of that, but I'm in a Worldcon discussion right now)

We're going for a Friday night party. If you're at Midwestcon party tonight, please stop by!

Thanks to: rvrjoe775, drewan, netmouse, Catherine, Terry, Eva, and Neil. Thanks again to everyone who helped!

Friday: Gaylaxicon 2009 3:15 am. 10:00 am panel the next day.
Saturday: Reno in 2011 3:15 am. Emergency! Everybody to please come finish the punch... 1:00 pm panel the next day.
Sunday: Anticipation 4:15 am. No panels the next day!

The closest pre-support to Reno, was Reno. The most distant, Japan.

Mark has left his computer unguarded, so it seemed like a good time to let everyone know that Balticon is rolling.  The party has been open for a couple of hours.  Lots of people have come in.  Quite a few are already presupporters, but checking to make sure they're presupporters.  We've taken two presupports today (earlier, at the table).

The neat part is that a number of people have said "yes, I presupported you and I already voted for you!"  That's good to hear.  And of course, Mark already voted.  And didn't tell me he'd voted.  Now I have to get my act together and vote.  It's not a good thing if the committee doesn't vote...

We'll probably post again tomorrow and let folks know how things finished out this evening.  Keep those site selection ballots coming!  TR

A year ago this weekend, the Reno bid committee launched our bid to hold the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention in Reno, Nevada. We'd like to thank everyone who has visited our bid tables, partied with us, lent a helping hand, and supported the bid as Really Close Friends, Friends, and Pre-Supporters over the last 12 months.

We also welcome the new supporters joining us this weekend, either online or at any of the following fine conventions we're at this weekend:

Balticon -- as you saw earlier today in tr_renner's posts, she and Mark Herrup have the Reno bid table set up, just finished recording a short segment with the Fast Forward crew, and are hosting a party tonight.

BayCon -- Ian Stockdale and Richard Threadgill are representing the Reno bid at BayCon. The Reno bid was formally launched by our bid chair Patty Wells when she was FanGoH at BayCon last year.

ConQuesT -- benyalow is in Kansas City both as a program participant and Reno rep. We have a bid table there.

Oasis -- jcbemis and fla_sunshine are running a bid table and also hosting a Reno in 2011 bid party tonight with help and support from Steve Francis and several other friends. The party will feature Sierra Nevada bheer and Australian wines. (Just think of it as one of the ways the bid is keeping the "World" in Worldcon.)

WisCon -- lsanderson is hosting a Reno party tonight. When we launched the bid last year, Reno resident and SF writer Susan Palwick quickly supported the bid at the party she found at WisCon. This year, Reno resident and SF fan Eva Folsom is lending a helping hand at the WisCon party. (Many thanks to apostle_of_eris for following up with introductions after he met Eva and her husband John at Potlatch earlier this year.)

Science fiction fans...we're everywhere! Please come and join us on the New Frontiers.

fla_sunshine and I spearheaded a RENO bid presence at Oasis this weekend with help from bid committee members Steve Francis and Melanie Hertz,and much assistance from Patricia Sims, Richard and Lois Willinghurst, Terri Wells, and a few others. Pat Sims baked about 10 dozen cookies, and I arranged a bid table, fla_sunshine went to the Russell Stover outlet for chocolates and arranged for a free upgrade of our room to a mini-suite. I ran a bid table yesterday afternoon and took a presupport, and Steve Francis collected another today while Pat and I were out buying the perishables.Party will be tonight at 9PM room 833.

This is really neat -- the kind folks from Fast Forward just taped a short segment about Reno in 2011.  As soon as they get it up on the website, they'll let us know and we'll be able to link to it.  You'll be able to find yet another video about Reno on YouTube.  Isn't that a hoot?

Mark Herrup and I are here at Balticon sitting a table.  We'll have a party tonight in room 1096, so anyone at Balticon should feel free to drop by.  We'll have the usual cool star effects on the ceiling, as well as things to eat and drink.  We've had several people stop by interested in presupporting the bid, including one who wants to convert to Friend, even now.  We steered them to the website for those who wanted to use credit cards. There's quite a bit of enthusiasm for going to Reno, which is great.

Hope to see a bunch of folks at the party tonight, as well as at our bid table.  Look for us with the fan tables near Registration.

TR Renner

We're throwing a party, and you are invited!

Room 634
Concourse Hotel
1 West Dayton Street
Madison, Wisconsin
9:00 pm to quite late
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Looking at the announced dates for the Reno Worldcon bid, I observe that my 50th birthday will fall during the convention.  That sounds to me like a good excuse to throw a party.

ceemage is a hero of the revolution!

Peter Sullivan just made a Transatlantic live video link work -- Ustream plus Skype work! Peter streamed Skype video from Toad Woods over the Eastercon LXtra channel. The 10-12 second audio delay meant that I ended up interrupting the conversation in Bradford overly often, but the whole thing was a terrific proof of concept, and we answered several of the questions about the Reno bid that people on the text chat asked.

You can see something on the order of 22 minutes of it: Reno in 2011 at Eastercon

Now that we've seen what works -- and the challenges of the timing delay -- I hope we'll be able to make more videos that work somewhat more smoothly in the future. Today's experiment certainly was a fun way to start!

Reno in 2011 is well represented at Eastercon LX in Bradford, England this weekend, and at Norwescon 32 in Seattle, WA, too. We hope you'll stop by our bid tables, and at our party at Norwescon if you're there.

For those like me who aren't able to be at Eastercon, Minicon (my first and forever con), Norwescon, Sakura-Con, or Swancon, we can all drop by Eastercon virtually thanks to Britfan Peter Sullivan.

ceemage will be streaming live video and audio of several program items as well as some general hang around and chat time on "LXtra" -- that's his Ustream TV channel. Specific program items and links are listed on the The Virtual Tucker Hotel LJ community or you can take your chances, come straight over to LXtra, and see who's around and chatting. There's a text chat channel that's quiet right now, but if the Corflu Zed example is anything to go by, you may well run into fans from somewhere around the globe most anytime, whether fen are awake in England or not.

Peter offered to stop by the Reno bid table and run the streaming video from there for a bit sometime this weekend. I've suggested sometime Saturday afternoon (US time) for that, though we may end up doing it Sunday instead. If it's Saturday, it will be after the Fan Funds Rock panel for sure. Should be fun. Type your questions about the bid, the upcoming vote, and Reno itself, and identify who's answering each one by their accents -- Reno reps from the UK, Holland, the US, and Canada are promoting the bid in Bradford this weekend. Four countries, no waiting. And thanks to ceemage, anyone from around the globe will be able to talk with them.

I love living in the future! It's just 12 months since Bill Mills launched the virtual consuite at Corflu Silver. He both proved the concept and helped us all learn how to use it. Last month, at Corflu Zed, jackwilliambell and Bill Burns kept the Virtual Consuite going and doubled the feeds from last year. And now ceemage has taken the technology across the Pond to share some of Eastercon with anyone who wants to stop by. Every time we do it at a convention, we learn more about how to make it work well. Friday night, Peter used the wifi connection in his mobile phone to run the LXtra channel during Greg Pickersgill's outstanding interview of Eastercon FanGoHs Bill and Mary Burns. Amazing.

I can hardly wait to see the technologies on the New Frontiers of 2011 and beyond, to see the benefits of what we can do with them.

(Me, jazzed? You bet. See you on the Funway.)

The long-awaited Hugo Awards Logo Design Contest has opened. Announcement at http://community.livejournal.com/worldcons/20532.html and elsewhere. Please pass along to anyone you think might be interested in participating.

Reno in 2011 is on the eastern edge of the US this weekend, halfway out on Long Island at Suffolk County Community College. If you're at I-Con, please stop by our bid table in the lobby of the fieldhouse/convention center on Saturday afternoon and say hi. We're next to Filthy Pierre, just to the right as you enter the lobby, before you go into the main stage/dealers room/gaming gymnasium.

If you're at Lunacon, we hope you'll come and party with the Reno in 2011 bid on Saturday night. Starting time: 9pm. We'll be on the party floor; watch for posters Saturday afternoon announcing the room number.