ffutures | Back from Nine Worlds

Nine Worlds was good fun if somewhat chaotic. Some persistent problems - a lot of the rooms were too small and/or had too few chairs for the number of people wanting to see program items, the programme book was a nightmare to use, and there seemed to be no mechanism in place for alerting people if programme items changed or were cancelled, though I'm not sure that actually happened. The split of programme between the two sites meant that gamers might as well have been at a separate con, or couldn't do much gaming - I managed to get to precisely one games-related item. On the other hand I did attend and participate in a couple of fanfic-related items, some excellent science and SF talks, etc. etc. It was a pretty good convention, if somewhat expensive, and if it wasn't a week before the Worldcon next year I might think about going again. As it is I really afford it or face the idea of spending 7 days out of eleven at big intensively-programmed cons, possibly more if there is Thursday programme at the Worldcon, especially since I've been thinking about going to the Eurocon (relatively low-key) in Dublin the week after the worldcon, and possibly combining it with a short holiday in Ireland.