This is my first worldcon and it is happening virtually. They’ve made a point of reminding me that this is virtual and why–snatching from me the illusion that this was a purposeful exchange. No, we are forced into the virtual realms and in spite of that we are going full steam into this new adventure.
I’m involved with a conference in AZ that has been forced to go virtual. Worldcon is my chance to explore how such things can be done effectively, and thus far it has been a solid experience. The idea of a virtual conference is antithetical to the community driven idea of the conference which has existed thus far. Worldcon lives in part on Discord while the population I deal with hasn’t evolved beyond facebook. There is no real choice to ‘move past that population’. In truth, I would not even want to. We serve that population and while I would like to serve more, I don’t want to leave anyone behind in the process.
We are building a virtual con designed to reach all populations–a difficult task to be sure–and to get folks writing. I am excited about this opportunity and looking forward to creating something that builds off of what I am learning here.
Some Thoughts:
- School might not start when it is supposed to. This Covid thing is not going away, largely because we will not let it.