Welcome to the first of a series of Conversations with the Chair. I’m Caroline Mullan, and I’m Chair of Conversation, a bid for the 2023 Eastercon. We have a strong bid committee, with experience from across the landscape of British conventions, with whom I’m excited to be bidding. If you were at Novacon, I hope you’ll have seen us and our business cards (featuring artwork by Sue Mason depicting a fantastic conversation). Everyone who has had the opportunity to get to a convention in person this year has really enjoyed seeing their SF friends again.
Novacon was particularly difficult for me, because I was getting over what I thought was a cold but turned out – despite multiple negative tests – to be Covid-19. Several other Novacon attendees also caught Covid, despite committee and members’ best efforts to keep everyone safe. This experience reinforces our view that we need to plan to have conventions with both in-person and virtual elements for some time to come. We want you to be able to choose how to continue your own Eastercon conversations.
We hope to blog/email regularly, with contributions from the rest of the bid committee as well as me. We hope that you will use the facilities on our website, Facebook and Twitter pages to see who we are, check in with us from time to time, and keep up with the Conversation.
I think it is wise to consider both in-person and virtual conventions. Certainly the Winnipeg bid for a Worldcon in 2023 is making that a specific part of their planning. I do hope that there will be a chance for more in-person interactions but I also want everyone to be able to access the company of other fans in whatever way possible.
I am happy to help in any way that I can.
Thanks, Robbie – that’s great to know! We’ll be in touch shortly.