tiredOnce up on three, we made the rounds of the parties there. Stopping at the Burning Fan/Las Vegas in '08 Westercon party, we were treated to an impressive display of photographs of the inside of the proposed facility. The rooms are not cheap, but they are very nice looking.
Then it was Gnomeward Bound/Westercon 60, next year's Westercon. Their web site has not been updated, but they were announcing here that they've changed hotels (to the San Mateo Marriott) and dates (to the weekend before Independence Day instead of after as originally announced.
Next we sampled the Arizona in '08 Westercon bid, and I was asked to tell the story of the I-95 in '95 NASFiC bid as part of a discussion of how site selection rules work. I always enjoy telling this story, so that held us up for a while.
By then we were wearing out, and even though it was before midnight, we decided to turn in, because we need to be up early tomorrow, since my first panel is at 10, followed by the Business Meeting at noon and another panel at 2. We did briefly stop and say "hi" to the Columbus Worldcon Bid, but then it up the stairs and home.
I'm pretty sure I've left off several parties from this list, but I wasn't taking notes, and apologize for anyone I've neglected. No offense is intended. I made no relative grading of parties here. Most of the rooms here are a little small, so those groups who could took a connecting pair, or in the case of Westercon 60, rented the one available large suite, and that helped. Much of what parties serve I shouldn't be eating, so it's mostly a few small munchies and a Diet Coke for me, but I'm not complaining. I know how much work these parties are to organize, and my hat's off to everyone for the work they did.
And my apologies to the Hollister party for not being available when you needed boon work.
Update, 5 July: Fixed dates in bids.
