"You Don’t Go to the Convention as a Customer"
Here is someone who really gets what Worldcon is about. Besides the headline above, her other key takeaway, to me, is her closing line (not surprising; she's a trained journalist):
My only regret is that it was my first Worldcon. I should have done this way earlier in my life.
I've been saying things like this for years. The biggest problem with have with "selling" Worldcon to people is getting them to attend the first one. Once you've been to one, if it clicks (and to be honest, it doesn't always do so), you're hooked and will go to any future Worldcon you can practically attend.
If there was a practical way to give a "first time attendee" discount, I'd do it in a flash. Otherwise, we need to bottle stories like this to show people what a Worldcon can be like. Of course, it helps that the 2014 Worldcon was very well programmed, and despite the critical shortage of volunteers (the shortage of which may have been somewhat self-inflicted due to left and right hands not talking to each other), the convention was an excellent experience.
Current Mood: 
happy 
