2020 Vision

New Zealand is the owner of a shiny new Worldcon bid for 2020 because a bunch of fans made it rain $20 bills during their national convention last weekend.

Cheryl Morgan reported the news a few days ago:

So, the assembled overseas visitors enjoyed themselves so much at Au Contraire that they threw $20 bills at Norman Cates and encouraged him to bid for a Worldcon. It is all Sean Williams’ fault. He started it.

Cates is a well-known international fan and was the 2004 DUFF delegate.

This bid already has a logo, a website and a Facebook page. The Facebook page displays a photo of Norman Cates with his hands wrapped around Sean Williams’ throat, captioned “Norman Cates thanks Sean Williams for pushing him to run the bid…” Good faanish fun? At least ‘til Sean’s oxygen runs out.

It’s interesting to see lightning striking a second time. Ever since this year’s Worldcon chair Stephen Boucher yielded to a shower of $20 bills people have kept trying. The oddest variation happened this year at NASFiC where Chris Garcia started collecting $20 bills on behalf of the absent Christian McGuire (chair of the last Anaheim Worldcon) without McGuire’s knowledge or consent. The rumor haunted McGuire for weeks afterwards despite his vehement denials.

Unlikely as it is that someone already at Aussiecon 4 needs to get this information from my blog, I will go ahead and mention there is a New Zealand bid table at AussieCon 4 in room 201.

Bidding for Worldcons is the fun part, and with site selection years away New Zealand fans have plenty of time to decide if they want to do the other part. And why not?

[Thanks to James Bacon for clueing me into the story. Editors of other blogs faunching after the credit you deserve for pubbing this news before me should add a comment–because it’ll be cool to have a post with 238 comments.]

2 thoughts on “2020 Vision

  1. Well, I accepted a check, not a bill, but still…

    And no one mentioned Boston’s bid for 2015?
    Chris

  2. And I applaud Christian for playing along with this charade so long. His dedication to the bit is remarkable.

    Pretending that he’s not bidding for 2015… How ridiculous!
    Chris

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