DC Bids for 2017

The DC17 Worldcon bid for Washington, D.C. was unveiled at Smofcon in Toronto on December 7.

Michael Nelson and Warren Buff are co-chairs. The bid’s website lists 39 committee members, including five past Worldcon chairs and a Hugo-winning faned (Chris Garcia).

They propose to hold the con August 16-20, 2017 in a single facility, the Marriott Wardman Park, offering rooms at $149/night. This was, in a technical sense, the site of the 1974 Worldcon, Discon II – except that construction began in 1977 on a modern replacement hotel, immediately adjacent on the property. When it opened in 1980, the original building was closed and demolished.

The bid is also negotiating to use the Omni Shoreham, across the street, as an overflow hotel.

Bidders chose Washington, D.C. as the proposed host city after canvassing several eastern cities.

Warren Buff outlined the search process for File 770 —

We did serious research on a dozen possible cities, and wound up approaching DC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Charlotte, which I suppose is really more aptly called a Mid-Atlantic spread than a Northeastern one.  We waffled until rather late on whether to contact Providence or not, but ultimately ruled it out.  The bid really originates in two independent efforts — I was working on a group thinking regionally, while BWAWA had started looking into whether or not to bid (since the Marriott to go with the new convention center was finally under construction — though we wound up going with a different site in DC).  We encountered each other in May, and agreed to an alliance, which has ultimately led to a bid with a large regional membership organized under BWAWA.