9 thoughts on “Boston Looks at 2021Worldcon Bid”

1. Clicky.

2. Being from suburban Boston, it’d be nice to see one more Worldcon before downtown is flooded later in the decade. Maybe I’ll go to this one, because I missed Noreascon 3.

3. Will they have enough hotel space by 2021? The hotel situation in Boston is sub optimal right now.

4. There’s both construction and renovation planned. Hotel space should not be an issue by 2021.

5. Interesting. Good luck to them.

6. I’ll be interested to see what facilities they decide on. The waterfront location that Boskone and Arisia have been using won’t be as horrible in August, or on Labor Day weekend, as it is in January and February, but it’s still not a place I would want to put several thousand fans for five days, due to the general scarcity of amenities in the immediately surrounding area.. If they can manage to get the Hynes Convention Center and surrounding hotel space, this is a bid I would support. Anywhere else in Boston I would be highly skeptical of.

7. I’m not part of any facilities consideration at this point. However, for deeper-pocket events, the BCEC (near the hotel Boskone and Arisia use) is,considered more desirable. That’s likely to make the Hynes and associated Boston Sheraton space, site of N3 and N4, more available.

   Let me repeat that no one is talking to me about facility selection issues, so I really know only my own observations.

8. Expanding Lis’s comments, as someone who also isn’t doing facilities search but who has done space planning for four Worldcons (including the last one in Boston): the Hynes/Sheraton combination has more than enough space for the public parts of a Worldcon (and if your last Boston Worldcon was in 1980, the Hynes was completely rebuilt since then), and there are about twice as many rooms as current Worldcons need within about a quarter of a mile. The BCEC (new convention center near the harbor) is much larger but has fewer hotel rooms nearby; I suspect that’s what @ultragotha is referring to. There are lots of hotel plans for this area, and I keep seeing reviews of nearby restaurants (at various price levels) that I may actually try if El Nino continues the current mild temperatures (high today ~60F) through Arisia and/or Boskone.

9. For more information, the FAQ we provided to Smofcon33 is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B53JMYb89Y6ORXZTVHhfdmxKWnM/view?usp=sharing

   But, in specific what we said about facilities and dining follows.

   There are two convention centers: the Hynes Convention Center (where Noreascons 2, 3, and 4 were
   held) and the newer Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC). They both have advantages and
   disadvantages. We will be looking at both for availability, rates, rates at surrounding hotels, and which
   would provide for the best Worldcon in Boston.

   also

   There are a variety of major hotels with more than enough rooms including Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton,
   and Westin. Which hotels we use will depend in part on which convention center we use and which
   hotels give us the best rates and contracts. More details will be forthcoming.

   and

   The restaurant scene in Boston including near the two convention centers is great. There are a large
   number of restaurants of all types within walking distance of both convention centers. There are about
   150 restaurants mentioned in the 2015 Arisia / Boskone Restaurant Guide (both are held at the Westin
   Boston Waterfront, which is attached to the BCEC):
   http://www.arisia.org/sites/default/files/A15_RestGuide_FinalSpreads01.pdf. A similar or even higher
   number of restaurants can be found near the Hynes.

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