By Daniel Dern: The opening press conference was great! Chair James Bacon, and guests Diane Duane, Ginjer Buchanan, Ian McDonald, Mary Burns, Bill Burns were introduced.

Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any video — neither official nor any of us press folks. .(I’m sure that if we pressers had known/noticed there was no official videographer, we’d have held our phones etc. aloft throughout. Note to ConNZealand etc, these events are worth videoing.)

Happily, Chris Garcia has audio of the event, posted to his Journey Planet site “Dublin 2019: The Press Conference”. 

Diane Duane and Ian McDonald expressed their joy at a Worldcon they could take their local bus (or other public transit) to.

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The panelists talked about the importance of Ireland’s first Worldcon. Other topics included ‘how I got started in fandom,’ ‘Worldcons I’ve been to,’ and a few ‘worst con stories,’ like which was the con where the hotel fell into the sea.

With centuries of fannish history at the table, lots of great stories!

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