Discover Columbus in 2007

Many LFS members remember how much fun it was to attend LFScon in 2000--and how exciting and inspiring it was to receive respect from a much wider group of sf fans. Because we held our first convention within a much larger convention--Columbus' MarCon, which attracts 2,000 to 3,000 people annually--many other fans attended various LFScon panel discussions, while about 1,400 MarCon registrants witnessed our Prometheus Awards ceremony during half-time of the Saturday night Masquerade.

Now imagine an LFScon II with the same friendly audience and the same respectful support, but with two or three times as many people attending the weekend, now elevated to WorldCon status.

That is the exciting possibility that the LFS faces in 2007.

Columbus, Ohio, is making its first WorldCon bid--for the 65th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held over Labor Day weekend in 2007.

The core of the people behind this bid: the nice folks who have organized the annual MarCon for almost four decades and who hosted our own LFScon in 2000 with such success. Kim Williams, the chair of the 2000 MarCon and one of many leaders who made the LFS feel so welcome, is chairing the "Discover Columbus in 2007" bid committee.

My impression is that the Columbus/MarCon folk behind the "Discover Columbus in 2007" bid are eager to host another LFScon--and would have more means to do so if they win the 2007 bid. In fact, if Columbus wins for 2007, there may be greater opportunities for LFS outreach than we've ever achieved at a WorldCon--not to mention some preliminary and very unofficial discussions among some MarCon leaders about inviting a certain Scottish author who has won more than one Prometheus Award to fly across the Atlantic as one of the 2007 WorldCon guests of honor.

For those who attended LFScon in 2000, the Columbus WorldCon would be held in the same comfortable, well-organized location but filling up more of the Columbus Convention Center and Hyatt Regency Hotel. (And since 2000, several smaller budget-chain hotels have opened up within a block of the convention center, making a trip there more affordable.)

The only other 2007 WorldCon bid comes from Tokyo, Japan--Japan's first WorldCon bid and one of the few that come occasionally from outside North America. (With the 2005 WorldCon to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, supporters of the Columbus bid are hoping that the mostly North American voting WorldCon members will prefer to stay on their own continent in 2007.)

So WorldCon voting for the 2007 WorldCon site is of much greater interest and significance to the Libertarian Futurist Society this year. Thus, I am asking all LFS members to support and vote for the Columbus bid.

To vote for the "Discover Columbus" 2007 bid, all you have to do is visit http://www.boston2004.com and sign up to become a supporting (but not necessarily attending) 2004 WorldCon member. You must sign up and vote before August 1. For more information about the Discover Columbus bid, visit http://www.bidcolumbus.org.