Over long easter weekend I attended the 45th National Science Fiction Convention. Overall, I was quite impressed by the con, but there were still a few annoyances, otherwise I wouldn’t be blogging..

Most of the panels were excellent value, with lots of industry people spilling the beans. Kim Wilkins, Aussie horror author, was just divine; I’m thinking of reading some of her stuff based solely on her stage presence.

It was a tad disapointing when panel chairs didn’t show up, but the panelists usually went on to give great sessions. What was more annoying was a biased chair: Cory Doctorow of boingboing fame chairing a copyleft vs copyright panel was never going to give both sides a fair hearing.

The “what’s new in science this year” seminar was let down by a lot of time being spent on intelligent design.

There’s a large intersection of geekdom between the science fiction world and the OSS world. The obvious difference though is the gender balance, something like 60/40 towards women. I might start writing more.

The funniest session was actually sponsored by my current employer, readings of old work by Aussie authors that are now stored in the Fryer Library.

I met a lot of interesting people (and a cute one too) and just generally had a good time. Thanks to Felicity for dragging me to the masquerade ball, which was good fun.