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WorldCon Helsinki 2017 - Attendance list p1!


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OK! Helsinki WorldCon is just under a year away. Here's your thread to start planning in earnest. :)

Here's the official convention website: http://www.worldcon.fi/

 

Attendance list

Narcissa
Pebble
Peadar (Tues-Sun, Sokos Pasila)
Mormont (Tues-Sun, Sokos Pasila)
Werthead (Wed-Mon)
Samantha
williamjm (Thurs-Thurs, Hotelli Cumulus)
Alytha (Weds-Mon, Scandic Simonketta)
Luga
Malt & Denvek (Tues-Wed, Hotel Arthur)
TitanCat & Man Cat (Tues-Mon)
Little Miss S. & All Men M.R. (Mon-Sun)
Theda (Tues-Mon)
Wolfgang
Tenalpia (Mon-Mon, SATO HotelHome Kristianinkatu)
Fillippa (Wed-Mon, Scandic Simonketta)
john (Wed-Mon, Scandic Simonketta)
Buckwheat (Mon-Mon)
Fragile Bird (Mon-Sun)
Kissed by Fire
Toft (Wed-Tues)
Cuellar (Thurs-Sun)
Lil Red Head
Adz (Tues-Mon)
draft0
Pod
Ran
Linda
Targh
Johan
Jo
Caryn Stark
The_Geekling

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Wooo hoo!  I am intending to go assuming nothing comes up that prevents this from happening.  There are direct flights from Chicago to Helsinki which make this more feasible.

I am curious about the hotel situation, however.  Only one hotel next to the convention center and they mention other hotels 22 minutes away which seems pretty far and spread out.  We shall see when they actually announce them and we can plot it all out on a map.

 

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2 hours ago, lady narcissa said:

I am curious about the hotel situation, however.  Only one hotel next to the convention center and they mention other hotels 22 minutes away which seems pretty far and spread out. 

They say:
"We have preliminary contracts with two large hotel chains in Finland, and have in total of 1400 rooms reserved. These include all the 244 rooms in Holiday Inn Messu­keskus, which is attached to the con site and has some easy access rooms. The door to door travel time from the farthest of our hotels to con site is 22 minutes."

So it's only one hotel that's 22 minutes away. (I'm assuming that's by public transit, since they make a point of saying that there will be a free travel pass for all members, courtesy of the City of Helsinki. But they don't indicate if that time estimate includes waiting for transit to arrive, which is a tad misleading.

I would expect the remainder of the hotels to be a bit closer, but still likely to be dependent on transit. Those with accessibility issues will have to look closely at which transit lines are needed to reach the various hotels. The local transit system only allows mobility scooters on the Metro, commuter trains, and a ferry, but not on buses and trams. (Wheelchairs, both electric and manual, are OK on all lines.)

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When the room blocks go up in September, pay close attention to any requirements for each hotel. During the Fannish Inquisition, the convention co-chair mentioned that the hotel closest to the venue would be reserved for those with mobility issues. As such, you may not be able to book that hotel yourself.

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Also plan on attending. :D Just need to decide whether I'm going to WC and then go ambling about to Russia and whathaveyou, or go ambling, do WC and then go home. Decisions, decisions. Does anybody else have any plans on that front?

 

9 hours ago, Pebbles said:

I think there is a half plan to rent out a couple of places and have a whole bunch of us there, like we did for Archipelicon.  But I'm not sure if anyone has found anywhere yet.

 

Targh was looking way back when and did seem to have found a few places; averaging, iirc about 150Euros for a week, but nothing is set in stone.

 

 

 

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59 minutes ago, SamanthaofHodorsfield said:

Also plan on attending. :D Just need to decide whether I'm going to WC and then go ambling about to Russia and whathaveyou, or go ambling, do WC and then go home. Decisions, decisions. Does anybody else have any plans on that front?

I have a membership but other than that no real plans, although I'm also considering maybe visiting somewhere in the vicinity either before or after. It seems easier for me to fly to Tallinn rather than Helsinki (since there are flights from Stansted) and it's apparently only a couple of hours from Helsinki by ferry so possibly I might go via there in one direction.

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17 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

When the room blocks go up in September, pay close attention to any requirements for each hotel. During the Fannish Inquisition, the convention co-chair mentioned that the hotel closest to the venue would be reserved for those with mobility issues. As such, you may not be able to book that hotel yourself.

Did they really say the blocks will be up in September? That's would be remarkably early -- most Worldcons don't have them ready till mid-Winter.
 

The hotel closest to the venue is relatively small -- it's a Holiday Inn, and has 244 rooms out of the 1400 total they plan to make available. According to the con web site, it only has some easy access rooms, but it is attached to the convention center and is thus definitely a choice location. One suspects that non-accessible rooms there will go to the Guests of Honor and top-level convention staff, and only the remainder will be available for attendees in general.

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18 hours ago, williamjm said:

I have a membership but other than that no real plans, although I'm also considering maybe visiting somewhere in the vicinity either before or after. It seems easier for me to fly to Tallinn rather than Helsinki (since there are flights from Stansted) and it's apparently only a couple of hours from Helsinki by ferry so possibly I might go via there in one direction.

I had planned to go to Talinn and/or Riga as well. Probably do need to decide which, as that could affect which way I go, as I hadn't thought of flying direct into Talinn and then going to Russia from there. Or vice versa, do Russia, rock into Talinn and then get the ferry into Helsinki. Pfft I dunno. lol

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Mentioned on the other thread I've booked my flights. Doing Moscow for 3 days, St Pete for 3 days, then Helsinki during the con for 4 days. 

I think the con party situation is going to be rough since most people will not be nearby, and the parties are out at the convention center.  Tons of bars downtown, so not sure if I'll waste time going up there.  

There are some pretty decent airbnbs out there, and I assume more places will post their availability as we get closer (3-6 mo out).  Going to see what the hotel room rates are, and which hotels.  Hotel Kemp seems to have good ratings (expensive), so may opt to stay there if there is a good rate.  Otherwise I'm all for staying at an airbnb.   Seems like all the bars and sights to see are right at the main rail station area, so seems like that area is the best to stay in. 

There's some not-serious discussion on facebook to rent out an airbnb boat thing... which I'd consider doing if people were up for it. Also some badass houses available a good 30 minutes out of town.  Not sure if it'd be worth it since I'm only in Helsinki 4 days...

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On 8/30/2016 at 0:48 AM, DaveAx said:

Did they really say the blocks will be up in September? That's would be remarkably early -- most Worldcons don't have them ready till mid-Winter.

It was right before I had my own Fannish Inquisition, so I don't remember exactly. All I remember is that 1) I was impressed that the con com specifically said that rooms in that hotel were reserved for those with mobility issues (something that other conventions should consider in the future when possible), and 2) something is happening in September. So, maybe hotels don't open until January 2 or something...

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I'll be there!

 

Going to be travelling around Scandinavia with my BF for a bit either before or after.

If anyone's looking into renting a place for a bunch of people, I'd be up for that! :)

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An interesting tidbit from their website:
"Members who join before January of 2017 may nominate for the Hugo Awards, whether they are attending or supporting members. "

I'm not an expert on Hugo voting rules (nor do I play one on TV), but this looks very early to me. It will certainly prevent those who don't join until after nominations open up from having any effect on who gets on the ballot.

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