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Worldcon 2020: Wellington New Zealand


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It looks like that converts to about US $200 so yeah, that does seem high.  All the conferences I know of for this spring - law and architecture related ones - moved their in-person conferences to online ones and are offering them at lower prices than their in-person rates were.  And then consider Worldcon for next year is currently selling their attending membership at US $155.  It would seem they might be better off if they offered this year for attending at around US $100 this year and then hopefully the low price lures more people in then offering at the higher price and not selling so many memberships.

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I already have a supporting membership, which I bought early, since I didn't expect to attend. I will decide about upgrading to an attending membership -- which will probably cost about US $135, though they haven't announced the upgrade price yet -- after they provide more information about participants and event times.

My gut feeling is that doing this virtually does provide a chance for many non-NZ folks to participate without the expense of travel, but the timezone difference may make that opportunity moot for those that have day jobs or other scheduling issues. I have already seen one major AU editor -- Jonathan Strahan -- state that he will not be able to participate for those exact reasons.

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I'm curious as to what that much money is needed for. No venue hire, no airfares or accommodation for guests... Are they stuck with still having to pay for stuff they're not going to be able to use?

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13 hours ago, felice said:

I'm curious as to what that much money is needed for. No venue hire, no airfares or accommodation for guests... Are they stuck with still having to pay for stuff they're not going to be able to use?

I'd image they will have spent a lot of the money already on venue hire, airfares and accommodations.  If the event cancelled before the venue / hotel / airlines then they will have lost everything they have paid so far, and maybe some more they have agreed to pay.

airlines are notorious not refunding people but offering vouchers for suture travel even when they cancel on you.

 

they probably also have spent a lot on equipment hire as well.

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On 4/17/2020 at 3:13 AM, lady narcissa said:

It looks like that converts to about US $200 so yeah, that does seem high.  All the conferences I know of for this spring - law and architecture related ones - moved their in-person conferences to online ones and are offering them at lower prices than their in-person rates were.  And then consider Worldcon for next year is currently selling their attending membership at US $155.  It would seem they might be better off if they offered this year for attending at around US $100 this year and then hopefully the low price lures more people in then offering at the higher price and not selling so many memberships.

I think the new price might have been chosen based on how much they want to refund on the existing memberships - they are offering refunds down to the virtual membership price so if they made that lower they would have to refund more.

10 hours ago, Pebble thats Stubby said:

I'd image they will have spent a lot of the money already on venue hire, airfares and accommodations.  If the event cancelled before the venue / hotel / airlines then they will have lost everything they have paid so far, and maybe some more they have agreed to pay.

airlines are notorious not refunding people but offering vouchers for suture travel even when they cancel on you.

they probably also have spent a lot on equipment hire as well.

I would think a lot of the big costs would probably already have been spent or committed to.

I saw they were asking that people consider not even asking for the refunds for the difference between the original and virtual prices, so I think they must be worried about losing money.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/2/2020 at 10:14 PM, Padraig said:

I already had an attending membership, so i'll keep it.  They deserve it.  But yes, not sure how much of it i'll actually see given the time difference.

I decided before the crisis that I'm not going for fridays for future reasons but I'm keeping it too. Lets see how it works out. Maybe it is nice. As I work shift it is no biggie for me to shift my sleep shedule. Edit: I will just tell people that I have a week of night shift :p

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  • 4 weeks later...

The membership is a bit pricey, but I think I'll support and attend. As to the time zone difference, I could just take a few days of vacation and become a night owl for the con. :P I just hope everything works fine, and the technology is suitable on my own end.

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/26/2020 at 9:21 AM, Corvinus85 said:

The membership is a bit pricey, but I think I'll support and attend. As to the time zone difference, I could just take a few days of vacation and become a night owl for the con. :P I just hope everything works fine, and the technology is suitable on my own end.

Yeah. I figured, well, I was going to take a three week vacation, so I guess now it'll just be one week, and shift my daily routine to NZ time. Hubs and I are making it a bit of a let's-learn-more-about-New-Zealand-staycation.

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