AussieCon 4

[Jake Stormoen]

Hey, just a quick question for anyone who might be able to answer...I figure maybe instead of waiting and getting it at the door, I should probably be safe and purchase the membership for the con online...went to do it just now, by default it goes to PayPal (which I don't have), and wouldn't load when I went to just "pay by card." From the past, is paying at the door bad? Are there extremely limited spots, cash only...basically any conditions I need to be aware of? Sorry for the amateur question! Thanks very much!

[Jake Stormoen]

...from the con website:

"Memberships now available online or at the door only. At the door cash, Visa, MasterCard and EFTPOS will be accepted.

All credit card charges will be processed in Australian dollars."

^ I'm an idiot. Ignore my last post, and know that I'm not that stupid normally, I swear it. Can't wait to meet you all! Safe travels and see you in a couple days! :)

[Stubby]

Made it! Bit later than we expected but we got here.

Anyone wants to catch up tomorrow give me a call after 8 local.

Cheers!

[theMountainGoat]

Stubby - I sent you a text at 7 am. Hope it did not wake you. Malt and I are sitting in the Business Centre of the Crowne Hotel, come and find us if you're staying here or send me a text and we'll meet up.

[Maltaran]

Maltaran finally arrived here about 2 hours ago. His phone won't connect to a network here

Yes, my Iphone seems to have turned into an Ipod touch for the moment.

[Ski the Swift]

In the words of Big Kev:

I'm EXCITED!!!!

[Kat]

You can recognise BWB members by the pin badge with the purple BWB banner logo on it, at least up until Friday night when we will be giving out pin badges to the first hundred or so people to visit our party. Make sure you get your badge from us when you arrive.

I would try to get there as early as possible and help out with the setup because Stubby only ordered 40 badges so that's how many I made. Very Limited Edition, get them while you can. And it's incentive to help set up. (I probably should have made more....40 did not seem like enough considering last two years I made about 150.)

[stormborne]

flying in early tomorrow! me and christine are staying in a hostel in st kilda...if anyone else is?

sir m goat- ta for the pics of the meeting joint! nicely scoped out

now to hope that these program changes arent too foul....it was bad enough deciding on what to see based on the current program....

excited to meet you all in the next coming days :D if i dont manage to score a badge.....it may just be me i a lannister jumper :D

[Jebus]

Looks like I'm getting a full membership from a late US withdrawal but will probably only be there on Friday and Saturday with a possible Sunday appearance - just can't get too much time off work.

Forgive this n00b's ignorance but what's this with the badges? Is that needed to get into the parties?

Oh and anyone staying at Crowne or Enterprize, there's a bottle shop on the corner of Flinders and Spencer under the large curved apartment block, right under the rail bridge. You know, just in case a spot of grog takes your fancy and you don't want to buy at bar prices.

Also for nice places to go out for a drink (and they usually have good meals):

Young & Jacksons - corner of Flinders & Swanston, old school pub that gets exceedingly busy of a Fri and Sat night or whenever the footy is on. Don't ignore the upstairs bars.

Enterprize - there's a backpackers bar below this (or a couple doors down, pretty much on the corner next to 7/11) that has cheap grog and a nice atmosphere.

There are plenty of bars in and around Crown Casino / Southbank, I personally recommend Bear Brass which is closer to the Swanston St bridge near the Langham hotel, opposite Flinders Station.

Federation Square has a couple nice bars, there's the larger Transport or if you walk up the hill to the back there's a Beer Deluxe, you can head down the stairs to the left of Beer Deluxe for another section of the bar downstairs with more tables under cover. The other thing to note is if you head down past Transport towards the river there are a half dozen bars along the river's edge that are very nice, especially on a warm day (so not likely at the moment though we hit 19 yesterday!).

Ummm, there're plenty of other places I can recommend in the CBD like Cookie, Toff In Town, Hairy Canary, Cherry Bar or the Gin Palace, look up any of those on melbournepubs.com.au and you'll be set.

Anyway, just some ideas for the BWB peeps.

Also, there is a massive band of rain coming in so bring your wet weather gear as it is likely to be a very stormy and wet weekend, yesterday was an aberration.

[ithanos]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BWB MEMBERS ATTENDING WORLDCON 2010

In Denver we had the Big Blue Bear's Crotch, in Montreal we had That Seating Area Downstairs. Not sure what we will call this place in Melbourne but check the picture in my Melbourne photo Gallery for a pretty good spot I found. It is at the bottom of the main staircase, just to the right hand side and has seating and tables on both sides of the narrow area. I took

, just to make sure everyone can find it.

This will be the place where the BWB will meet for any group activities that we have planned and will also be where we can hang out in between panels. Any time you have nothing to do and nobody else is around you can go to the meeting point and you might find somebody there. This is by no means an exclusive BWB place so other convention users can and will be sitting there sometimes. You can recognise BWB members by the pin badge with the purple BWB banner logo on it, at least up until Friday night when we will be giving out pin badges to the first hundred or so people to visit our party. Make sure you get your badge from us when you arrive.

How about naming it the Manger (need some hay maybe) or the Grotto or perhaps The People Under the Stairs (which could only be true if there are). Dammit! why am I still at work?

Jebus, Any notable watering spots South of the Yarra?

[Ski the Swift]

I agree with Young & Jacksons. Been there before, the service and food was excellent.

[theMountainGoat]

So, Maltaran, Stubby, Laoise and myself just got back from having a coffee with George and Parris. It was just us chatting for a couple of hours and making plans for the next few days.

In light of new information the meeting point will have to be moved. It seems we are in fact not using the massive long Convention Centre at all, the convention will be held in a smaller building further down and off to the right where there is currently a United Nations convention on today which actually complicates things about a hundred times more since there is a security checkpoint currently in place which will be there through tomorrow when the convention needs setting up.

Therefore I am not sure where we will meet anymore, will hopefully let you know tomorrow. For anyone who is arriving tomorrow and is willing and able to, your help would be greatly appreciated. Usually Worldcon has several days to set up before things begin but this year it looks really bad and we will have only a matter of hours. Please please get in touch with Stubby when you arrive and come down and help if you can, PM Stubby to obtain his phone number if you have not done so already. This will ensure that you get a BWB badge - and no you don't need a badge to get into the party, its just a cool thing to have which identifies us to each other and since they are such limited editions this year they will only be going to the special people.

Speaking of limited edition things there will be some very special extremely limited edition things for sale at the BWB party which I cannot tell you about right now but they are extremely cool and you will definitely want one.

One of the few things I can tell you about from the last couple of hours is that we told George and Parris about something that has happened to Ser Camaris this week. He had some surgery about a month ago and has been working hard picking up things for us for the party and he has actually opened the wound up again. He went into surgery today and this morning we were frantically trying to get hold of him because we wanted to meet and start getting things organised here, but of course he needs a couple of days rest, but we can wait till Friday to get that stuff from him it's not a problem.

So in the middle of us sitting there having coffee and chatting away, Ser Camaris phones Stubby to let him know what's going on and Stubby passes the phone to George. I think we just made his day, I think the poor guy might have been in danger of rupturing his stitches again!

Take care of yourself Ser Camaris and we will see you on Thursday or Friday. If necessary we will find a way to drive out to your place to pick the stuff up. Seriously your health comes first bro so take it easy.

We did go out shopping today and picked up some supplies for the party, we found the totally awesome shop Minotaur by accident which I just now read that Jebus mentioned on my LJ earlier today. We very nearly lost the entire day in that place and had to force ourselves to leave. We had lunch in The Pancake Parlour, so nice. We also found the Bottle Shop on the corner of Flinders and Spencer that was mentioned up thread and this is where we will be buying all the drinks for the parties.

So as you can see things are progressing, if not quite in the direction we had at first imagined, then at least in a chaotic fun direction that will keep us on our toes for the next couple of days.

[Horza]

Yikes.

I'll be in at 2:15 and should be available for whatever needs doing by 4.

[Paxter]

Sorry to hear about Ser Cam after all the effort he's put in to help organise the BwB events :worried:.

And yeah, I'll definitely help set-up tomorrow - I can easily put my MCG tour plans on the back burner for now.

[Neal]

I should be at Crowne about 3pm tomorrow and happy to help out.

Getting really pumped, I'm now off work for four weeks and couldn't imagine a better start to my holiday. Looking forward to meeting everyone :)

[Twinheart]

Another relative newbie (or a newbie to this place, anyway) popping in to say hello, and also yaaaaaay, how exciting!

I've read the books a good five or six times each and have lurked around the forums a little, but haven't posted much at all. I'm a Melbourne girl, so I'm happy to answer any questions (especially concerning nice places for a drink - Section 8, Madam Brussels, The Red Hummingbird and the Croft Institute are all worth checking out!)

Er, I think I'm registered with the BWB site - we can just rock up to the party, then? Alas, I will probably just go with a day pass for the Saturday - did I read that we won't be let in to some of the panels/talks/signings if we just have a day pass?

Sorry for the (I'm sure vastly annoying) questions!

Hope that everyone has a splendid time in Melbourne and hope to meet some of you soon!

[arantius]

So, Maltaran, Stubby, Laoise and myself just got back from having a coffee with George and Parris.

So casual MG!

I am so excited. Just trailed through some other threads, is the famed Pod really going to be there??? This trip's getting better all the time and I haven't even left Sydney yet!

[Stubby]

snip

You will be able to attend all the events on the day you have registered for. Your purchase of a day pass for the con entitles you to attend the BwB party only on the day of your attending membership.

Make sure you bring your con badge to the party though - or you will not get in.

[theMountainGoat]

My Australia Day 7 report is now up on my Livejournal. This details what I got up to on Sunday, the second day of my Grampian Mountains and Great Ocean Road Safari. I have not finished writing up Monday and have not even started on today yet - I'm falling behind and the con has not even started yet!

Hopefully I will be able to get back on track. Anyway for now, enjoy.

[Ski the Swift]

About to leave for the airport. See you all soon! :thumbsup: