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Chicon 7 Aug. 30-sept. 4 2012


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I just checked it is $50.00 per night to park at the Hyatt. I think I just confirmed that I am now definitely flying to Chicago. Anyone know if there is a shuttle from O'Hare to the hotel?

Scot, I promise I will do a post with everything you need to know about Chicago...including parking and transportation to and from the airports and even which airport it is best to fly into, etc. But I will planning on holding off on this for a few months because I didn't think people would be thinking in such detail so soon. However, I can start doing this post this weekend if people would find it useful at this early stage.

There is no free shuttle between this Hyatt and O'Hare or Midway airports (like there was in Reno). Just fyi, its about a 30 to 90 minute drive from the hotel to O'Hare depending on traffic...O'Hare is well the hell out there. Midway is about a 20-30 minute drive depending on traffic. There are train w/ bus options. There is a bus that goes from the airports to hotels in the downtown area. And there are cabs.

As for parking, you might be able to pay slightly less if you park in the city owned parking garages at Grant Park but they will still probably cost you close to $40 for 24 hours with taxes.

Maybe we'll find some kind Chicago area fan or two with a car or truck who could receive packages and bring them down to the convention hotel on a couple of specific days, and those who had packages delivered could help reimburse the driver for gas/parking/time.

I live within walking distance to the con hotel so I'm willing to receive and deliver such packages. I've already volunteered to receive and hold onto the BWB decorations for the BWB party if needed.

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LN,

It's cool obviously there is no rush. I'm not unfamiliar with Chicago. My Dad lived there for 6 years. He had a place in Downer's Grove then Bartlett. I've been trying to talk him into kicking out his tenants for the week, but I don't think he'll be able to pull it off.

;)

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Thanks for the info, Parris! It's good to know this hotel has been used for so many Worldcons already. I hope my concerns about noise are unfounded. The last thing I want is for the BWB party to be hindered or shut down early due to noise complaints.

Also, the donations from you and GRRM for our Reno party were a huge hit, and the resulting raffle was very successful. As you can see from the Chicago locals posting up thread, the Bros would want to do whatever it took to aid with packages and the like.

Also thanks to Race for the reminder about the Hugo noms. People may also want to refer to the thread in the lit forum:

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One thing I want to bring up in this thread is that the Hugo Awards are awarded each year at Worldcon.

http://www.thehugoawards.org/i-want-to-vote/'>http://www.thehugoawards.org/i-want-to-vote/

People who were members of Renovation as well as Memebers of Chicon are eligble to nominate works for next years Hugo Awards.

I'd like to mention a few works that people who frequent this board might want to consider for nomination.

Best Novel : A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

Best Dramatic Presentaion ( Short Form ) A Game of Thrones: The Pointy End

Best Editor Long Form : Anne Groell

Best Professional Artist : John Picacio

In order to Vote you need to be a memebr of Chicon 7, but you do not need to be an attending member. You can buy a supporting membership for about $50, which gives you voting rights as well as all the goodies which include epubs of most of the nominated short works, and sometimes some of the novels.

This year 2100 votes were cast for the Hugos. Blackout won Best Novel with 374 first place votes.

The BwB can really make a difference in who wins these awards, so if you would like to have a say in where or not George finally wins "The Big One", even if you arent planning to attend consider a Supporting Membership, if you change your mind it can always be upgraded to attending. And Remember don't forget to nominate, and don't forget to vote.

I'll add that if you were a member of Renovation, attending or supporting, you do have the privilege of nominating for the final ballot in 2012, but you must be a member, attending or supporting, of ChiCon 7 to vote on the final ballot.

if interested in looking at how the nominating process and the final ballot process played out for the 2010 Hugo awards, you can download the PDF here:

http://www.renovationsf.org/downloads/2011-hugo-stats.pdf

I note that the fifth novella in the nominating phase for the 2011 awards had 43 nominating votes. The Mystery Knight received 31 nominating votes. Those small margins of nominating votes are quite clear - if you want to see stories, editors, artists, movies, tv shows or related projects you really liked get on the final ballot, you need to take the time to nominate those works/people when the nominating period takes place in the late winter/early spring. You don't have to nominate 5 works in each category. You don't have to nominate in every category - there were 833 nominating ballots in the Novel category, 510 nominating ballots cast in Long Form Dramatic Presentation were among the highest totals in the nominating phase, and there were 1006 valid nominating ballots counted.

There are many places to check out for discussions and lists of 'best of' each year, from the LOCUS magazine recommending reading list, to discussions on SF/F blogs and magazines, to threads in the literary forums right here on Westeros.

And yes, George will be eligible for Best Editor Short Form, due to the latest 2 Wild Cards books as well as the "Songs of Love & Death" anthology coming out in 2011. WILD CARDS is the longest running shared-world series in the SF genre. George has edited every single volume, whether that be a collection of stories in one volume, a 'mosiac novel' in another title, or in the solo novels written by John Jos. Miller, and other WC writers. The relevant quote from the Hugo Awards rules:

"Best Editor (Short Form): To be eligible the person must have edited at least four anthologies, collections or magazine issues devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy, at least one of which must have been published in the year of eligibility."

The rules for the Hugo awards nominating and final ballot voting process can be found at: http://www.thehugoawards.org/

a note about which category to nominate the HBO series either as a Long Form or Short Form Presentation for a specific episode:

"Serialized works:

Works such as TV series, comics and sometimes even whole novels are sometimes published in multiple parts making up a complete story arc. The individual elements of such a story arc are always eligible for their year of publication. However, voters may want to nominate a complete story arc. In such cases it is the publication date of the final installment of the series that counts for eligibility purposes.

If an individual installment of a story arc achieves a nomination on its own then the complete story arc will probably be ruled ineligible if nominated. This is because the voters have clearly indicated that the installment stands on its own as a complete work and is not part of a longer work. (The same would apply if, for example, book 1 of a trilogy were to be nominated on its own.)"

(My bolds to mark important parts of the rules for the awards that a quick glance might miss)

So if I were nominating today for next year's Hugo awards, I'd probably either concentrate on getting one or two episodes of HBO's GoT nominated, or would cover my bets by including the entire series in Long Form as well. Besides, such a pattern of votes would give the Hugo awards committee something to gnaw over for a while. ;) :laugh:

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Anyone know if there is a shuttle from O'Hare to the hotel?

You can take public transit from O'Hare -- the blue line will bring you right from the airport to a station roughly 8 blocks from the hotel. Not the fastest option, but certainly a cheap one. And I doubt you'd really need a car once you're at the hotel.

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Is this the World Con in Chicago? Or another Con, called ChiCon? I'm going to World Con next year in Chicago, still need to get my tix though..

Edit: Ok, maybe I should've read down the thread to find out.. >>>Lazy.

Soooo, yes I'm definitely going. Probably with a friend..

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Mr. X,

You can take public transit from O'Hare -- the blue line will bring you right from the airport to a station roughly 8 blocks from the hotel. Not the fastest option, but certainly a cheap one. And I doubt you'd really need a car once you're at the hotel.

Thanks. I've been to Chicago several times and never had an opportunity to ride the El before.

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Most comments I wanted to make regarding the hotel and it's locatin have been covered already. The Hyatt Regency Chicago has over 2000 sleeping rooms (if I'm remembering correctly) and is the largest Hyatt in the Continental US as the flagship property of the brand.

I live within walking distance to the con hotel so I'm willing to receive and deliver such packages. I've already volunteered to receive and hold onto the BWB decorations for the BWB party if needed.

Perhaps, as we get closer and I know more of how my weekend will shape up, we can figure some sort of "shuttle" from O'Hare from the 'burbs.

And also, let me throw this out: Consider flying to Milwaukee if you don't mind taking a train or bus to Chicago as well. Sometimes you can get cheaper airfare. Sometimes. (Or again, IF I'm available, I might be able to make a shuttle trip out of it, since I'm as close to Milwaukee as I am to Chicago.)

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I live within walking distance to the con hotel so I'm willing to receive and deliver such packages. I've already volunteered to receive and hold onto the BWB decorations for the BWB party if needed.

Thanks Lady N, as the con draws nearer, we'll talk about the arrangments to ship packages to you and how to haul all that stuff down to the convention. FYI, we (me and George) usually go into the con hotel a day or two before the convention starts. Given that George lived in Chicago for several years, we may come even earlier.

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Thanks for the info, Parris! It's good to know this hotel has been used for so many Worldcons already. I hope my concerns about noise are unfounded. The last thing I want is for the BWB party to be hindered or shut down early due to noise complaints.

Do take the time to write to the concom and ask about what they are planning to do to keep some floors 'quiet floors' here's the general contact page:

http://www.chicon.org/contact.php

Matter of fact, I'd urge everyone with such concerns for needing a quiet floor, or others, such as if designated handicapped access rooms are really modified well enough for someone with hearing loss, or need a wheel-in shower, things like that, contact the comcom. Some hotels have done a good job with remodeling or building true handicapped accessible rooms, others merely widen the door and lower the sink in the bathroom, which may not be enough to accomodate the needs of attendees. The more questions and requests the concomm gets about issues that are important to you, the more likely those needs and concerns will be met.

Last spring when I went to the on-site meeting at Reno, we didn't have a chance to look at the Atlantis hotel rooms because the hotel was fully booked. But I suspect that if the person running handicapped access for ChiCon had a sheaf of letter from members to wave at the hotel mangement, they'd get to check out the handicapped access rooms with few problems.

Letting the con com know of your needs and concerns early will give them more time to figure out solutions, and just giving them a heads up about possible problems might bring issues to light they hadn't considered yet.

Don't be shy, but do be polite, and remember we're all working towards having a great time in Chicago, and the good and hearty souls who took it upon themselves to run a WorldCon need thanks and support as well as questions and demands.

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I'm not going to remember 8 months from now when people start asking about the weather so I'm posting this now so I can come back and refer to this....yesterday and today (exactly a year before Chicon) the weather is absolutely AWFUL. Hot and humid. Basically 100 degrees with 100% humidity. You feel like you are going to melt the minute you step outside.

But by Monday it will apparently be down to 50 degrees and raining. So potentially a 50 degree spread over the course of the con weekend. This is really normal for Chicago this time of year. So basically bring everything except snow gear.

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Just fyi, its about a 30 to 90 minute drive from the hotel to O'Hare depending on traffic...O'Hare is well the hell out there. Midway is about a 20-30 minute drive depending on traffic. . . . . And there are cabs.

As for parking, you might be able to pay slightly less if you park in the city owned parking garages at Grant Park but they will still probably cost you close to $40 for 24 hours with taxes.

I wish I knew how to do the laughing emoticon. :) I'd say it's a minimum 45 min. drive from O'Hare to the hotel - and that's if you're traveling at like 6 a.m. on a Sunday. (I live in the city, 6 1/2 miles from downtown, and my driving commute to the office everyday is 40-45 minutes.)

O'Hare: If driving or cabbing, I would budget 45-60 minutes during non-peak travel times and 75-120 minutes for rush hour*, between O'Hare and downtown. A cab will cost you about $45 with tip no matter what time of day. (I've cabbed from my office to O'Hare more times than I can count.) Taking the L will take you about 45 minutes and then it is a short walk.

Midway: Budget 30-45 minutes for cabbing or driving during non-peak travel times, and 45-60 minutes for rush hour*. I don't have as much experience with taxi fares to Midway, but my guess is $35 with tip. Taking the L will take about 25 minutes and then a short walk.

*Rush hour in Chicago is about 6:45 a.m.-10:00 a.m. and then 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

I will not only have a car, but by then I'll have a giant minivan, so I can certainly help with transporting goods.

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I wish I knew how to do the laughing emoticon. :) I'd say it's a minimum 45 min. drive from O'Hare to the hotel - and that's if you're traveling at like 6 a.m. on a Sunday. (I live in the city, 6 1/2 miles from downtown, and my driving commute is 40-45 minutes.)

LOL! Well my typical cab driver at 4:30 AM to O'Hare from downtown gets me to O'Hare in 25 - 30 minutes. Granted, most of the time I'm greatly fearing for my life and crossing myself because they are going about 100mph.

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