Helsinki - First day of Worldcon 75

So today was the first day of Worldcon number 75. The premier science-fiction and fantasy convention. One of the writer GOHs was Walter Jon Williams, whom I've read two books of his: Hardwired and Aristoi (one of my top sci-fi books). The science GOH was Ian Stewart. The special guest was Dr. Kjell N. Lindgren, a NASA astronaut that spent 141 days on the ISS. He was supposed to be at the Spokane, WA Worldcon (our first Worldcon) but was picked for STS-130.

Registration went off very smoothly so it seems that we did not have to get here so early, as the first panels started at 11am. The convention center was very well laid out, bright and clean.

 This is what we got in the loot bag!

 As per most conventions, some things did not open on time like the dealers room.

There was a good food place at the convention site called "Meet and Eat". They are buffet style and has lots to choose from with a few choices of mains. It was our preferred place for lunches although they also did suppers.

Now the bad. The convention organizers were expecting around four to five thousand attendees. They got just over seven thousand. That meant that day passes after the first day were limited to one-hundred people. The extra people also meant semi-organized lineups and not being able to get into some of the panels I wanted to see. The lineups did get much better organized by the third day and to make it fair for everyone, those without disabilities had to leave after a panel and line up again for the next if it was in the same room. This demolished a tactic I have used in past conventions but was democratic and fair.

I did not attend any panels today because of long lineups and meeting with a person in the afternoon for touring around.