Interaction 2005:
Showing Simon Willis of the BBC's Newsnight Scotland the Worldcon

Showing Simon Willis of the BBC's Newsnight Scotland the Worldcon

Each convention area has its busy times and its not-so-busy times. For the Press Office, the busy time tends to be Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon. It's important to reach as much press early in the convention as possible, to help attract those all-important drop-in memberships. We were incredibly busy on Thursday, and, at one point, had something like four different video camera crews, each of which needed an escourt.

Simon Willis from Newsnight Scotland returned to the con with a cameraman, and asked if I would be his on-camera escourt. I suggested he go with someone who was either British or Scottish, but he felt I'd done a good job showing him around the day before, so I agreed. So, I took him down the concourse, into the Dealers' Room, where we ran into Tony Lewis (US fan) and Rog Peyton (British book dealer). Simon also interviewed Charlie Stross in the Exhibit Hall, and Charlie hooked him up with Andrew Adams. I planned to get myself to a TV set around 11pm Thursday night, when the Worldcon segment would be broadcast.

Photo by Keith Stokes