Bouchercon flip-flop

[neadods]

I keep trying to make up my mind about Bouchercon and failing to.

Reasons to go: it's a mystery con within a day's driving distance in which books will be handed out right and left. I won't have another viable chance to attend until Raleigh 2015.

Reasons not to go: I was pretty meh about the one in Baltimore. (I know, I know, different concom every time.) It's a lot of money and time off to drop two weeks after I get back from a long weekend in Stratford, ONT. There is no con hotel.

I'm going to repeat that last, because to be honest, it's the biggest sticking point. There. Is. No. Con. Hotel. The concom has picked a convention center and worked out a deal with hotels in a 3-to-10 block area with convention rates.

The concom, to be blunt, expects every single attendee to be given and/or buy their body weight in books and then haul them by hand for 3 to 10 city blocks.

The mind boggles, it truly does. I mean, I know I'm a rarity, commuting to Malice, and it's awkward sometimes to not have that hotel room to run back to to drop the load, pick up that thing you forgot, even rest for a while. But that's just me. The runners of the Worldcon of the mystery world are expecting their entire attendance to do that!

It's so close. But it's going to be so mind-bogglingly annoying!

Comments

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Take one of those wheeled bags with you like airline staff use. I have one for work - really saves your back.

[hildy.livejournal.com]

I have to deal with a similar situation whenever I go to Baltimore Comic con with convention center + hotels. And ones that are close are ridiculously expensive unless you're sharing, so I wind up further afield and not buying my weight in art/comics. As much as I dislike those rolly bags (mostly because they wind up blocking aisles in the dealer room), it might be a good idea for your scenario.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Well... not going also works in my scenario, though...

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

The Bouchercon we went to in Chicago had multiple hotels too if you recall, and we weren't in the main one. And that convention-center-plus-several-hotels thing has been standard for Worldcons since the 1990s (and needs to be revisited IMO, since Worldcon attendance has been steadily dropping ever since then, but that's a separate rant).

I second the suggestion of a rolling tote. It's what I use when I go to Intergem shows, and for much the same reason -- I'll end up buying 30 or 40 pounds of beads, and I don't want to have to carry them around and then out to the car.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Odd... I don't remember leaving the hotel in Chicago.

I've got a rolling tote, but there are still limits to how far I want to roll it!

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Man, that is dumb.

I don't know how mystery cons differ from SF/romance cons, but half the fun of the cons I attend is the people you bump into in the halls of the hotel, and inviting close friends over to your bedroom to hang out. Walking three blocks to widely separated hotels wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

I ... hope somebody is handing out free wheeled totebags?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That would be nice! I do have my own - I'd hurt myself at the Book Thing otherwise. But still!

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

The concom has picked a convention center and worked out a deal with hotels in a 3-to-10 block area with convention rates.

Is that unusual in America?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's more common to have the convention in a single hotel, or have a main function hotel and satellite hotels (sometimes with shuttle).