Brisbane in 28...
Mar. 5th, 2026 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halloranelderIf you're a fan of science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror, this post is for you...
Worldcon is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (aka WSFS).
(Terminology note: When Worldcon first ran in 1939, "Science Fiction" was a general catch-all term for all of the "fantastical" stories that nowadays are split between Science Fiction and Fantasy. One of the earliest examples of Science Fiction is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which can fall into either category, or both. In addition, it's almost impossible to have Horror, without some element of science fiction or the fantastical in the story. As a result, the WSFS encompasses Speculative Fiction in general, which includes Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.)
Worldcon has run every year since 1946, at various locations around the world. Australia has hosted it four times so far: 1975, 1985, 1999, and 2010, all in Melbourne. Wellington, New Zealand, was supposed to host the Worldcon in 2020, but then 2020 happened, and they managed to pivot to a fully virtual convention in under three months.
There have been some wonderful Worldcons, and there have been... some problems. When some problems were revealed in early 2024 about most recent Worldcon, 2023 in Chengdu, China, I got really really angry, and discovered I cared about it.
As a result, I chose to put my money where my mouth was, and got involved in trying to run a good Worldcon, without the problems, here in Australia.
The Brisbane in 28 bid has built up since then, and site selection for 2028 happens this year in Los Angeles. As a result, we've gotten our bid documentation collected and submitted: https://www.brisbane28.org/the-brisbane-in-28-worldcon-bid-is-now-official/
(Please go and read the bid documentation we've put together. We've tried to pre-emptively answer every question that an interested party would be likely to ask, and we are really proud of what we've put together. I know that I definitely want to go to that Worldcon.)
We are not the only bid on the ballot, there is also a bid from Nuremberg, in Germany. There are a bunch of issues we have with that bid, but that's a whole other post. The main thing is: we have put a lot of effort into getting this far, and we want to win site selection and get to run our Worldcon.
What can you do to help?
Firstly, social media. The more people in the fandoms that know about this, the better (for the entire fandom, really.)
So, you can find us in the following places:
You can also join the mailing list, to keep up to date. I will try and update, but there's a reason the bid has people who's responsibility it is to update social media with relevant information, and I'm not one of them. :)
Secondly, you can vote for us for Site Selection.
Unfortunately, voting does cost money, which is how they make sure that only people with an actual interest are going to vote.
To be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). To do that, you need to buy a WSFS Membership for the current Worldcon (LA Con, in August). This will cost US$50 (approx AU$70 to AU$80 depending on exchange rates at the current time) and can be done from here: https://www.lacon.org/register/.
In addition to being eligible to vote in Site Selection, you also gain the right to vote in the 2026 Hugo Awards, and get the voting packet for the awards. Last year's voting packets was two zipped files totalling over 25gig, which included the full Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves movie; samples from two of the other movies up for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form; full ebooks of five of the books up for Best Novel and an excerpt of the sixth; copies of most of the novella, novelette and short story contenders; excerpts from parts of the six series' up for Best Series; samples of the works up for Best Graphic Story; and more.
The voting packet is worth it all on it's own.
To actually vote for us in the Site Selection, at some point later you will need to buy a voting token. Cost for this is still to be confirmed (it is something that the two sites up for selection will discuss and agree on) but it will most likely be equal to the cost of the WSFS Membership (US$50). Money collected for voting tokens goes to whichever Site wins Site Selection, and for the voter turns into a WSFS Membership for that convention.
So, voting in Site selection does cost money, but it's not wasted money.
When Site Selection actually happens, there will be five options on the ballot:
* Brisbane in 28
* Nuremberg 2028
* None of the Above
* No Preference
* Write In
Write in votes are only valid if the site in question manages to submit their bid documents before the close of voting. Otherwise they are used for joke votes by people who don't care who wins.
No Preference is considered a vote for both Brisbane and Nuremberg. These voters are happy with whichever one wins, they just want to get in early.
If None of the Above gets the most votes, then neither bid is successful, and the WSFS Business Meeting on the fourth morning of the convention would get very interesting. It's never happened in the history of the convention, but it's there in case it's needed.
Third thing you can do, is support us by giving us money. Running a bid is expensive, especially a non-American bid, as the majority of the people you need to persuade for you are living in the United States.
(A small aside on memberships: there are two main membership types for a Worldcon. The WSFS Membership I've already mentioned gives you access to nominate for the Hugo Awards, vote for the Hugo Awards, attend any virtual components of the Business Meeting, and means you are eligible to buy a Site Selection token and vote in that. It also gives you the right to nominate for the Hugo awards for the following year. It does not, however, allow to you attend the convention itself. To do that you need an Attending Membership, which you can buy after you have a WSFS Membership. There are usually multiple types of Attending Memberships, but they all allow you to actually (either physically or virtually) attend the convention.)
At the moment you can choose to give us a donation, or buy a presupport.
A donation simply goes into our kitty to be used to advertise our bid and drum up support.
A presupport does the same, but also gives you something out of it, should we win.
The presupports we have are:
The fourth thing you can do is get involved directly. We need volunteers for the bid, and will need volunteers for the actual convention itself. We also need more committee members, division heads, area head, and all the rest. You name it, we probably need it.
Worldcon is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (aka WSFS).
(Terminology note: When Worldcon first ran in 1939, "Science Fiction" was a general catch-all term for all of the "fantastical" stories that nowadays are split between Science Fiction and Fantasy. One of the earliest examples of Science Fiction is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which can fall into either category, or both. In addition, it's almost impossible to have Horror, without some element of science fiction or the fantastical in the story. As a result, the WSFS encompasses Speculative Fiction in general, which includes Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.)
Worldcon has run every year since 1946, at various locations around the world. Australia has hosted it four times so far: 1975, 1985, 1999, and 2010, all in Melbourne. Wellington, New Zealand, was supposed to host the Worldcon in 2020, but then 2020 happened, and they managed to pivot to a fully virtual convention in under three months.
There have been some wonderful Worldcons, and there have been... some problems. When some problems were revealed in early 2024 about most recent Worldcon, 2023 in Chengdu, China, I got really really angry, and discovered I cared about it.
As a result, I chose to put my money where my mouth was, and got involved in trying to run a good Worldcon, without the problems, here in Australia.
The Brisbane in 28 bid has built up since then, and site selection for 2028 happens this year in Los Angeles. As a result, we've gotten our bid documentation collected and submitted: https://www.brisbane28.org/the-brisbane-in-28-worldcon-bid-is-now-official/
(Please go and read the bid documentation we've put together. We've tried to pre-emptively answer every question that an interested party would be likely to ask, and we are really proud of what we've put together. I know that I definitely want to go to that Worldcon.)
We are not the only bid on the ballot, there is also a bid from Nuremberg, in Germany. There are a bunch of issues we have with that bid, but that's a whole other post. The main thing is: we have put a lot of effort into getting this far, and we want to win site selection and get to run our Worldcon.
What can you do to help?
Firstly, social media. The more people in the fandoms that know about this, the better (for the entire fandom, really.)
So, you can find us in the following places:
You can also join the mailing list, to keep up to date. I will try and update, but there's a reason the bid has people who's responsibility it is to update social media with relevant information, and I'm not one of them. :)
Secondly, you can vote for us for Site Selection.
Unfortunately, voting does cost money, which is how they make sure that only people with an actual interest are going to vote.
To be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). To do that, you need to buy a WSFS Membership for the current Worldcon (LA Con, in August). This will cost US$50 (approx AU$70 to AU$80 depending on exchange rates at the current time) and can be done from here: https://www.lacon.org/register/.
In addition to being eligible to vote in Site Selection, you also gain the right to vote in the 2026 Hugo Awards, and get the voting packet for the awards. Last year's voting packets was two zipped files totalling over 25gig, which included the full Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves movie; samples from two of the other movies up for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form; full ebooks of five of the books up for Best Novel and an excerpt of the sixth; copies of most of the novella, novelette and short story contenders; excerpts from parts of the six series' up for Best Series; samples of the works up for Best Graphic Story; and more.
The voting packet is worth it all on it's own.
To actually vote for us in the Site Selection, at some point later you will need to buy a voting token. Cost for this is still to be confirmed (it is something that the two sites up for selection will discuss and agree on) but it will most likely be equal to the cost of the WSFS Membership (US$50). Money collected for voting tokens goes to whichever Site wins Site Selection, and for the voter turns into a WSFS Membership for that convention.
So, voting in Site selection does cost money, but it's not wasted money.
When Site Selection actually happens, there will be five options on the ballot:
* Brisbane in 28
* Nuremberg 2028
* None of the Above
* No Preference
* Write In
Write in votes are only valid if the site in question manages to submit their bid documents before the close of voting. Otherwise they are used for joke votes by people who don't care who wins.
No Preference is considered a vote for both Brisbane and Nuremberg. These voters are happy with whichever one wins, they just want to get in early.
If None of the Above gets the most votes, then neither bid is successful, and the WSFS Business Meeting on the fourth morning of the convention would get very interesting. It's never happened in the history of the convention, but it's there in case it's needed.
Third thing you can do, is support us by giving us money. Running a bid is expensive, especially a non-American bid, as the majority of the people you need to persuade for you are living in the United States.
(A small aside on memberships: there are two main membership types for a Worldcon. The WSFS Membership I've already mentioned gives you access to nominate for the Hugo Awards, vote for the Hugo Awards, attend any virtual components of the Business Meeting, and means you are eligible to buy a Site Selection token and vote in that. It also gives you the right to nominate for the Hugo awards for the following year. It does not, however, allow to you attend the convention itself. To do that you need an Attending Membership, which you can buy after you have a WSFS Membership. There are usually multiple types of Attending Memberships, but they all allow you to actually (either physically or virtually) attend the convention.)
At the moment you can choose to give us a donation, or buy a presupport.
A donation simply goes into our kitty to be used to advertise our bid and drum up support.
A presupport does the same, but also gives you something out of it, should we win.
The presupports we have are:
- Virtual Mate (AU$50) - turns into a Virtual Membership should we win.
- Young Mate (AU$125) - turns into a YA (18 to 25) Membership.
- Mate! (AU$250)- turns into a full adult Membership.
- Best Mate! (AU$550) - also turns into a full adult members, but also includes a bunch of swag and merchandise.
The fourth thing you can do is get involved directly. We need volunteers for the bid, and will need volunteers for the actual convention itself. We also need more committee members, division heads, area head, and all the rest. You name it, we probably need it.
