70th World Science Fiction Convention


The 70th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Chicon 7, was held in Chicago, Illinois, August 30-September 3, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The convention committee was chaired by Dave McCarty and organized under the auspices of the Chicago Worldcon Bid corporation.

Programming

The Guests of Honor were author Mike Resnick, artist Rowena Morrill, astronaut Story Musgrave, fan Peggy Rae Sapienza, and agent guest Jane Frank. Sy Liebergot was a Special Guest. The toastmaster was John Scalzi. Morrill was not in attendance at the convention due to health issues.

The bid

The "Chicago in 2012" bid committee issued a series of ten short magazines, called bidzines, each featuring a story by a different Chicago-related author, such as Frederik Pohl, Jody Lynn Nye, Phyllis Eisenstein, and Mike Resnick. Each story was approximately 2,000 words and additional stories by other Chicago authors, including Richard Garfinkle and Lois Tilton, were published on the bid's website. "Cover" art was provided by noted artists such as Kaja Foglio and Frank Wu.
The bid also did not sell supporting memberships as most Worldcon bids do, instead asking supporters to simply make a donation to help the bid. Supporters who donated at least $100 and voted in site selection automatically had their support converted to an attending membership.

Site selection

Chicago's bid to host the Worldcon was formally unopposed and won in balloting among the members of the 68th World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010. With only 526 ballots cast, this election had the lowest turnout since voting records began to be kept in 1974. The voting breakdown was 447 votes for Chicago, 20 ballots expressed no preference, and there were 59 write-in votes for various sites.
Chicon 7 members overwhelmingly selected the formally unopposed "London in 2014" bid to host the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in August 2014.

Awards

Hugo Awards

The results were based on the 1,922 ballots submitted by members of the World Science Fiction Society. This was the second-highest total number of ballots ever cast for the Hugo. The unique base design for this year's Hugo Award trophies was designed by Deb Kosiba, designer of the trophy bases for both the 2005 and 2006 Hugo Awards. This was the first year for the new Best Fancast category, separating podcasts from more traditional fanzines.
The Hugo Awards ceremony was intended to be webcast live via Ustream, but automatic routines on the site mistook brief film clips from the dramatic presentation categories as copyright infringement, even though they had been provided by NBC and the BBC. The stream was terminated in the middle of Neil Gaiman's acceptance speech and Worldcon temporarily banned as a user on the site.

Other awards

Special awards presentations at Chicon 7 included the Chesley Awards for artistic excellence.