DragonCon96 Report by Avery Davis. Copyright (C) Avery Davis, 1996 DragonCon 1996 took place from Thursday, June 20 through Sunday, June 23. This year, I was the director of the Space/Science Track of programming. For my first time in this position, I like to think I did pretty well, although I had to do most of it myself since I was able to recruit only three people to be on my staff. Next year, I hope to have a bigger staff, a better program, and less aggravation for all. The following narrative is based on the program schedule for the Space/Science Track (SCI). All items were one hour long and took place in the Henry Room of the Atlanta Hilton unless otherwise noted. My intent here is to document and discuss the Space/Science Track, so I have left out all sorts of wonderful things that happened during the convention. Thursday, June 20. I arrived at the hotel about 11AM after spending about 15 minutes looking for a place to park in the traffic jammed up due to the repaving of Courtland Street in front of the Hilton. First, I checked in at registration to get my badge and other materials, then I went to Technical Services to double check they had my A/V request correct, and it seemed to be OK. Bill Harrison, Director of Technical Services, and the members of his staff, were always most helpful, polite and considerate in my dealings with them. Then, I went to the Henry room, which I found to be locked, so I went to the Fulton room where Operations and Security were located, and found them sorting the keys for the program rooms, and in about two minutes, I had a Security staffer accompanying me back to Henry to unlock it. Upon entering the Henry room, I discovered that the room was set up for typical "classroom" style, but the extra table I had requested for the back of the room were absent, as were the bulletin boards I had wanted for displaying posters. So, I went out, found a house phone, called George Robinson of the Hilton's convention services, and got his assurance that he would get it taken care of. I did get three small round tables that afternoon (I had wanted five rectangular tables), and I never did get any bulletin boards. Next, I went to the lobby restaurant's Cafe Express, and bought a Tuna sandwich, and took it back to the Henry room for lunch. This was about 1:30pm: Registration for DESIGNING A LUNAR BASE workshop. Setup of the Henry room. Staff meeting for Space/Science track. I was surprised to find several people sitting in the Henry room waiting for something to happen. Not only that, but some of them had started their own sign-up sheet for the 4PM workshop using the pads and pencils placed on the speaker's tables by the Hilton. I dug out the brochures and other materials I had gotten from NSS headquarters about a week earlier, and started to eat my sandwich. David Adair arrived shortly before 2PM, and soon noticed that the Henry room was equipped with an overhead projector and a screen, but what he needed was a 35mm slide projector. So, after I finished my sandwich, I ran back up 2 flights of stairs to Technical Services, and persuaded them to let me have a slide projector, which I took to Henry and set up for David's 2:30PM presentation. Right when I got back to Henry, a couple people told me that "someone has been looking for you", but I was mystified as to who it could be. Several minutes later, a staffer from VIP Services came in with a bundle of manila envelopes for me. It seems I forgot to check in with Program Operations to get the name signs for the SCI speakers, and these were in the manila envelopes, which were very nicely labelled and in chronological order. So, I opened the first one, and took the sheet with David Adair's name on it, and attached it to the front of the speaker's table with a paper clip. Also, Les Johnson arrived and introduced himself to me. Then it was time for David's presentation: HISTORY OF THE SPACE PROGRAM. + The incredible story of how the human race entered space. David Adair. DOORPRIZE: APOLLO 13 video. TH1430 This presentation had roughly ten people attending David's presentation of the early days of manned spaceflight with slides of early launches and spacecraft through Apollo. During some of this panel, I sought out the convention video room and delivered my copies of the recent Apollo 13 movie and the PBS documentary, "Apollo 13: To The Edge And Back", to be shown at 4PM and 6PM, respectively. I had originally intended to have the video of the NASA film, "Houston, We Have A Problem", but the quality of the tape was too poor, in my opinion, for a general showing. Another copy of the NASA video, in special packaging with a commemorative Apollo 13 medallion, was the door prize for David's presentation. Giving away the doorprize was difficult because the carnival tickets I had requested from the convention treasurer were not to be found. We used the note pads provided by the hotel, having people tear off little pieces of paper and writing their names on them. I got a child in the audience to pick the winner. David kept going a little past 3:30PM, but all Les needed for his workshop were the flip chart and markers - which were missing! So, I ran back up to Tech to get them. Well, they only had the easel and the markers in the Tech room, so they called on their radio to got everyone looking for the pads. Bill Harrison, director of Tech, brought the easel down to Henry and set it up in time for the panel, but when Les got started, the pad hadn't shown up. Not having a radio myself, I went looking for the pad. DESIGNING A LUNAR BASE. + NASA's Les Johnson will lead a group of no more than 15 fans in the conceptual definition of a lunar base. Working within the existing political framework, the workshop participants develop the rationale for such a base. Les Johnson. 2hr 30min. TH1600 [a/v: large flip chart pad and markers] A pad was brought in about 15 minutes after Les started, but since it was a two and a half hour workshop, they still got a lot of use out of it. About a dozen people attended the workshop, and since Les set the cutoff at 15, it went really well. SPACE: OF WHAT EARTHLY USE? + How the use of space is shaping our future. David Adair. TH1900 [a/v: 35mm slide and overhead projectors] I wasn't able to attend David's next panel because I had a training session scheduled for my Olympics volunteer job at 6PM. David agreed to close up the Henry room after his panel. So, I left the hotel about 5:30PM, and after the training session, I went home. Friday, June 21 Anticipating some traffic and parking problems, I was able to get in to the hotel before 10AM. The projector and screen requested were in place, so I straightened the room some, and put out some NSS flyers. Then, people started showing up for the 10AM panel: THE ART OF SPACE. + Astronomical and space artwork: How do they make it realistic? With Alan M. Clark, Darryl Elliot, Bob Giadrosich. FR1000 [a/v: 35mm slide projector] About 10 people attended this panel. Bob Giadrosich never showed up, and neither Alan nor Darryl had any slide, so the projector was not used. They both told interesting and entertaining "war stories" of their careers as SF illustrators. MATHENAUTS: FROM FLATLAND TO A CROOKED HOUSE. + The use and history of mathematics in SF and Fantasy. Rudy Rucker. FR1130 About two dozen people attended this panel. Rudy used the flip chart pad and markers left over from Thursday's workshop to illustrate concepts of four dimensionality. ROBOT SEX APPEAL. + No, not sex with robots. Find out how Robot Wars can do for Robotics what Rock n' Roll did for Popular Music with the Founder and President of Robot Wars, LLC, Marc Thorpe. FR1300 About two dozen people attended this presentation, but I did not. WEIRD SCIENCE & SCHROEDINGER'S KITTENS. + How Quantum Mechanics is showing us how the world is stranger than we could have imagined. Rudy Rucker, Robert Anton Wilson. FR1430 Standing room only! Including people who came and left during the time period, probably over 100 people attended. Also, other convention guests, such as John Shirley and R.U. Sirius, participated from the audience. IS ET OUT THERE? + A discussion of the likelihood of there being intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, what such life might be like, and what we are doing to make contact (SETI). Les Johnson. FR1600 [a/v: overhead projector] About two dozen people attended. During this time, Bill Gardiner showed up, with his son Brian, to be my staff. David Adair also came in, and introduced my to Rick Austin. HELIUM 3, POWER TO RULE THE WORLD. + Executive Producer Rick Austin will present the concept and progress of his upcoming film about how the rare isotope that will make clean, safe fusion power economical is found in 2025 to be readily available on the Moon. FR1730 [a/v: 35mm slide projector, audio cassette player, VCR/monitor] Rick Austin is also a promoter, and his primary goal is to find investors for his company's film projects, and to find dealers for related merchandise. He was hoping to find some investor prospects at DragonCon, and we tried to accommodate him. For example, the convention chairman arranged to have a full page ad for Helium 3 in the program book. But, only about 6 people attended his presentation, which included some fascinating test video of computer generated spacecraft and space scenes. 1900FR APOLLO 13: MOVIE VERSION VERSUS REALITY. + A panel discussion on just how true-to-life the recent movie was. The video room will show the movie, APOLLO 13, and the award winning PBS documentary, "Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back", starting at 4pm Thursday. David Adair, Les Johnson, Bill Gardiner. DOORPRIZE: Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage Of Apollo 13, by Jim Lovell & Jefrey Kluger, hardback. FR1900 About three dozen attended. There were even a few people who indicated that they had seen the Apollo 13 films in the convention video room the day before. The discussion was more about Apollo 13 the mission than about the accuracy of the movie, but it was still interesting and enjoyable. Without any tickets for the doorprize, Bill and I used a number guessing game to award the prize, but we had to go through the audience three times before we got a winner. Saturday, June 22 Forrest Schultz called me about 8:00AM, and told me he didn't have transportation to the convention from his home near Newnan GA. I told him to take a taxi, and I would reimburse him. I drove to the convention, and got a good parking space, so I was walking to the Henry room at about 9:45 when I met Les Johnson. Les told me that he was going to have to leave about Noon to go home due to a medical situation with a relative, so he would not be able to make his 2:30 presentation that day, or his two items on Sunday. Since Forrest hadn't arrived, I told him to go on at 10AM, and I would put Forrest on at 2:30. So, while Bill and Brian helped Les get set up, I ran upstairs to Tech Services, where I was able to beg the overhead projector Les needed. FUTURE SPACE: NEW NASA INITIATIVES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. + Presentation of current, planned and proposed space science, applications and transportation missions being undertaken by NASA. DOORPRIZE: SPACE AGE computer program on CD-ROM. Les Johnson. SA1430->moved to 10AM [a/v: overhead projector] About a dozen people attended. I still had not gotten the tickets for the doorprize, but I came up with a better method than the number guessing game: I used the random number generator on my calculator the chose a row and then a person in that row of seats. I begged out of being on the next panel, and persuaded Bill Gardiner to take my place. SHOULD SPACE COLONIZATION BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY? + If so, how do we convince people to regard it as an important, instead of peripheral, matter? How do we answer the critic who says we should be devoting our efforts to solving our problems on Earth? With David Adair, Les Johnson, Forrest Schultz, Avery Davis->Bill Gardiner (mod.). SA1130 About 30 people. ROBOT WARS AND HEALTHY VIOLENCE. + Save the people - let the robots fight it out. We live in nature so violence is here to stay. Explore the difference between violence that is good for us and violence that is not with the Founder and President of Robot Wars, LLC, Marc Thorpe. SA1300 Nearly two dozen people attended, but I went to lunch. THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF THE SPACE PROGRAM. + How space can make the Earth safe for the birds and the bees. Forrest Schultz. SA1000->moved to 2:30PM About 20 people. THE STATE OF THE ART IN VIRTUAL REALITY AT NASA. + Presentation and demonstration of Virtual Reality capabilities and applications by the Director of the Computer Applications and Virtual Environments (CAVE) Lab at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Mr. Joseph Peter Hale II. SA1600 [a/v: overhead projector, VCR/monitor] About 20 people. Joe's presentation was a bit dry and technical, but great cyber-geek stuff. Sunday, June 23 NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY OPEN MEETING. + If you are already a member or if you would just like to find out what we are all about, all are welcome. DOORPRIZE: SPACE AGE computer program on CD-ROM. SU1000 About 6 people attended, all of whom were already Dragoncon members. Except for Bill and I, none of the local NSS chapter members showed up. But, we did show the new NSS slide show, "Open the Space Frontier", got more signature on the NSS petition, and got the names and addresses of the six people as being interested in NSS activities. VIRTUAL REALITY IN SF AND THE 'REAL WORLD'. + Panel discussion on how much SF VR borrows from real VR, and vice versa. Joseph Peter Hale II, R.U. Sirius, Bruce Sterling. SU1130 About 50 people. Actually, John Shirley also showed up to be on this panel. Shirley and Rudy Rucker were originally slated to be on this panel, but when it could not be scheduled into the main ballroom, it was felt that this slate would attract too large an audience for the Henry room, to Shirley and Rucker were taken off. But, I guess John Shirley was either misinformed, or ignored the recent change. SPACE TRAVEL: NEAR, FAR AND FAR-OUT. + A discussion of what's on the drawing boards for space transportation in the next century as well as pontification of what the far-future holds (within known physical laws) for space travel. Les Johnson. SU1300 [a/v: overhead projector] CANCELLED Since Les had to leave on Saturday, I begged a VCR and monitor from Tech Services and showed my copy of "The Space Shuttle", a special documentary by The Discovery Channel. About 10 people watched this. Bill stayed for this since he hadn't seen it yet but really wanted to, and said it was really good. I had lunch with an old friend and wandered around the convention some. David Adair did not show up on Sunday, and with Les already gone, I decided to cancel the last item and close the Space/Science Track. The convention seemed to be dying, anyway. SHOOTING FOR THE STARS WITH ONE GARGANTUAN GUN. + Alternative launch technologies are explored, such as a giant cannon, magnetic levitation, and a Black Horse. David Adair, Avery Davis, Les Johnson. SU1430 CANCELLED.