Pillage First, Then Burn OR Baltimore, Our Kind of Town.

Baltimore has pirates?  Why was I not informed?

The Maryland Science Center is featuring a exhibit on famous shipwrecks and their treasure (1)

aaaargh!  Odyssey’s SHIPWRECK! Pirates & Treasure,  is a new exhibit featuring the compelling stories behind some of the world's most famous shipwrecks, their treasure, historic artifacts and pirates. Multiple hands-on interactive exhibits and cutting- edge computer games engage visitors with the adventure and excitement of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, as well as intrigue them with pirate history and legend.

 
Baltimore Science Fiction Society

Baltimore is also the home of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.  (2)

Many of their members volunteer at and/or attend BaltiCon, the Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention.  This convention has been held annually since 1966.  Attendees number between 1,800 - 2,000.

A lot of these people will be attending and/or volunteering at NADWCon. Lucky us.

The link above is for their Facebook page.   Here is the link to their website. 

Here is the link to their Meet Up Page.

Ghost Tours

Update:  Missy Hayes just shot me a link about Baltimore's Haunted Pub Tours

Step through the doors of some of Fell's Point's most haunted pubs for this fascinating tour of the historic maritime neighborhood. Even when it's freezing outside you'll stay toasty and warm on our Haunted Pubwalk! And if your arms break out into goosebumps, and the hair on your neck stands up, it may be because ghost sightings have happened right where you are sitting. Participants can choose to buy a drink, relax, and hear tales of that haunted tavern and ghost stories from nearby sites.

You can read about the other Ghost Walks on their webpage

Visiting Baltimore

Meanwhile, the volunteer staff at NADWCon are preparing lists of interesting places to visit and great places to eat in and around the Inner Harbor Area.  You might want to come a bit early to the con in order to take in the many wonderful sites in this town. 

We're gonna have a good time at NADWCon.  But remember folks, it's pillage first, then burn.

Dj

Related Articles

NADWCon Hotel and Memberships 

Booking A Room At The NADWCon Hotels 

The City Picked to Host NADWCon 2013 Is .... 

Endnotes: 

(1) Based on the work of Odyssey Marine Exploration 

The exhibit provides guests a close-up encounter with the artifacts recovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration.  Some of the archaeological excavation, the first of its kind ever conducted at such depths, produced more than 51,000 gold and silver coins and nearly 14,000 artifacts--a wealth of mid-19th century trade goods hidden on the ocean floor for over a century.  Coins, bottles, personal effects, on-board items, and pieces of the vessel are on display in the exhibit.

(2) More on BSFS from Wikipedia:

BSFS is an active organization which hosts many free, public events at its headquarters in the Highlandtown section of Baltimore City. Located at 3310 East Baltimore Street, it holds a business meeting on the second Saturday of each month at 7 PM that covers planning for Balticon and general BSFS organizational issues. It also hosts an anime, manga, and gaming social event on the third Saturday of the month from 2 - 6 PM. BSFS also hosts a Speculative Fiction Critique Circle for science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc. writers to receive feedback on their work: that Circle meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month, from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM. There is also a Book Discussion Circle that meets on the 4th Saturday of every month, from 6:30 to 8 PM, to discuss and analyze an assigned book; then there is a General Social Meeting which follows right after that. And on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, the Games Club of Maryland hosts a gaming day called Alphabet Soup at BSFS headquarters from 12 - 6PM. ^{[1] [2]} Authors such as Catherine Asaro, Philippa Ballantine, Charles Shields, T.J. Perkins, and others have spoken there in recent years. ^[3] It maintains a large free lending library, cooperates with other science fiction organizations, runs www.bsfs.org which is a detailed website with extensive resources, and conducts other public outreach events promoting literacy. BSFS is an open, equal organization which welcomes every gender, sex, religion, and creed. 

Photo: Found at the Urban Pirates website 

Booking a room at the NADWCon 2013 hotel

It's official: folks can now book their rooms at the con hotel, the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.


More hotel information and photos can be found here. 

See you there,

Dj

Drumroll, please: The city picked to host NADWCon 2013 is ...

After giving this (very tough) choice a great deal of thought and discussion, we are delighted to announce that the CITY OF BALTIMORE will be the site for the next North American Discworld Convention in 2013. 

The dates are July 5th - 8th,

Hotel will be announced at a future date 

We believe that Sir Terry and the Discworld fans will be in experienced and capable hands with the Baltimore team and we look forward to working very closely with them as we support their preparations and plans. The steering committee members and our consulting team were extremely impressed with Baltimore's creative and well organized plans for 2013, plans detailed in a comprehensive bid that ultimately came in at over 30 pages.  It was clear to us that this team is a triple threat: they have have the convention, stage and real world skills needed to provide an memorable, well organized and fun convention for all concerned.

Both bidding cities have a great deal to offer visitors and that made the choice all the more difficult.

For those of you who have not been to Baltimore before, we believe that you are going to love what you find.  There is a great deal to see and do in the immediate area (and Washington D.C. is only a short train ride away). The inner harbor hotel they have chosen will fit our needs wonderfully and provide for the kind of mingling and meeting spaces for our guests that we feel is so important the success of this affair.  It is also within easy walking distance of many interesting, historical and family-friendly sites as well as a wide variety of food choices and prices.  The city itself is within easy reach for both our international and U.S. guests and the bid committee has given a great deal of thought to making our time there enjoyable. Wait till you see what they have planned!

The bid chairs were informed yesterday, as were Terry & Rob.  The Baltimore Chair writes: 

I would like to take the opportunity, on behalf of the bid committee, to thank the GoC for their hard work, effort and diligence in the selection process. Having spoken with (the Boston chair) a couple of times over the last few months I'm hoping and sure that there will be collaboration between the Boston and Baltimore bid committees in forming the convention committee at large over the next few weeks.

We look forward to working with the GoC over the next few days, weeks and nineteen months in developing and executing the North American Discworld Convention for 2013. (Our staff members) will be touch next week to discuss the corporate structure required for the convention to operate efficiently and effectively.

Yours Sincerely,

Richard Atha-Nicholls
Chair, North American Discworld Convention 2013

We would like to thank both bid committees and their chairs for their hard work in producing these bids.  Thanks also to our consultants who so generously gave us their time and advice and to the fans for their enthusiasm and patience. 

We know that our Terry, Rob and our attendees appreciate the dedication shown by both groups and we again offer our congratulations to the team in Baltimore. (1) We ask that Discworld fans the world over give them their full support.  The members of the GoC and our consulting team look  forward to working with all here to make NADWCon 2013 the best one yet.   

Update 3:55 PM Richard added this today to answer some questions from our Facebook fans: 

I'm excited to be chairing the Con for 2013 and look forward to sharing all the wonderful things we have planned in due course. Including, what we think, is a great hotel rate. Just bear with us as we get our ducks (or should that be flamingos) in a row. We'll let you know all the details in good time.

Thanks and hope to see you all in Baltimore in 2013,

See you in Baltimore ....

Sincerely,

Dj
Vice Chair,

The Guild of Chelonavigators AKA the NADWCon Steering Committee

(1) We would also like to invite Boston - and any other interested cities - to consider bidding for 2015.

Update on NADWCon bid process for 2013

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded 

Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Greetings, all

Here is an update on the bid process for NADWCon. I posted this to the North American Discworld 2013 Facebook page on Monday:

As we mentioned earlier, one of the bidding cities requested a week's grace past the deadline which stretched into 11 days. As a result, our timeline for deciding this was pushed back as well. We sincerely hope to have an announcement for everyone by Nov 30th, as we've said, but that may not happen.

Nope ... didn't happen. 

Discussion with the NADWCon Consultants Guild has ended and the Steering Committee is formulating additional questions, as needed, for the cities in question based on both their notes and ours.

Fair warning: We may not have an official announcement until Dec. 6th. We know you folks want us to do a very thorough job on this and that you'd also like an answer asap so you can make your plans. We are doing our very best to make both of those wishes come true - djc

Response to this has been positive and supportive.  Here is a sample:

Do your excellent job. We'll wait. We want the best venue for our Sir PTerry and his fans.

and

YAY!!!! To be honest I don't mind when you decide, it means you are making a well thought-out and rational decision. That being said, I check every time I am near my computer just so I know as soon as you do decide. Thank you for all your hard work, time, and effort.

Our thanks to Sir Terry's many fans for their patience and support and to the bidding committees in both Boston and Baltimore for their help in answering all our questions.

Update to the Update 12/10/2011

Info posted to LJ, Facebook, Twitter and the Seamstress Guild group today: 

The GoC has just been informed that one bid committee's proposed hotel contract expires on the 15th. We might be able to push the vote up but a lot will depend on whether or not they get back to us with the answers to our questions in good time. - djc

Update 12/11/2011 A. Stewart, a fan and an expert in hotel contracts wrote us to say,

An expiring hotel contract (actually it's typically an option date) only means something if the property has a similar or better prospect in the pipeline. Hotel sales staff are under a lot of pressure to get deals closed before year end but that shouldn't force you to make a decision that may or may not be right for the convention....

Hotels can put out second option contracts to other parties that if signed would obligate you to execute your option or lose your date.

It always delights me to find out how varied and knowledgeable Terry's fan base it.  Thanks, Tony!

Dj