Glasgow 2024 is my fourth world SFF convention. It was the capper to a vacation where we spent a week driving around the Scottish highlands, from Sterling to Perth to Inverness and the Isle of Skye before returning to Glasgow. And – all love to my home city DC and the heroic efforts it took to run their World Con, as well as due respect to Chicago and their efforts – this was my favorite experience so far.
Were there times the SEC felt a bit small? Yes. Which is amazing given how objectively huge the campus is and how much space they provided for everything.
But, I think this is less about the venue and more about how hungry folks were for the diverse panels. While I was only one (more about that below) there felt like a genuine hunger for voices beyond the ‘normal crew’ of people. Young voices. Voices from around the world. Voices of people who didn’t follow the typical ‘SFF’ fan stereotype.
For example: the panels on “The Future of the Oldest Profession” and “Don’t go into the Forest: Monsters and Feminism” and “Villainous Female Characters” were not only dominated by panelists who represented the topic well (No dudebros as far as I could see) but they were so popular people were turned away by the facilities team due to overcrowding.
And they all looked forward. I was never on a panel – even ones talking about 80’s fantasy or ‘of its time’ literature – where people said “They did it better back then and there’s no use trying to match it.” Panelists talked about inspiration, and generational transfer. The people who walked out of “The Dark Crystal” stunned and transformed didn’t say, “Game over.” They went on to dream their own dreams, all the while going “Hmmmmm” in random moments.
And then there was my panel, which I will represent with this most innocent of images:
“We did the Monster Smash” was all about romantic and erotic stories about ‘monsters.’ First, kudos to Johannes T. Evans for stepping in as moderator when Anna Raferty fell ill. I was joined by Nadia El-Fassi and Zoe Burgess-foreman – and got to tell an absolutely packed crowd all about how people were choosing the (were-)bear over men.
It was a bright, lively, wonderful panel where A.J. Harris got to play while my number one fan cheered from the first row.
We came home with a huge list of recommendations, great memories, and a wish many of the panels were available for replay. The folks in Seattle and Los Angeles have a lot to live up to. I’ll leave you with a selection of images:
Biomechanoid Blues 