https://glasgow2024.org/

This is the first World Science Fiction convention that I attended with my wife, Mel and she very much enjoyed it, as did I. This is my third WorldCon in Glasgow which was also the first international convention I ever attended back in 1995. Glasgow is now very much “local” to me, only a 3.5 hour drive from where I now live in Cheshire.

Hotel rooms were a bit tricky for the convention with the closest convention hotels (e.g. the Crown Plaza Hotel) having sold out very quickly though I was very lucky to book the Premier Inn on the south side of the river with access to the site by a pedestrian bridge beside the hotel. Despite it being a Premier Inn rooms were going for about £200/night when I booked though the proximity to the convention was a huge bonus for us. There were a lot more hotel rooms than in previous Glasgow WorldCons which has made it a lot simpler and a lot less walking for most attendees (unless you wanted to save money so found something further away).

There was no printed guide issued for the show (except for those with accessibility needs requiring a printed version available on demand) so we were forced to use a rather clunky on-line application which also caused problems due to poor on site network access. It took a bit to get used to it but eventually was figured out. It was nice to see that pretty much all of the events were recorded with the recordings accessible via the “Members Portal” online (for up to a year!).

As with previous Glasgow WorldCons, this one was in the large “Scottish Event Campus” (formerly “SECC”, now just “SEC”) just to the west of the city centre.

The convention centre was the main venue with two large halls devoted to the convention (dealer's room, exhibits and food hall) as well as various meeting rooms (one of the main halls, the far one, was being used for the “Beyond Van Gogh” exhibit throughout the convention). Registration was in the concourse outside of Hall 4. It has to be said the inclusion of a number of food trucks in one of the halls was a welcome addition along with a large number of tables at which to eat (it was often difficult to find a free space to sit) though it was a bit character-less and they seemed to close at arbitrary hours even if the hall itself was still open.

Anyone entering the convention centre was subject to bag checks which caused quite a lot of delays getting into the building.

The convention had booked all of the meeting rooms and on the ground floor there was a small “members” bar which was often unstaffed.

In addition to using the Clyde auditorium (though only the ground floor seating), the convention made use of the Armadillo meeting rooms on the first floor. It was often difficult to get to these rooms due to bag checks or when the auditorium was not being used having to convince the staff to allow you in to get to your talk.

There were a huge number of program items for the convention. I attended a good number of them with the typical problems of having multiple items on at the same time somewhat mitigated by knowing that they were mostly all being recorded.

A few highlights for me:

• Thursday (Meeting Academy M1, Convention Centre) Chris Baker (Fangorn): Concept Design for Film and Television - An amazingly talented conceptual artist talked about his work with various famous directors including Steve Spielberg, Tim Burton and Stanley Kubrick.
• Friday (Hall 2) Interstellar Film Score Performance & Q&A - Where the composer of the music for film “Interstellar”, Roger Sayer, performed his work on an electric organ as well as provided a bit of a talk.

• Sunday (Clyde Auditorium) Irish Video Game Orchestra - Despite not being a huge fan of video games, hearing a full orchestra perform some of the wonderful music was amazing. I had seen the Irish Video Game Orchestra in a much smaller form at the convention in Dublin a few years ago so it was great to see them full-voiced (indeed, there were even singers!).

• Sunday (Hall 2) From Antarctica to Space - ESA astronaut Meganne Christian talked about her training in Antarctica. We were thrilled to talk to her in the autograph area for a few minutes on Sunday as well.

Every day there were major events held in the evening, mostly in the Armadillo:

• Thursday - Opening Ceremony
• Friday - Worldcon Philharmonic Concert - Very good, professional orchestra, performing favourites from film and games.
• Saturday - Masquerade (Hall 2, Convention Centre) - A chance for convention members to dress up and compete. This was quite disappointing this year with very few competitors (many in the audience had better costumes), and technical difficulties throughout. We were waiting in the hallway for access to the room far longer than the show actually took to perform. Most people left after the performance, not waiting for the results to be given.

• Sunday - Hugo Awards
• Monday - Closing Ceremony

The dealer's room was in Hall 5 surrounding the art show inexplicably placed in the middle. There were not a huge number of vendors and certainly not many book sellers (odd to see Forbidden Planet not in attendance). The back of the room had a number of independent booksellers and authors selling items which caused a bit of confusion as to whether items were for sale or not.

In the middle of Hall 5, there were a good number of art show exhibits which had many for sale. It was nice to see a mixture of both professional and amateur work on display.

In the right side of Hall 4 were a good number of exhibits from various educational institutions. This is also where the volunteers desk and help desks were located.

There was a good selection of free books on offer in a section near the food trucks but these, understandably, went quickly with the tables soon covered with promotional materials and flyers (though if you wanted a few…hundred…bookmarks this was the place to be). The “fan lounge” was a short distance away offering an assortment of fan magazines and Lego if you wanted to have a go.

Parties were held in a small section of Hall 4 near the food trucks. Though the party organizers put on a good front I have to say I found them very impersonal and not terribly well attended. Nothing like trying to strike up a conversation and have a drink with someone in the middle of a cavernous concrete floored-room. There were not that many parties and they were strictly controlled by the convention. Still think it nicer to meet in hotel rooms…

Generally, a really good convention with, as always, a few things that could be improved. It was great they had the food trucks in one of the halls and the huge number of program items meant that attendees were spoilt for choice though the number of more famous authors, scientists, etc was quite small. Weather, thankfully, was great throughout.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2024-12-31

Location: Glasgow (Scotland)

Address: Exhibition Way, Glasgow G3 8YW SCOTLAND

Public Transport: Exhibition Centre

Telephone: +44 (0) 141 248 3000

URL: https://www.sec.co.uk/

The main convention centre in Glasgow, to the west of the city centre on the north bank of the River Clyde. There are numerous hotels in the area providing access to the large site which consists of a large convention centre, the OVO Hydro arena and the SEC Armadillo building which has a large auditorium and meeting rooms. The buildings of the complex (except the Hydro) are attached to one another by overhead walkways. Access to the site is relatively straightforward with a large multi-story car park and the nearby Exhibition Centre train station accessed via a rather dingy orange plexiglass tunnel.