NADWCon 2011 Sept Newsletter

Convention News:
Some events we have planned are the traditional Maskerade, Charity Auction and Gala Banquet as well as a dealers’ room of merchandise and an art show featuring Discworld specific pieces as well as other genre-appropriate art. Those are the programs that are guaranteed to happen, after all, we wouldn’t even bother having this convention if we couldn’t bring you those. We have much more in the works that will be announced on our Website (www.NADWCon.org) as well as our Convention News Community (http://community.livejournal.com/nadwcon2009) and
Twitterfeed (http://twitter.com/nadwcon). Also, don’t forget to visit our forum, (http://nadwcon.9.forumer.com) to chat with fellow members about Discworld, finding roommates and other things.
Why can’t we tell you more right now? Because our own Emily Whitten is currently in England attending the 2010 Discworld Convention, and booked some time to sit down with our guest of honor, Sir Terry Pratchett and discuss some of our ideas with him. We feel it would behoove us to get Sir Terry’s approval before we tip our hand. With any luck, Emily will be returning to the United States with a suitcase full of good news and a few treats for our convention.

Honored Guests:
Did you read that correctly? Did we say that Sir Terry Pratchett has agreed to attend this convention as our Guest of Honor? Why yes, I believe we did; but we’ve also confirmed that Bernard and Isobel Pearson (the Discworld Cunning Artificer and his better half), Terry's UK agent Colin Smythe, plus Terry's U.S. editors Jennifer Brehl and Anne Hoppe are also coming as well as Rob Wilkins, Sir Terry’s right-hand man. We will be announcing more guests as they are confirmed.

Igors (Volunteers):
Any convention needs volunteer help, and we're no exception. If you have not yet contacted our Volunteer Coordinator and would like to offer your aid, please email volunteer@nadwcon.org and let Nelly know your contact information and what skills you might be able to offer. We are always on the lookout for anyone who can build, organize, plan, or just stand there and look like they know what they are doing. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Membership:
Registration has been going beautifully. We have been taking a steady influx of memberships since the convention website went live two months ago, and are proud to say that we currently have over 150 members registered. Considering that the convention is still eleven months away, that is a pretty impressive number.
Currently our site, www.nadwcon.org, is accepting early registration for memberships. Price for adult membership (ages 12 and older) is $75 per person, and children between the ages of 4-12 is $45. More details on the treats you will be getting for your membership will be made available to you as they are confirmed.
Early booking is advised, and not just because we are showing such a positive turn out so early on. The weekend of the NADWCon is going to coincide with a big event here in Madison. The annual Art Fair on the Square (http://www.mmoca.org/events/artfair) will be taking place July 9 and 10 and will be within walking distance of our convention hotel. This is an outdoor art and craft show that brings in about a quarter of a million people from all over the country. Its a fun event for all ages with food, musical performances, and all sorts of things to do. If you happen to be in the Madison area, say... for a convention or something, and have an hour or so until the next program, Art Fair on the Square is certainly worth checking out. We have an expandable block of rooms at the Concourse Hotel reserved just for our convention members, but that is still a limited amount of space and with such a popular event taking place that weekend you should expect hotels in the area to fill up fast.

Apparently there are other conventions out there too:
The 2011 NADWCon committee is exchanging ideas and other things with the 2011 Australian Discworld Convention - http://ausdwcon.org/ as well as the upcoming 2011 Dutch Discworld Convention http://www.dutchdwcon.nl/ . If you can attend all three conventions we suggest you do, but for those of you that can’t you may be lucky enough to get your hands on some of the merchandise we are exchanging with one another. More info will be made available as it is confirmed.
For those of you that attended the recent Wizard World Con in Chicago on the 20th of Aug, you may have run in to some of the NADWCon committee handing out promotional material. Thanks to all those who helped us out and we were quite pleased with the results.
Also, we had a couple of Igors at Gen Con in Indianapolis earlier in August. You may have run into them handing out promotional material. Thanks for your help!
Our esteemed convention chairman Joshua Goes will be attending Edge Con (http://www.edgecomiccon.com) this Saturday the 4th with a booth of comics, artwork, and information on the 2011 NADWCon. If you keep your eyes open you may also spot him at Geek.Kon (http://www.geekkon.net) this Friday the 3rd. We hope to see some of you there.
Our Guest Liason Jon Manzo is chairing MadCon 2010 (http://www.madcon2010.com) Sept 24 - 26 with Guest of honor Harlan Ellison right here in Madison WI. This will be Mr Ellison’s final convention appearance so don’t miss it!

That’s not all, but it is all we can tell you right now. There is so much going on, and so many wheels in motion that we have already begin drafting our next newsletter! We certainly hope you are as excited about the 2011 NADWCon as we are, so we had better see you there!
Much more info to come, and thank you for reading.

The NADWCon 2011Committe
Joshua Goes - Chair