Swancon Twenty3

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Dates: Thursday 24th to Monday 27th April 1998

The Convention

Guests

International Guest of Honour: Lois McMaster Bujold

Australian Guest of Honour: Tess Williams

Fan GoH: Gina Goddard

Venue

Hotel Grand Chancellor, Perth

Committee

Simon Oxwell, Grant Watson, Anna Hepworth, Daniel Oi, David Gunn, Colin Sharpe, Candice Schilder, Rick Jakins

History

Rather than hold the convention over the Australia Day weekend, as was the tradition for non-Natcon Swancons, the decision was made to hold Swancon Twenty3 over the ANZAC Day weekend. This gave the committee an additional three months' lead-time to prepare the convention and publicise the event.

Swancon Twenty3 was the first Swancon to experiment with the concept of a "Dead/Posthumous Guest of Honour" - essentially a device to honour and discuss a particular speculative fiction writer/artist who was no longer alive. The first artist selected in this vein was 19th century French author Jules Verne. Local fan Damian Magee stood in for Verne at the opening ceremony, and even delivered a Guest of Honour speech in character. After the inclusion of Jim Henson in 2000 and Stanley Kubrick in 2001, the Dead Guest of Honour concept was discontinued for a time.

In late 1997 British author Douglas Adams was approached about attending Swancon Twenty3 as a second International Guest of Honour, as he was expected to be in Australia at the time promoting the videogame Starship Titanic. While Adams initially agreed to appear, his participation in the convention did not ultimately eventuate. He has become the Dead Guest of Honour fittingly for Swancon 42 in 2017.

Publications and Productions

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References

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External Links

SwanCon Twenty3 posts on ASFDAP blog