Welcome
Welcome to the London in 2014 website. We are running a bid to bring the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, to London in August 2014. The site for 2014 will be selected by vote of members of the 2012 Worldcon. Between now and 2012, the bid committee will be publicising and promoting the bid to science fiction fans all around the world.
The Worldcon is the premier international science fiction event, and awards the prestigious Hugo Awards for achievement in the field of science fiction. 2014 will be the 75th anniversary of the first Worldcon, in New York in 1939, since when the event has been held every year apart from a break during the Second World War. It was last hosted by London in 1965, nearly fifty years ago. Typically the Worldcon attracts about 5,000 attendees from around the world, including hundreds of professional authors, editors, artists and publishers. It has a five-day multi-track programme with hundreds of hours of talks, panels, book signings, videos, etc.
Assuming the bid is successful, the convention will be held from Thursday 14 to Monday 18 August 2014 in the new International Convention Centre, which is part of the ExCeL exhibition centre complex in London's Docklands. The name of the convention, and its Guests of Honour, will only be announced once the bid has been won. The bid, and the convention itself, will be non-profit-making organisations run entirely by unpaid volunteers.
"Worldcon", "World Science Fiction Convention" and "Hugo Award" are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
London in 2014 Parties at Aussiecon 4
3 September, 2010 - 02:54There will be two London in 2014/UK & Irish fandom "hospitality events" at Aussiecon 4, both in the Crowne Plaza hotel.
On Friday, we're in the Corporate Lounge (upstairs from reception) at 9pm.
On Saturday, we're in Bridge 1 (downstairs from reception), again at 9pm.
We'll be serving UK specialties including whisky and Pimms. If you're attending Aussiecon 4, come along and say hello, and find out more about the bid.
News from NASFiC
16 August, 2010 - 12:10The London in 2014 team went out to Raleigh in North Carolina for ReConStruction, the 2010 NASFiC, and held a party and staffed a table as well as chatting with a lot of interested folk. Many Stateside fans had already volunteered to help with our table and party, along with some new volunteers, and these activities were very succesful.
We also worked with a variety of UK and Irish organisations to hold a UK and Irish party.
We picked up some 135 pre-supporting members and Friends over the weekend, and went through a lot of Newcastle Brown Ale.
The committee would like to thank everyone who has supported us and also those who volunteered and helped with our promotional activities.
The next stop is Melbourne for AussieCon 4.
Committee Meeting Update
8 July, 2010 - 13:30We held our first post-launch meeting of the bid committee on Sunday 4 July, and here are a few updates.
Before the meeting, we had a tour of the International Convention Centre at ExCeL, which opened for business in May, and will provide the bulk of our facilities. It's the first time we've seen it since the construction finished, and it's looking great -- it's easy to visualise it filled with 6,000 science fiction fans. ExCeL have also broken ground on their new hotel, which will be the sixth hotel on the site, directly attached to the convention centre.
Here are a few photos of the ICC, taken by Steve Cooper -- there are more on our Flickr group.
The main ExCeL concourse, approaching the ICC Read more »
Volunteers Needed
6 July, 2010 - 17:47Following the exciting launch of our bid at Eastercon in April, we are now going to put the "World" part of the Worldcon bid into action. We will have a presence at ReConStruction, the NASFiC in Raleigh, North Carolina in the USA, and at Aussiecon 4, this year's Worldcon in Melbourne.
At both these conventions we will staff a London in 2014 information table and also host parties.
If you are going to either of these conventions, and you might be able to make some time to help, please let us know at volunteers@londonin2014.org.
Read more »
List of supporters now online
17 June, 2010 - 11:34The London in 2014 bid now has 385 supporters, and the first supporter list has been posted to the website. Thanks to all of our supporters, and remember that there's still plenty of time to buy a Pre-Supporting or Friend membership in order to support the bid.
Sci-Fi-London 9
27 April, 2010 - 15:37Sci-Fi-London 9, London's annual festival of science fiction and fantastic films, starts tomorrow. We'll be attending some of the events, so come over and say hello if you spot a bid committee member -- we'll be wearing "London in 2014" badges.
News from the bid launch
10 April, 2010 - 15:09Our thanks to everyone for making the bid launch last weekend such a success. Our LiveJournal community now has 62 watchers, our Twitter feed has 92 followers and our Facebook page has an incredible 762 fans -- and still increasing. Read more »
Request for photos from Eastercon
7 April, 2010 - 12:41We have some photos of our own, but we'd like a wider range of photos of the launch party and the membership desk at Eastercon, so that we can pick the best ones to publish on the bid website. If you have any photos of us from Eastercon, could you email a link or the photos themselves to photos@londonin2014.org, together with a note of how you'd like to be credited if we use any of them.
Online payment now working outside the UK
5 April, 2010 - 20:31At launch, there was a glitch on this website that caused problems with entering the state/province on a membership purchase outside the UK. This has been fixed, and everyone in the world can (and should) now buy Pre-Supporting or Friend memberships in the bid. Our apologies to everyone who was inconvenienced.
Online payment at present is by PayPal only. Credit card payment will be coming soon.
Bid Update #1
2 April, 2010 - 21:00 Submitted by Mike Scott on 2 April, 2010 - 21:00London in 2014 Bid Update #1
Welcome to our first newsletter. We'll be issuing these around four times per year, to keep everyone updated on the progress of the bid.
Newsletter Subscription
The bid website at http://www.londonin2014.org/ offers you the chance to subscribe to this newsletter, if you would like to receive periodic updates about the bid progress. We won't give your email address to anyone else, or use it for any other purpose (unless you ask us to).
