Intersection

Intersection, the 53rd Worldcon, was held August 24–28, 1995, in Glasgow, Scotland at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) and the nearby Moat House Hotel. Parties took place at the Central and Crest Hotels about a mile away in central Glasgow. The fifth UK Worldcon and first in Scotland, it was called by some The Scottish Convention and Interthingy 1. Intersection was also the 1995 Eurocon.

GoHs: Samuel R. Delany (writer), Gerry Anderson (media), and Les Edwards (artist). FGoH: Vincent Clarke. It was chaired by Martin Easterbrook and Vince Docherty. Diane Duane and Peter Morwood were Toastmasters.

When Intersection won, Tim Illingworth and Vincent Docherty were Co-Chairmen. Docherty moved to Oman, resigned and was replaced by Martin Easterbrook. Illingworth subsequently resigned and was replaced by Docherty even though he remained in Oman. Easterbrook and Docherty were Co-Chairmen during the last 18 months of planning and at the convention. With Docherty living in Oman, most of the organizational work fell to Easterbrook. At con, a team of Martin Easterbrook, Vince Docherty, Margaret Austin, Oliver Gruter-Andrew, and Fiona Anderson acted as an executive committee.

The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre was a good facility, but even with the space in the attached Moat House Hotel, it did not have enough smaller rooms for the program. The committee remedied this by using pipe and drape curtains to subdivide an exhibit hall into four program rooms. The pipe and drape only went up about ten feet, so the "rooms" extended to the ceiling of the exhibit hall, perhaps 30 feet up. The result was a very noisy environment with continual interference between simultaneous program items. When the Glasgow in 2005 bid started, the facility had added more small rooms and their motto was "Once more with ceiling!"

The convention newsletter was Voice of the Mysterons, edited by Steve Davies.

John Brunner died on Friday at the convention, and the Hugo Ceremony began with Robert Silverberg giving a moving and dignified eulogy which ended with the entire convention rising for a standing ovation for Brunner.

The UK in '95 bid committee won the right to host the convention by defeating Atlanta in '95 at MagiCon, the 1992 Worldcon. The NY in '95 hoax bid also participated in the race, but did not file. There was a hoax bid, Wintersection.

The Science Programme was one of the first to have a set of web pages giving more detail about the programme items and their participants, and is preserved here, together with a write-up Ken Walton and Jo Walton's multi-day colonization game. Copies also downloadable from here. A highlight was the highly detailed Epona Project with a multinational exhibition and programme items.

In the 1998 Site Selection, Baltimore in '98 beat Boston in '98 for the right to hold BucConeer.

After the convention, Disection was held as a post-mortem event, and website Another Fine Nessie written about conrunning experiences.

The Scottish Convention

After Conspiracy '87, which had significant committee difficulties perceived to have adversely impacted much of British fandom, many British fans were dubious about British con-runners' ability to run a non-destructive Worldcon.

When it seemed likely that the UK in '95 bid was going to win, many fans decided to follow the theatrical tradition of referring to Macbeth (superstitiously thought to be an unlucky play to name in aloud) as "The Scottish Play", and started calling Interthingy 1 "The Scottish Convention" or "The Scottish Worldcon".

See also British Worldcons

• Intersection publications and photos on fanac.org
• Susan Stepney conrep
• Evelyn Leeper conrep
• Dave Langford conrep

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ConAdian	Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos	L.A.con III
Conspiracy '87	British Worldcons	Interaction
Eurocon 1994	Eurocon	Lithuanicon
	1995

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