Norwescon 35 April 5-8, 2012 SeaTac, WA

Norwescon eNewsletter March 2012

In This Issue

Special Events
New hotel policy for NWC 36
Now serving hospitality
Now serving hospitality
NWC Movie previews
The Army of Oz wants you
nwcMUSIC
Maxi's Lounge FRIDAY

Norwescon Special Events

Adding more to your excitement!

QUIDDITCH!

Muggle Quidditch is coming to Norwescon! Get your team together ahead of time and sign up on the website! Rules are now posted, so grab your broom and your wizarding gear and let's make some magic!

Dance the Night Away!

We will have four (yes, FOUR) dances at Norwescon this year! We are proud to present out under-21 dance on Friday night for the younger generations. (Yes, those who refuse to grow up are welcome, too!) The theme will be Space Pirates! (Rayguns and cutlasses should be peace-bonded.) We present a beachy theme for the Thursday and Friday night dances with Callahan and Milliways Beach Party at the End of the Universe dance and the Friday Night Fantasy Luau. We are also bringing back the steadfast Saturday Night Hoedown, so bring your boots and get ready to spin your partner! To help you get your groove on, we will have two dance classes to teach your the moves to some of fandoms' favorite songs!

Lazer Tag with a twist!

Attention all Wizarding folk! A wizard dueling competition will be held at Norwescon 35's lazer tag! Represent your House! Prizes will be won! Earn credits for Saturday Night's Mercenary Game. Infrared wands will be provided. (All players under 17 must have a parent present to play.)

On Saturday night, a Pro Team will be in the lazer tag arena. They will be for hire. The credits that have been won or earned during earlier games will be used to purchase the Pro Team. The team will be bought and sold by auction and will remain in the employ of the purchaser until the client is tagged out, the whole team is tagged out, the game ends, or the team is purchased by a new client. Only trade credits can be used. Come and join the fun!

Midnight Movies

When you're exhausted from a long day of walking and playing, come and relax at our midnight movies. Granted, the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday night isn't exactly designed for relaxation, but we know you'll love it. Thursday we will be showing the classic Logan's Run and on Saturday be ready for the zany Ice Pirates!

New Room Deposit Policy!

A change is coming in the way we reserve rooms for Norwescon. It is a significant change for our members but we believe it will help us make more convention rooms available for our members at the cheaper convention rate.

Starting with Norwescon 36, we have asked the DoubleTree to collect a one-night room deposit when the room is first reserved. This deposit will remain fully refundable until 90 days before the convention, which for next year would be Friday, December 28, 2012. By agreement with the hotel, all rooms cancelled by this date will be returned to the room block and made available for reservation by other Norwescon members.

Read more....

Hospitality

Come on down to the Olympic wing and drop by Hospitality.

Grab something to eat, or a beverage, and have a seat. Take a break and go over your pocket guide with your highlighter. Looking to meet friends at the con? Tell them you'll be sitting in Hospitality.

Open from breakfast to bedtime.

REGISTRATION HOURS

THURSDAY noon - 10 p.m.
FRIDAY 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
SATURDAY 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
SUNDAY 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Day passes will be available on a limited basis, are only good for the day of issue, and may not be purchased in advance.

Join Our Mailing List

Welcome to Norwescon 35!

If you missed the chairman's blog post a short time ago, you can read it here. We hope you have a wonderful time!

Movie previews take over the world!

By Keith Johnson

Each year at Norwescon one of the most popular programs outside of the combined attendance of our multiple dances are the combined Movie Previews. For the seventh year my partner Alan Halfhill and I commit multiple sessions and countless hours of behind-the-scenes toil to bring you the latest movie trailers, news and rumors out of Hollywood and beyond.

But we're so much more than that. We highlight the latest trends, innovations, and challenges facing the industry. And also the wider entertainment culture; TV shows, home video, theme parks - the whole gamut! And for our fans of the Previews, we bring in da swag! Whatever we get from the studios or publicity agencies we pass along to you, our loyal customers. Now how much would you pay?

We have been given FOUR opportunities for full-frontal media assault, here's our schedule.[fan1]

Friday - Previews Show #1 - 1-3pm - Grand 3 - Our biggest screen, our best sound, our largest space - we're supersized! In our most popular, best-attended panel of the weekend we talk trailers, movies, the industry, trends, news - the whole enchilada.

Friday - Family Previews - 3:30-4:30pm - Olympic 1 - In the Family Track Room we do an hour of just family-friendly previews geared to the interests of our younger set. Though older folks are always welcome.

Saturday - Masquerade half-time - Our "speed round," a concise summation of what's coming mixed with news. But in something different this year, the Movie Previews Halftime will not be broadcast to the hotel. So if you want to see the show, you have to be in Grand 3!

Sunday - Previews Show #last - 12-2pm - Evergreen 1-2 - Our final panel includes more stories, more rumors and gossip, as well as the best of the weekends trailers. And there's always the notorious, "why? Why? WHY?"

We hope to see you at one or more of our panels this year. Why not collect the whole set?

Volunteers needed during the Convention!

Come volunteer your skills during the con. Register as a Volunteer as soon as you check in. Simply come to the Volunteers Lounge and sign up! The early fan gets the prime opportunties but, rest assured, there's enough opportunity for all.

For more information read the FAQs.

Come and join the fun!

More music!

nwcMUSIC, the geekmusic festival of Norwescon, has as its core ethos the idea of participatory culture: doing things, rather than sitting back and absorbing things. Our daytime programming is intensely participatory, with a variety of workshops and opportunities for you to take the stage.

Explore Filk...

We hope you will come explore "Introduction to Participatory Geekmusic," Friday at 2pm, where you'll get an introduction to filk, the oldest form of geekmusic, where everybody plays.

Or try Cascadia's Got Talent

a.k.a. Cascadia's Got a Gong Show - on Saturday, at 3pm; bring your song, your work-in-progress, your shtick, your standup act, your freak show, your whatever - bring your talent (alleged) to this, our free-form talent show! You have eight minutes, two songs, or until the gong gongs, whichever is shorter. Show us what you got!

If that isn't your speed...

There's Find Your Instrument, also on Saturday. Many musicians will tell you that the best way to figure out what instrument you should be playing is to mess around with a whole bunch of them and see if any reach back to you. Several of our Attending Professionals have volunteered to bring their more unusual instruments together in a single room and help you try them!

There's also Friday night's Open Mic, Sunday's Trouble Clef Jam, Open Filk every night, Saturday's Introduction to the Irish Session - all skill levels are welcome. C'mon out and give it a go!

Check out the music page for a wealth of opportunities.

Maxi's Lounge Exclusive

WHO IS DJ TOX2MUCH?

The mysterious Norwescon DJ veteran DJ TOX2MUCH has quietly laid in stasis preparing for the time the world would need him once more. That time has now come as he brings the MasterMix Café back for one singular special event, Friday from 9pm-2am at Maxi's. 21+ with ID and con badge. The more you drink, the better he sounds.

Read more...

Guidebook

Select the text above and get the #NWC35 schedule!

Planners rejoice!

The convention schedule is available on our schedule page. There you can find HTML and PDF versions of the daily events as well as the programming grids.

For those of you with mobile access, the schedule is available via Guidebook for smart phone, tablet, or computer. Select the logo to the left for free access.

Norwescon is a science, science fiction and fantasy convention that takes place on Easter Weekend each year. We are an all-volunteer organization and always have room for more dedicated volunteers. Without members, though, there would be no reason to hold a convention; thank you for your support.

Norwescon - PO Box 68547 - Seattle, Washington 98168