Generated: Mon Aug 17 16:30:25 2026
Congress’ withdrawal of funding for NASA’s Mars Sample Return may have you feeling blue about the future of Mars exploration. However, there are still multiple hardworking spacecraft at the Red Planet. In addition, several countries have missions under development. This panel of space scientists and engineers will talk about the ongoing work at Mars and what they dream we might discover next.
Panels are often the backbone of convention’s program. A successful panel needs to have great panelists but it's equally important to find a moderator to help the panel to run smoothly, ensure it's interesting and equitable, and preside over the question period. Learn how to do all these tasks and others well!
There is some new research and discussion about this very old topic. Robert Sapolsky’s Determined and Daniel Dennett’s I’ve Been Thinking look at the topic from different directions. Can we really make our own decisions? What does it even mean to have or not have free will?
Fannish Hugo Award categories are as old as the Award itself. Over the years their number and scope have changed, and currently we are voting on four fannish statuettes: Best Fanzine, Best Fancast, Best Fan Writer, and Best Fan Artist. What is the meaning and importance of those categories for both the winners and fandom as a whole? Why do we need them? Let’s discuss the importance of Hugo Awards for fans.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of space science and exploration, defining ethical norms is of acute concern. How will we protect other worlds against contamination and exploitation for resources? How do we ensure all voices are heard and a vision of global cooperation and benefit is made reality? Come consider how scientists and writers can partner to manifest an ethical approach to exploring space.
The fictional substance adamantium is best known as the material in Wolverine’s skeleton, Ultron’s shell, and X-23’s claws. But as physicist and exotic materials expert Sara Callori (California State University, San Bernardino) will describe, superstrong materials like adamantium have a long history going back to ancient folklore and are the subject of research by modern-day scientists. Come to have your mind expanded (but not your skeleton replaced)!
Michael Solis is the author of the Deficient series, founder of Mintaka Press, and Executive Director of the nearly 50-year-old literary nonprofit Writers & Books in Rochester, NY. A former humanitarian worker who spent many years living across Africa and Latin America, he loves chatting about queer speculative stories, worldbuilding, superpowers, the journey from small press to indie publishing, audiobook narration, nonprofit leadership, and anything else you'd like to discuss!
Online platforms differ in terms of norms, type of material presented, algorithms, and audiences. How has the architecture of varying platforms shaped our behaviors in these spaces? Are some platforms more hospitable or hostile towards specific kinds of fan activity than others?
Advanced humanoid robots are already in development. How far are we, really, from having a robot integrated with artificial intelligence? How would our new robotic companions help us? What physical dangers would they pose? What social and ethical dangers would they create? What kind of social pushback would they inspire, and why? How deep will the uncanny valley be?
Regenerative agriculture is the new buzzy method for healthy farming. What is it? Why does it matter? How is it linked to indigenous practices? Can you do it in your garden? It’s largely about soil linked to nutrients in our food.
Book clubs are a great way to connect with other fans and discuss the works you love. Panelists will discuss how to start and sustain a book club, and strategies to help your book clubs flourish.
From Isaac Asimov to Martha Wells, robots have fascinated readers and writers alike. We’ll try to gather as many SF writers depicting robots as we can, and have a great discussion about how SF robots get designed, what they say about us and the future, and more. What are the best robot stories?
Fan Artists use many forms of expression – from drawing, through painting, sculpture, jewellery, to anything else one can use to create art. Let’s do a deep dive into the realm of Fan Artists, their works, their motivations, even their favourite item in their Hugo portfolio!
N.E. Davenport writes SFF novels with bold and unapologetic heroines who stand firmly in their own power, sexual freedom, and agency. Enemies-to-lovers, found family, morally grey characters, and villainous love interests are common to her story worlds. Join her for a table talk about fierce heroines, feminine rage, weaving romance and spice into SFF, why villains and anti-heroes make for sexy love interests, and all things morally grey.
Whether you are a fan or a pro working within our genre, you may “Level up”. Gaining experience can give you more “power”. The question is how to use responsibly and without harming others? Let’s discuss responsible levelling up as creators and community members, including both the pitfalls and benefits that come with greater experience and visibility in fandom.
We run cons because of our love of the genre and community, but also because we like to do it. Yet, there are times when one needs to take a step back. This may happen as our lives require more of our time, but it may also be a way to avoid burnout. How can we be aware of when we do too much? When should we step down, take a break, or even abandon conrunning?
Lots of birders are also science fiction and fantasy nerds. Why the overlap? Join for a discussion of favorite bird facts, latest bird-related discoveries, and how to get involved in local birding groups. Depending on the weather, there may be a fieldwork element.
Sometimes you need to make your characters suffer without going over the top, having them survive the unsurvivable, or be unconscious the whole time. How can you write that sweet spot of pain and misery that can be endured or powered through while still being gut-wrenching to the reader? Which injuries lend themselves best to being healed and cared for by someone else, for the other side of hurt/comfort?
Running a Worldcon takes a lot of time. It is true in both the time span of the work and the actual amount of it. This endeavor can take even a decade from the initial idea to the end of a convention, and it happens in addition to our usual lives. How can we survive on such journey, and come out of it with happiness and satisfaction and not a burnout?
Hugo Award-winning fanzine editor Geri Sullivan welcomes you to her Guest of Honor exhibit space in ACC North. She would love to meet you!
Impact events are massive explosions powered by tremendous kinetic energy. In spite of this, impacts in the solar system are not only destructive events, they are responsible for creation as well. From the origin of the planets, to the advent of life on earth, to our current assessments of impact hazards to human civilization, this presentation by a professional planetary scientist will provide a look at planetary impacts for all space fans.
Many famous creators came from fandom, and many actively participate in the community. At the same time, other authors prefer to have a distance from the fans. How those interactions work in different media? To what extent do fans affect the creation process?
How do we define 'voice' in fiction? Is it a case of 'you have it or you don't'? Does it come naturally, or is it something you can learn? In this interactive workshop, you'll explore your own authorial voice in a series of guided discussions and exercises through analysis to practice. (This workshop will contain short writing exercises but there is no obligation to share your work unless you are comfortable doing so.)
Akua Lezli Hope, a SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry, invites listeners into a shared field of imagination where Afrofantastic visions, consciousness, and connection are offered through poems from her recently released collection, Telepath and other new works that explore transformation and wonder.
From Gloomhaven to Blood Raven, nerds are passionate about a lot of things. Yet, there's one thing they love above all else: correcting people. Um, Actually presents you with statements about the fictional worlds of popular movies, TV shows, and books. They all sound right, but listen carefully, because each one has a mistake hidden in it! It's your job to figure out what's wrong and say it loudly and clearly and, of course, beginning with the magic phrase: “Um, actually...”
In tribute to Dropout's
In this workshop participants will enjoy facilitated discussion and complex ideas focused on who is considered a hero versus the villain. Samples for this workshop will be centered on Marvel and DC characters. After discussion, participants will do a writing exercise focused on thought provoking story telling in poetry. There will be opportunity for sharing at the end.
One reason The Expanse is beloved by so many scientists and engineers is that it just gets so many things right that it starts to feel real. Our panelists will weigh in on what aspects of the world of The Expanse are within sight of being real, and which are grounded in science but further away.
We all know fandom is full of brilliant people. It’s also full of older people. How do older fans stay brilliant? Come learn about the neuroscience of aging and the current research about aging well.
Women who’ve found success in the space industry will share their experiences and talk about their many successes. All this in a field that can be described as the highest glass ceiling of them all with institutional misogyny. Our panelists will also talk about their tactics and coping mechanisms.
In this panel discussion, we will explore the profound and extensive psychological effects of fictional characters on our overall well-being. Often seen as negative influences, these characters also embody positive traits that we should recognize and embrace. By understanding and adopting these positive qualities, individuals undergoing therapy can see substantial improvements in their mental and emotional health.
Worldcons started in 1939 in New York City. As we approach 100th anniversary, there are many stories to share – both good and bad. Back in 1939 we established Masquerade, but also infamous Yellow Pamphlet was published which led to the First Exclusion Act. Some years later we started Hugo Awards, that are with us till today. And later on… Yes – there are many stories to tell, so let’s listen to at least some of those!
NASA’s mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa is scheduled to arrive in 2030, and we’re all waiting to know: could Europa have currently habitable conditions in an ocean below its icy surface? This panel of scientists and engineers will discuss why we think Europa might have an ocean, and how the Europa Clipper spacecraft has been designed to study this moon in detail.
Voyager 1 and 2 discovered volcanoes on Io, performed the only fly-bys of Uranus and Neptune, created the iconic Pale Blue Dot image and are now returning invaluable data from interstellar space. Join members of the Voyager Flight Team as they review highlights from the mission and discuss the current engineering challenges of operating humanity’s farthest ambassadors as they approach Voyager’s 50th Anniversary since launch.
The nineteenth century was a great age of science, but until anaesthesia, antiseptic and antibiotics came along, surgery remained limited and dangerous. Drugs were few, experimental protocols were near zero, and contagion was poorly understood: while TB was known to be a contagious disease in the East, the belief it was hereditary led to its rapid spread in the West. The panel will discuss what was known, what was guessed at, what was flat out wrong, and what was fashionable.
Despite modern transformative works spaces being more visible and accessible, and fans in this space being more likely to be open about their "wallet names," there's still a strong tendency to create fan work under pseudonyms. What is the appeal of creating and sharing work anonymously? What freedoms and restrictions can be found in working this way and engaging in community while "hidden"?
So you've written and edited your manuscript and are ready for the next steps: it's time to talk query letters! This interactive workshop will take you through the basics of composing a query letter, breaking down metadata, plot pitches and comps. Bring a draft of your query to workshop or get started writing with support.
We don't have a road atlas for Mars but we have a significant amount of data, including official IAU names for many locations. How do Mars scientists name places on the Red Planet, and what's been happening in those places lately? Where do we imagine we'll celebrate Mars New Year on September 30, 2026?
In 1943, prominent Boston fan Art Widner designed and published a sophisticated SF board game. Although earlier offerings based on Buck Rogers were simplistic and aimed at children, Widner’s game was aimed at adults. It combined elements of Monopoly and chase/race games. A few enterprising fans have attempted to resurrect Interplanetary over the years. We’ll trace the history of the game and introduce the latest, most ambitious reboot to date.
Join representatives from Friends of the Island Fox (FIF), the only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to protecting and conserving the endangered Channel Island Fox. You will learn about the fox’s remarkable history, including its near‑extinction in the early 2000s. If you are curious about the adorable real‑world fox behind our convention mascot, this is a rare opportunity to learn directly from the people working to safeguard this unique species.
The return to the Moon is both exciting and fundamentally different than in the Apollo era. Who all is going there and what are the potential risks and rewards of using public/private partnerships for lunar exploration? What new scientific questions do we expect to explore? Come and discuss all aspects of humanity’s return to the Moon!
Much of today’s AI discussion rightly focuses on risks and ethical concerns: energy and water use, labor disruption, misuse, and inherent bias. This session looks at a different question: could AI contribute positively to shared societal goals? We’re interested in AI as a set of tools embedded in wider systems: energy, science, public infrastructure, climate, and health. This is not a hype panel but looking at it through a futurist lens.
Walter Jon Williams was the Guest of Honor at the 2017 Worldcon in Helsinki. He's the author of Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, Implied Spaces, and the Praxis series. He's the founder of the Rio Hondo and Taos Toolbox workshops, and lives in New Mexico. He's been doing this for a long time. He has stories.
Were you at L.A.con, I, II, III, or IV or are you interested in learning more about the earlier LAcons that led to this one? Join us for stories from those memorable Worldcons. Hear others and share your own.
How do working scientists retain joy and curiosity is a difficult world. What tools do they use to come to breakthrough ideas, to slog through long experiments, and to stay passionate about sometimes difficult ideas?
At different times throughout history, pivotal technological changes have changed the course of history. Panelists will choose an interesting piece of tech or scientific knowledge and explain its development and importance.
Geoengineering is about humans actively intervening in natural climate processes to change the outcomes. It’s risky, possibly foolish, and may be our only hope—we’re not changing our emissions fast enough to slow climate change. What are the options, risks, and opportunities?
Join us to learn the basics of cell therapy: using living cells to treat diseases. Discover why you might want to use cells instead of standard medications, what types of cells doctors use, and different ways cells can be delivered to the body. We’ll talk about companies developing these treatments and how to tell legitimate trials from scams.
Conventions began as small fannish events that have over the years evolved into diverse forms, including large comic cons. Despite being the smaller, less-funded variety, fannish cons have survived till this day. Panelists will discuss the current challenges and whether this model is sustainable in the long run.
Many fans love collecting items. It may be books, art, trading cards, fanzines, textiles, or other fun stuff! Yet just obtaining the item may not be enough. Time may take its toll on the collection. Collections may be damaged by water, light, pests, and even dust. In this presentation we will show what we can do at home to improve the safety of our collection(s).
What have we learned from our experience with COVID-19? Panelists will discuss what we’ve learned in terms of disease monitoring, public health, and steps individuals can take to keep themselves healthy. We’ll also discuss some missteps in science communication, and accommodations that didn’t end up being helpful, such as tiny plastic screens.
By popular demand, the bananas are back! Join us as panelists perform dramatic readings of real Ig Nobel Award-winning and other Improbable Research papers, then attempt to answer audience questions. Celebrate “Research that makes people LAUGH… then THINK” in this science-based improv event.
Star Trek depicted teleportation as moving a whole person (or more) from one place to another. In 2017, Chinese scientists successfully teleported a single photon. This year, Oxford researchers demonstrated the ability to use teleportation to link two quantum computers. How do current theories and approaches to teleportation reflect the science fiction we know? Are there new ways to think about teleportation?
LA has fascinating history of literary SF and fandom from meetings of First Fandom at Clifton's Cafeteria, to those in the Ackermansion. Through the writing of Fahrenheit 451 at UCLA's library, Octavia Butler's bus rides to the Central Library, Harlan Ellison's Lost Aztec Temple of Mars, the invention of Steampunk and the first Latinxfuturist novel. Hear the stories and then plan your own tour of the 'Capital of SF'.
How do you craft vivid and complex cultures for your characters without forcing readers to sit through a lecture on economics? Whether it’s the price of an egg or the obstruction of a trade route, you want your readers to understand economic’s significance, but not at the cost of boring writing. Economics winds through almost every moment, a pattern glimpsed out of the corner of the reader’s eye. How do you explain it? How do you get it right?
This panel will discuss the benefits of having your own website and what tools and services are available to build and maintain one. What should it include? How extensive must it be? Can/should you do direct sales from your website? What are the benefits of a newsletter and building a mailing list? We will discuss website and newsletter best practices based on the panelists’ experience.
(This is not a how-to for building your own website, etc.)
With the majority of the population living in light-polluted cities, it is becoming harder to look up and see constellations in the night sky. Ideas like beaming light to places on Earth from orbit, or orbital billboards are being seriously explored. How does losing access to the stars affect our sense of wonder and our understanding of our place in a vast universe?
Over the years we learned that some of the “big names” in science fiction and fantasy were, and are, behaving in a very unethical way. Their works, however, may be important to us. Is it possible to separate the art from the artist? Should we try doing so, and if yes how can we achieve it? And last, but not least: how can we ethically enjoy such pieces of art?
Cinema, television, and video games today heavily feature genre content—from cartoons to small indies to big budget franchises, they run the gamut of adaptations and remakes of both new and classic speculative works. Panelists will discuss what it means for geek culture to be this mainstream, and how that’s influencing both the genre itself and, most importantly, fandom.
Much of today’s AI discussion rightly focuses on risks and ethical concerns: energy and water use, labor disruption, misuse, and inherent bias. This session looks at a different question: could AI contribute positively to shared societal goals? We’re interested in AI as a set of tools embedded in wider systems: energy, science, public infrastructure, climate, and health. This is not a hype panel but looking at it through a futurist lens.
Meet some of the writers, creatives, and fans who want to invite you to Edmonton / ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) for the Worldcon in 2030! We’re throwing a virtual bid party with interviews, a Q&A time, and the unveiling of our new bid mascots! Come get a taste of what it’s like “north of ordinary!”
Jennifer Hudak, author of the Hugo-finalist poem "The World to Come," reads a selection of forthcoming poetry, and flash fiction that straddles the line between poetry and prose.
Even billionaires who run large foundations that support social causes mint more money every day than they can spend or give away. The top 1% own more than the bottom 99%. How do we fix this? This panel will explore alternative future economies and the choices we can make today to build a fairer future.
Found in the deep ocean, remote rainforest, isolated cave or just someone’s backyard. Panelists discuss some truly strange creatures and their “creative” adaptations, as well as the researchers and citizen scientists who look for them. Sea cucumber butt teeth, and other glories of nature. Inspired by Ursula Vernon and T. Kingfisher’s Hugo acceptance speeches.
Egalitarianism is an ideal fandom aspires to, where fan spaces are open to everyone and everyone is an equal. However, fandom often misses that mark. Panelists will discuss the unequal realities within fandom, and steps we can all take to make these spaces into more equal and welcoming places.
For the first time since 1976, we can see the advance preview slideshow that toured prior to the release of Star Wars. Original slides have been reconstructed by Lucasfilm's Pete Vilmur, and married to the sound track from the presentation at the Worldcon digitized by the Video Archeology Project. Introduced by GoH Geri Sullivan and Craig Miller, Star Wars' original Director of Fan Relations.
Since early years of fandom, fans were recognizing others who contributed to the community. It have taken many forms – from being audience of someone’s fanac, through Fan Awards, to inviting fans as Guests of Honors. What is the importance of doing so? And do we recognize others enough?
Space is populated with a LOT of old satellites, broken satellites, and other debris, but no one is taking responsibility. The panel discusses the dangers are posed by this debris, who is paying attention, what we can do about it, and who is trying.
Bridget is an art addict, space painter, nature nut, mad gamer, and world traveler with no hope for recovery! Been an airbrush beach artist, ad agency A.D., plein aire painter, surviving Hollywood 46 years flinging paint on sets with fog machines, lights glaring, trap doors, wild animals, dancers kicking, singers crooning, & actors fighting, scenery crashing, and lived! Worked Heroes, AHS, Parks & Rec, Good Place, & more! Come tickle my brain!