Nullus Anxietas 2

Impending Price Rise

Just a quick note to all that there is a scheduled convention ticket price rise on SEPTEMBER 30TH AT MIDNIGHT. After that tickets will be $150 or $130 for valid concession holders.

Also don’t forget that supporting memberships are available. These are for people who wish to support the convention, but don’t have any current plans to be at the event itself.

Supporting memberships are available at any point for $25 – and if you have one of these and want to upgrade to a full membership at a later point, then you’ll only need to pay the difference to whatever the full price was when you signed up for the initial supporting membership.

We Aten't Dead

We’re now open for registration! Thanks for your patience – as a reward, there’s a $15 discount on our starting prices of $120/$100 until July 14th.

More details will be elaborated upon as we draw closer to February, but there’s a start on the programme page and the unions page.

Convention Plans

Sorry it’s taken a while to get an official announcement for the next convention worked out – we wanted to get a few people’s involvement confirmed first though.

So here’s the plan:

• 6th-8th February 2009
• Daniel Knight and Snowgum Films are working to better ‘Run Rincewind Run’, and planning to have Troll Bridge ready to show off too.
• Martin Pearson will be returning to regale us with his witty songs and stories.
• Medieval Weapon Demonstrations, Werewolf, Significant Quest and other favourite sessions will be returning as well.

We’re currently working on getting a venue confirmed and membership registration set up – planning to have that ready in the coming weeks. We’re all pretty excited with what we’ve got lined up, and hopefully you are too.

Update regarding Terry's health

Terry got in touch with us a couple of days ago, and informed us he has a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s. Before you get too worried, I recommend you read his note about it at paulkidby.com

While it’s not happy news, it is great to see Terry approach it optimistically.

However, this turn of events has led to the cancellation of Terry’s signing tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2008 – and thus, his attendance at Nullus Anxietas 2. Frankly, we’d rather Terry look after himself, and spend more time writing, than come down to this part of the world – it does raise a few questions about the convention though.

We don’t have any concrete answers for you just yet, but we’re in the midst of discussions. At this stage, I’d say there’s a good chance we’ll still go ahead, perhaps as a smaller event, but I can’t give you a definite response about that just yet. (I will let you know as soon as possible, I promise!)

December Status Update

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned the next convention, so here’s an update:

Since we’re timing the next convention to line up with Terry’s next signing tour, we have to wait until the dates for that are confirmed by his publisher here, Random House. It’s a little more complex than the first time around, but it saves Terry an extra trip over here and helps keep our stress levels down, so we hope you understand the reasons behind it.

Also, as part of our discussions with (the very helpful) Random House, our prospective dates for Nullus Anxietas 2 have shifted from November to October next year.

Rest assured that the next convention will be happening – we’re just as impatient as you are to get things set in stone.

2007 AGM

Just a quick note, in case anyone is interested – we’re holding our AGM at 11am on Sunday 23rd September, at the Fitzroy Library (128 Moor St, Fitzroy Vic 3068). We’re hoping to have it done and out of the way in less than an hour. All are very much welcome.

Edit: Please note the change of venue from the Carlton Library to the Fitzroy Library. Sorry for any inconvenience.

What's next?

Just a quick note to let everyone know that there will be a second convention. Things are still pretty sketchy at this point, but sometime in November 2008 is probably when it’ll happen.

Aftermath (and photos)

And so it’s done. Finished. Kaput.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this convention a success – I listed some people in the closing ceremony, but there’s many others I forgot, which is why I won’t even try to name people this time around.

It was a lot of fun, and it seems everyone had a blast, which is awesome. There’s already some chatter about a follow up con, but more news on that as we have it. If you’re interested in helping in some way, please get in touch.

For those of you interested in seeing some photos of the event, the best place to look is Flickr, where there’s already a few hundred for you to peruse.

Again, thanks to everyone for their support. You’re all fantastic.

Membership Reminder

Hi everyone

We’re getting closer and closer to the start of the convention – it’s only a month away now. I just wanted to send out another reminder for those of you who are planning to come to the convention but haven’t signed up yet that now is a good time to do so – and we’ve got three good reasons why.

Firstly, if you’d like your name in the first-ever Australian Discworld Convention booklet (just to make it that little bit more special), you’ll have to be paid up by the 19th of January – anyone signing up after that date will unfortunately miss out because of printing deadlines.

If seeing your name in print doesn’t really float your boat, we’ve also got a message from Terry, who loves to see our membership list on the web-site grow:

There’s an Oz tourism ad running on UK television right now. You know how it goes. It’s about Typical Australia. All the men wear big boots and hats and the women wear bikinis (except during that Mardi Gras in Sydney, when even Brits know it’s the other way round), and are standing in the places where Australians always stand, like directly in front of Uluru, or on a hundred-mile stretch of otherwise unoccupied white sandy beach. One guy is driving fifty miles to open the front gate. You get the picture. No worries, eh?

The theme of the ad is that Aussies have gone to all this trouble to make a sea-girt paradise and are waiting with a certain amount of exasperation for us, the pale tourists. And the key slogan is: “We’ve got all this, now where the bloody hell are you?”

Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but in early February I bloody well expect to be in a Virgin airliner heading for the first Discworld convention outside the UK. I bloody well hope you’ll be there, because otherwise it’ll be a bit bloody lonely on that beach!

And the third reason to sign up in the next week or two – tickets have been selling quite well for the Gala Dinner, so if you’d like to come to that, you should book sooner rather than later. For those of you who are already booked for that, but want a ticket for your partner, I highly recommend getting in touch with our Membership Co-ordinator Suzie (suzie@ausdwcon.org) as soon as possible.

We look forward to meeting you all (and so does Terry) in February!

Hogswatch Special Offer

We’re offering a Hogswatch discount of $20 off normal and concession memberships from 12:00am 24th December to 11:59pm 31st December. Hopefully this gives you just that bit more incentive to sign up for a membership – perhaps for yourself, perhaps for a Discworld-adoring friend as a Hogswatch gift.

Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

As you may have noticed from the Virtual Guest list on the front page, we have two more virtual guests joining us for the convention – Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, coauthors of the Science of Discworld books.

As well as working with Terry, Jack (a biologist) and Ian (a mathematician) have worked together on numerous other non-fiction and fiction books, and we’re looking forward to talking with them over the convention weekend.

AGM

Just a quick note to let people know that we’ll be having an AGM for the Australian Discworld Convention Incorporated organisation in two weeks, on the 26th of November at midday. It’s not going to be particularly interesting, and isn’t actually focused on the convention itself, but you are welcome to join us if you wish. It will be held at the offices of MBO, at 335 Ferrars St, Albert Park, Victoria 3206.

Imminent Price Rise

Just a quick heads up to remind people that our current membership rates only last for a little while longer – come November, they will cost $200 (or $180 for concession) each.

Competition: Coffee and Chat with Terry

As an extra incentive for anyone considering coming along to the convention, we’re very happy to announce our latest membership competition. Anyone who signs up for membership before November will go into the running to be one of ten people who will get the opportunity to sit down together for a chat and coffee with Terry for an hour during the convention.

Keep in mind you must have paid for your membership before November, and unfortunately, family of committee members aren’t eligible (and neither are committee members, of course). If you already have a membership, then you are eligible – it’s not just people signing up between now and November.

If you have questions about this, either bug us on the forums or send an email to [pat at ausdwcon dot org].

Colin Smythe

Joining Stephen Briggs and Bernard Pearson as our Virtual Guests of Honour is Colin Smythe. Colin was first Terry Pratchett’s publisher – starting with Carpet People in 1971 – and then became his agent in 1987. He has the job of managing the books, translations, film rights, merchandise. More details can be found at http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/.

Accommodation Details

For those of you interested in staying at the Carlton Crest – and we do recommend it, even if it isn’t exactly cheap – the convention rates are as follows:

• Standard Rooms – $135 per night, 3 and a half star rooms, available as single/double/twin-share
• Superior Rooms – $173 per night, 4 and a half star rooms, available as single/double/twin-share
• Superior King Rooms – $188 per night, available as single/double
• Carlton Executive – $234 per night, available as single/double

Lakeview versions of all of these rooms are available for $15 extra per night. These are all convention-only rates, so when you book you will need to make sure you say it’s for the Discworld Convention.

If you find these prices just too expensive (and that’s understandable), we’d suggest you consider sharing a room. Obviously this limits your options to the twin-share options (unless they’re really good friends) – although there are a limited number of portable beds available (for an extra charge). We are happy to facilitate finding a room-mate for you if required – if you are interested in this, please email Suzie (suzie at ausdwcon dot org).

To guarantee getting a room at the Carlton Crest, we recommend you book as soon as possible – while we have some rooms set aside for convention attendees, we can’t hold onto them forever. For bookings, give the Carlton Crest a call on 03 9529 4300.

Virtual Guests of Honour!

As you may have noticed already, both Stephen Briggs and Bernard Pearson – our Roundworld’s CMOT Dibbler and Cunning Artificer respectively – have kindly agreed to be virtual guests of honour for Nullus Anxietas.

What do we mean by ‘virtual’? Well, they won’t be able to join us in person (unfortunately) but, via the wonders of the internet, we will conduct an interview with each of them live during the convention.

Stephen Briggs has worked closely with Terry Pratchett on many things, including the Discworld Diaries, Companions and Maps. He has also authored and performed many theatre adaptations of the Discworld Novels. You can find more details about him at his website, http://cmotdibbler.com.

Bernard Pearson was the founder of Clarecraft, creating many sculptures of Discworld characters and buildings. He had a hand in the creation of the boardgame Thud, and currently creates wonderful Discworld stamps. You can learn more about him at his website, http://www.artificer.co.uk/.

Competition Winner!

Congratulations to Philip Richardson who has won our latest random prize draw!

He has won:
1 Nullus Anxietas Logo T-shirt
1 Limited Edition Poster Print of Great A’Tuin, the latest by local artist Sarah Kinder. (Coming soon to the Merchandise page.)

All he had to do to win these prizes was to be a member (Full, Concession or Supporting) of Nullus Anxietas: The Australian Discworld Convention!

Yet another bug

Err, there was another bug – people couldn’t create site user accounts. Kinda major, I know. But it’s fixed now.

If you do come across other bugs, feel free to send abuse to me via pat@ausdwcon.org – especially if you provide plenty of details on how the bug happens :)

Problem with Membership Signups

We’ve just been alerted to an error message that would appear when people sign up for site memberships. We’ve fixed the problem, and we do have all the details of those of you who have signed up and saw this error message.

Sorry for any confusion – and please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions about it or other website questions.

Please Read!

It’s come to my attention that not everyone received an automated email with a new password for your account from the old website.

I’ve no idea why this happened, but if the ‘forgot password’ functionality of the site doesn’t work, send me an email at pat@ausdwcon.org, and I’ll set your password to something, then you can log in and change it to whatever you want.

Sorry for the hassle.

And we're live

Ok, looks like we’ve got everything shifted over.

Feel free to point out anything that didn’t happen so smoothly…