Yes, while the fabric of society was unraveling this year, we were busy negotiating a shiny future in the Summit expansion of the Washington State Convention Center. Summit is a brand new, state-of-the-art convention facility under construction in the heart of downtown Seattle, next door to the current convention facility, and scheduled to open January 2023. We think that merits both exclamation points and the italics in the paragraph heading, and the objections of our editor were OVERRULED (all caps! hahahaha)

The Summit has 250,000 square feet of exhibit space, 100,000 square feet of meeting room space configurable into up to 62 rooms, 58,000 square feet of ballroom space, and amazing views of the city, the mountains, and Puget Sound to be found inside 137,000 square feet of windowed lobby space. We took a hardhat tour earlier this month, and the space will be gorgeous and full of light. Ask us about the third-floor garden terrace! The plentiful power drops, superb pedestrian flow with no pinch points, accessibility features, and endless configuration options make our con-running hearts swell three sizes. (Seattle also has superb medical facilities.)

Food and beverage outlets can be placed anywhere in the halls, and by 2025 the neighborhood will be bursting with life. We toured half a dozen neighboring hotels and have offers from 12 hotels for over 2,000 peak room nights within a five-block radius of Summit, some as near as across the street, ready for signing after the site selection vote. This pairs with our right-of-first-refusal offer from Visit Seattle, our city partners in bringing Worldcon to Seattle. Knowing the hiccups of past Seattle bids, we have been talking to Visit Seattle for the better part of two years, and can report that they like us, they get us, and sound as if they’re as excited about it as we are (impossible!).

I can bury the lede no longer. Mark your calendars! If the Seattle bid is selected, the dates of the 83rd Worldcon will be August 13–17th, 2025.

It takes resources to throw a Worldcon. Our parent organization, Seattle Genre Alliance, is a newly registered nonprofit corporation in Washington State, with 501(c)(3) status pending. We have a bank account, an updated website, and are ready to accept your donations. You can support us at Tall ($50), Grande ($150) or Triple Shot ($300) levels, with a dollar-for-dollar credit towards an adult attending membership to the Worldcon if our bid is selected. Triple Shot supporters will receive special tokens of our gratitude at unexpected times!

All of this and more can be found at https://www.seattlein2025.org. Click now! We’ll wait.

Our list of open positions is under construction but… between us, we need a lot of help. For the bid we can use folks to assist with content creation for the newsletter/blog, promotions, graphic design, social media, and fundraising/sponsorships. We also need as many people as possible to help spread the word at conventions around the globe. If you have other interests and talents, reach out to us. We are also starting to recruit for staff positions in 2025 if the bid is selected. Contact us through our website, or at seattle2025worldconbid@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading! We hope to see you in Seattle in 2025!