Prediction Revisited, I Was Right!

Probably as much by accident as by design, but I was right nonetheless. Back in May I predicted in the Denvention 3 community that a Worldcon in Denver would be "~3,500 warm bodies and ~4,500 memberships, plus or minus about 300 on both those numbers."

The numbers on the Denvention 3 website says, "Total warm bodies not including Kid-in-tow 3,751". Not bad. Even better, 3,697, if I exclude the 'special passes' as I expect the long list people will do. What about total memberships? Adding them all up I get 4,618. So even closer on that number. My prediction could have been wrong if the economy had been better and I cannot remember if I was taking that into account or not when I made the prediction. But I was right in my prediction and since I would have had to eat crow if I'd been wrong I feel quite happy in posting this.

Anyone want to see if I can do it again for the next Worldcon? If so I'll get my spreadsheet updated and read the statistical entrails for your entertainment.

Interesting side note: The size of Denvention makes it only a little larger than ConAdian, the 1994 convention in Winnipeg, which the long list puts at 3,570 and a bit smaller than TorCon with 3,834.
 

Welcome to Stapleton International Airport

...passenger zones are for loading and unloading only. No parking at any time. Unattended vehicles will be ticketed and towed away." The rich melodic voice which I was told was someone famous from years gone by at the local Channel 2 repeated the message over and over on a loop every few minutes. I remember listening to the announcement while waiting as a few flakes straggled out of the cold grey skies. I remember the middle aged pines growing in the gap between the departures viaduct and the parking structure and the grimy almost New York feel of the space. Especially in winter. I don't know why this memory came to me today, but I remember it strongly. I wonder if someday I might be one of the few who can remember what it sounded like there outside Stapleton's main terminal or what it was like inside the buildings accreted one on top of another from the earliest days of air travel through the jet age and onto the end when airplanes became dreadful packed flying buses. All the little details like the brushed steel doors of elevators with exuberant stylized maps of the world upon them to the old single engine airplane that hung in an atrium.

I don't suppose I'll ever fly again without pressing need for speed. In a way things have come full circle to when flying was a privilege that I was lucky to sneak in upon through family connections to the industry and suit. Only now I am kept away by a dreadful crush and unreliability that does not fit with the way I want to go on holiday. I would rather find a way for more days off and travel by car than to try squeezing out more time through 'just in time' air travel with an industry that is about as reliable as Amtrak.