Conspiracy '87
(Did you mean the New Zealand Natcons?)
Conspiracy '87 was the 1987 Worldcon held August 27 to September 1 in Brighton, England at the Metropole Hotel and the Brighton Conference Centre. GoHs: Doris Lessing (UK), Alfred Bester (US) (did not attend due to poor health), Arkady Strugatsky (USSR), Boris Strugatsky (USSR), Jim Burns (artist), Ray Harryhausen (film). FGoHs: Joyce & Ken Slater and David Langford (special fan). Chairman: Paul Oldroyd. Brian W. Aldiss was Toastmaster. Its program book was Frontier Crossings.
Malcolm Edwards was chairman until about nine months before the convention when he resigned from the committee for personal reasons. To minimize possible bad publicity from this, he agreed to remain as titular chairman and presided at some at-con ceremonies. Paul Oldroyd took over all of his duties, but under the title of "Coordinator". Both Malcolm and Paul agree that Paul was the de facto chairman at the time of the convention.
The Metropole Hotel proved to be an unusually unpleasant venue for the convention, with the hotel's General Manager evidently having a personal dislike for the convention. Read the Hotel Manager Wall for some of the juicy details. At night, the hotel -- the main convention hotel, mind you -- was closed to non-guests, with room-key checking at the front door. Some people were climbing up to the balconies on the bar side to get into the hotel after hours to get in.
Conspiracy was marred by a heavy Scientology presence at the convention. On the other hand, Los Alamos Fandom staged a very enjoyable fireworks display on the beach one night.
The Hugo nominating ballots were extremely late, with many fans not getting their ballot from the convention until after the deadline had passed. None-the-less, there were 1987 Hugos. (Due to the switch from 2-year lead time to 3-year lead time, Conspiracy '87 did not conduct Worldcon site selection.)
Bidders: Britain in '87, Phoenix in 1987. See 1987 Worldcon Site Selection.
Read David Kyle's Conspiracy '87 Reminiscence.
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