JeddiCon, Controversy, and How WorldCon Site Selection Works

Photo by José Martín Ramírez Carrasco on Unsplash

On Tuesday, July 28, the Guardian published an article about an open letter signed by “more than 80” writers protesting the fact that Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, was allowed to bid for the 2022 WorldCon.

These writers…and many who read it…were up in arms that a country with such a terrible human rights record was being permitted to bid. They argued that it was “antithetical to what science fiction stands for.”

The argument is that the World Science Fiction Society should decide who’s allowed to bid based off of…morality? Ethics?

A lot of the responses showed little understanding of how the process works. So let’s start there.

Photo by Brett Zeck on Unsplash

How is the WorldCon Site Chosen?

The WorldCon site is chosen by members of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) by the following process:

1. Sites put forward a bid for the year. Bids are put forward for a city (not a country. No WorldCon has been held in a rural area or small town because they require a good amount of space) and are put forward by a group of people who want to run WorldCon. In most cases…