Welcome to Chicon 7!

Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as "Worldcon," is the premier gathering of authors, artists, fans, dealers, and more in the world science fiction community. Worldcon covers all the genres of written speculative fiction including science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, and alternate history, as well as science, media (movies, television, anime, and online), fanzines, gaming, costuming, filking, and more. More than 5,000 attendees from more than thirty countries will be attending the five-day event. Chicon 7 will be held on August 30 to September 3, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601; all programming and convention activities will be held within the hotel. Come join us in 2012 at Chicon 7!

2012 Hugo Voter Packet

Chicon 7, the 70^th World Science Fiction Convention, is pleased to present the 2012 Hugo Voter Packet, an electronic package of nominated works graciously made available to voters by nominees and their publishers.

The first release of the packet is now available (as of May 17, 2012). This release includes all of the fiction categories (Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story and John W. Campbell Award) plus Best Professional Artist.

We will be adding the remaining categories progressively over the next few days.

Note: the Best Fancast nominees are not included in the download files but are already freely available online. We have provided a separate page introducing these nominees and linking to selected examples of their 2011 work.

Opening Night at the Adler Planetarium

On Thursday, August 30, Chicon 7 will be taking over the Adler Planetarium for an evening reception for convention members. This exclusive event will run from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., during which time the museum will be closed to the general public.

During the reception, Chicon members can view the museum exhibits. In addition, the Grainger Sky Theater will be running the show "The Searcher" every 30 minutes. This show was written by Nick Sagan (son of astronomer Carl Sagan) and follows the story of a visitor from another galaxy as he searches for his lost civilization. It features stunning visualizations of the formation of our universe, the collision of galaxies, a spectacular supernova explosion, and a supermassive black hole. (Seating in the theater is limited, so there will be a $5 charge for admission to this performance.) Weather permitting, the museum will also host a sky-viewing session on its exterior deck, with telescopes and docents provided to members so they can see the wonders waiting in the night sky.

John Scalzi Story - Free to Chicon 7 Members!

In February, Chicon's Toastmaster, John Scalzi, approached the Chicon 7 Chairman's staff at Capricon and said something along the lines of: "The members of Chicon 7 are so awesomely amazing that I really want to do something special for them. If I wrote a story specifically for Chicon 7 members, do you think anyone would read it?"

Well, John isn't really known for writing gripping science fiction, but he is our Toastmaster and we thought it would be nice to humor him, so we said yes. A little while later, John sent us a humorous short story with the intriguing, if unwieldy, title "Dave and Liz and Chicago Save the World."

We asked Alan White, who has been providing the covers for the Chicon 7 Progress Reports, to create a cover for this story, and we tossed in some photos so you can see the places in Chicago John's story describes. We are now pleased to offer Chicon 7 members your very own copy of this original John Scalzi story.

To download the story, just click here - and make sure you have your Chicon 7 membership number and 7-digit PIN code to hand, as you will need them to confirm your membership and get access to the download.