What’s a little space opera without some robots (droids? close enough). #battlebots Team Malice – Battlebots and Team Skorpios – BattleBots are coming to BayCon, July 1 – 4! Come meet the teams and their robots. We’ll also have special programming featuring team members! Find out more as we get close to the convention weekend! #BayCon2023 #MantiCon #spaceopera #anightatthespaceopera #TRMN #alwayswithhonor #sciencefiction #science #robots #bayarea
Yes, you heard that right! BayCon 2023 is thrilled to welcome actor Robert Picardo, of Star Trek Voyager and Stargate fame for a special appearance on Saturday, July 1st! Robert joins us as a representative of our charity, The Planetary Society, of which he has been a member of the Advisory Council since 1999, and on the Board of Directors since 2015.
Robert will be onsite signing autographs (time TBA), then you can join him in our main ballroom for a talk on The Planetary Society, followed by a reception.
BayCon VIP members (25% off until 4/18!) who are present also have priority for autographs and front row seats to the Planetary Society talk. This is something you are not going to want to miss! Find out more about how you can donate to the Planetary Society or become a member.
Come join our Outreach team this weekend at BABSCon and Clockwork Alchemy this weekend, April 8 and 9! We’ll have tables where you can meet our staff, find out about our convention, and we’ll even have discount codes for memberships! Our VIP memberships will also be 25% off through April 15. Hope to see you there!
BayCon 2023 welcomes Special Tech Guest Brianna Wu in July! Brianna Wu is an award winning tech journalist, a former game developer and a former candidate for congress in Massachusetts. She is currently executive director of Rebellion.Brianna is a veteran of past BayCons and we’re super happy she’s coming to join us again! Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BriannaWu.
BayCon 2023 is pleased to welcome Frank Wu as Toastmaster!
Frank is an award-winning author and artist. As an undergrad at the University of Rochester, he majored in English, specializing in medieval studies, because the Hundred Years’ War is fun. He then took a hard right turn and earned a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After that, he combined his writing skills and scientific knowledge into a career as a patent agent (if you invent a new cure for cancer, he can help you get a patent on it!). He even had a tiny role in developing COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
Meanwhile, Frank honed his skill as an artist. His illustrations have appeared in Amazing Stories, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, The SFWA Journal, Fantastic Stories, and other publications. Some of his favorite subjects to paint are: Dinosaurs playing guitar and dragons fighting in WWI. Two of his works hang in The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, and he won 4 Hugo Awards for Best Fan Artist. He also dabbled in animation with “Guidolon, the Giant Space Chicken” and designed spaceships and other 3D assets for his wife Brianna’s videogame “Revolution 60.” His proudest achievements in his art career, though, may have been pointing out scientific errors in the stories he was illustrating (as a science fiction artist, it’s useful to know some science).
More recently, Frank has moved primarily onto writing. His second pro publication, “In the Absence of Instructions to the Contrary”, won the Anlab Award for Best Short Story in Analog magazine. He has a novel in the works with Tom Easton, and his newest novella, “Poison,” co-authored with Jay Werkheiser, will be in the May-June 2023 Analog (his 6th appearance in that magazine!). Frank will bring extra copies of the magazine to the con and promises to give one to anyone who can stump him on a random trivia question (while supplies last!).
Frank spent much of his career in the Bay Area, and is very happy to return here, along with his wife, Special Tech Guest Brianna Wu.
Dear BayCon Members, Guests, and Staff,
We’re pleased to announce that we have signed a three-year agreement with the Santa Clara Marriott for BayCon 2023, 2024, and 2025! We’re excited to be working with Santa Clara and their beautiful and spacious convention facility, which has plenty of space to accommodate larger events!
This year, due to a previously-scheduled event at the hotel on Friday, we need to move the dates ahead by one day, meaning BayCon 2023 will be taking place from Saturday, 1 July to Tuesday, 4 July, which allows us to take advantage of the fireworks show at California’s Great America on the last night!
The Santa Clara Marriott is located at 2700 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95054. It is within easy walking distance of light rail, and a short car/shuttle ride from the San Jose airport.
Due to the date change, Sarah Gailey will not be able to join us as Toastmaster. We are negotiating a replacement and will make an exciting announcement in the near future.
We realize that the change of venue and dates may be challenging for some. If you find that you are unable to attend the convention, BayCon is pleased to roll over your full attending weekend membership to 2024. As stated in our policy, we are unfortunately not able to offer refunds for your memberships at this time.
Because we have agreed on three years at this venue, we will be back to a Friday – Sunday event in 2024 and 2025.
If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to email info@baycon.org. For registration-specific questions, please send email to reg@baycon.org
Sincerely,
Chris Castro
Convention Chair, BayCon 2023: A Night at the Space Opera