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WisCon 45 in 2022

New Lower Price for Online Memberships

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WisCon is just under two weeks away! We can’t wait to see you there, whether in-person or online. If you’ve been waffling about whether to register to attend online, we’re excited to announce a new lower price of $25 for online memberships.

When we started planning for this year, we had reason to be nervous about WisCon’s finances. That led to the #SaveWisCon campaign—but it also led us to set a pretty conservative price ($40) for our Online Memberships, while also focusing on making sure that our online programming this year would be worth that price.

In the months since #SaveWisCon started, we’ve had an outpouring of support from our community. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed, whether by volunteering, donating, or signal boosting our messages! And thank you to everyone who’s already registered—right now we have about 550 people registered, across in-person and online.

We’ll have a bigger update about #SaveWisCon soon, but already we can be a bit more certain about our financial stability. Because of that, we’ve been able to revisit our pricing for the online convention, and we’ve decided to lower the cost of Online Membership to $25. You can still purchase a membership for $40 if you prefer to do so—or simply put the extra money towards a donation, in which case you will receive a tax receipt.

For everyone who already registered at the higher price, we are offering a rebate for the difference in cost. Please fill out this Google Form if you would like that rebate, and we’ll put it in motion for you.

To be clear, all online memberships give exactly the same access to the online convention (and in-person memberships provide access to both in-person and online programming). And we’re really excited about the online programming we’re offering this year, which includes:

  • Nearly 30 all-online panels (held via Zoom), including some of the most popular panels from the panel interest survey
  • Livestreams of readings and speeches by Guest of Honor Sheree Renée Thomas
  • Livestream of the Otherwise Auction
  • Online Readings, Academic sessions, and Workshops
  • Online Parties, including a livestream of the Vid Party
  • The return of the WisCon Discord server
We think we’ve succeeded this year in creating a truly WisCon experience in the online schedule: ensuring that you’ll want to be in two different places at the same time.

The program is visible at https://program.wiscon.net/PublicSchedule.php (scroll to the right for all-online panels in our Ansible rooms, the grid has gotten very wide!). To register for either an in-person or online membership, visit https://reg.wiscon.net/, from now until the end of the convention weekend.

Official Announcements, WisCon 45

WisCon 2022 Registration and Programming Suggestions Open!

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Registration for WisCon 2022 is now open, as are proposals for programming! You can register through our new registration portal, and submit proposals through our new programming system, under “Suggest a Session”.

  • Suggesting a panel does not commit you to being on it! Once panel submissions are closed, we will assemble and send out the panel interest survey. The WisCon program is assembled from suggestions that have interested panelists AND that people indicate they want to attend as audience members.

As we said on Monday, one of the ways you can help #SaveWisCon is by registering early if you’re able to do so. When registering you can also make a donation to WisCon/SF3, which will count towards our current matching funds drive.  We currently have over $9,000 raised towards a potential total of $25,000 in matching donations!  We are also still accepting donations via PayPal. Our apologies for sending out the wrong link in our last newsletter and thanks to everyone who pointed out the error! If you’d like to give via PayPal, here’s the correct donation link.

How will WisCon work in 2022?

We are planning for an in-person convention in 2022, within the constraints of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also planning for aspects of the convention to be accessible online.

All WisCon programming will be accessible to members attending in-person, and some WisCon 2022 programming and events will be available online. At a minimum, the Opening Ceremonies, GOH Speeches, a virtual track of programming, some readings, and some panels on the academic track will be accessible online. Given the success of the WisCONline Discord server in 2020, we are also planning to have a convention Discord server to which all members will get access.

We don’t currently have plans to broadcast all in-person panels to online attendees, due to limitations on AV equipment and volunteer time. These offerings may expand with more volunteer resources! If you would like to help with online or hybrid aspects of the convention, you can sign up to volunteer or register for our volunteer open house.

If you have ideas for a panel or another track of programming, you can now submit these to our new programming system! Programming suggestions will be open until January 7 2022.

COVID-19 Policies

Everyone attending the in-person convention must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and we will require masks in all convention spaces (except while eating or drinking). This includes children, meaning that we are not currently accepting registration for children under 5 years of age.

We will continue to work with the hotel, and continue to monitor the situation in Wisconsin, to determine if further restrictions are needed, and what our in-person membership cap will be in 2022. To be sure you hear about any updates on these issues, take a moment to sign up for the WisCon newsletter.

Membership Categories

An Adult membership ($65) entitles you to attend the convention at the Concourse hotel, as well as to access all online aspects of the convention. An Online membership ($40) entitles you to participate in all online aspects of the convention.

If you register for an Online membership, it will be possible to upgrade to an in-person membership by paying the difference in price, as long as there are still memberships available.

We look forward to seeing you next May, either in Madison or online! 

WisCon 42

Open now — memberships & hotel rooms for WisCon 42

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Believe it or not, it’s time to start planning for WisCon 42!  As always, WisCon will happen over the U.S.’s Memorial Day weekend — May 25-28.  And we’ll again be at the beautiful Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin.

WisCon 42 Registration

Memberships are now available for WisCon 42!  The news this year is that after holding off raising our membership rate for as long as we could, for 2017 we’re increasing the cost of our adult membership to $55.  All other membership prices remain the same.

How to register

  • Online:  Log into (or create!  it’s free!) your WisCon account at account.wiscon.net.  You can pay immediately via PayPal, or you can choose to mail a check or to pay at the convention.
  • In person:  Stop by our Registration desk (2nd floor) and register in person.

Membership prices

  • Adult (18+): $55
  • Teen (ages 13-17): $20
  • Youth (ages 7-12): $20
  • Former WisCon Guests of Honor: Free
  • Child Care (age 0-6) $1 per child. We need to know in advance how many children to expect, so if you plan to use WisCon’s childcare at all, you should register for it ahead of time! Please fill in the age of each child to be enrolled in childcare. Please read the childcare information page for full details.

The Dessert Salon

You can also purchase tickets to our Sunday night Dessert Salon through our registration system or in person at the Registration desk.

Our Dessert Salon is our fancy-ish Sunday night event, happening right before the Guest of Honor Speeches.  There are decadent desserts created for us by the Concourse’s pastry chef and lots of conversation with all the friends you met during the weekend.

Because the Dessert Salon is intended to be a fancy-ish event the price reflects that.  Money that we bring in from the salon not only covers the cost of the event but goes to support WisCon in many ways, including such things as our accessibility and affordability initiatives.

However!  We also want everyone who wants to join us have the chance, and so Dessert Salon tickets are available on a sliding scale!

Our recommended cost is $25 per ticket.  This is a little more than the base cost of the event to WisCon.

The sliding scale is $15-$50 — accommodating those who have a tight budget and those who may have some extra cash on hand and would like to support the salon and WisCon.

Concourse Hotel Reservations

Reservations at the Concourse Hotel open at 9am on Sunday.  There are 3 ways to make your reservation this weekend:

  1. At the Concourse front desk.  At 9am on Sunday there will be a reservation agent at the desk to assist you.
  2. Online using the Concourse’s reservation system.
  3. Calling the Concourse: 1-800-356-8293

The cutoff date to reserve a room in our discounted room block is April 26 (end of day — 11:59pm).

Concourse level

  • $117/single
  • $127/double
  • $137/triple
  • $147/quad

Governor’s Club

  • $199/single
  • $209/double
  • $219/triple
  • $229/quad
WisCon 41

WisCon badges — A tale of accessibility, affordability, and sustainability

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

Ah, the humble convention badge. In its most basic form, it says simply, “Please let me into all your sweet programming spaces, for I am a member of this convention (having agreed to your Code of Conduct).” Often, it also says, “The name printed here is my nom de convention. Please use this and no others.”

But at WisCon, our badges say so much more.

The back of the badge

The first line on the back of your badge tells you the name(s) you used during registration — there may be two names listed if you indicated you wanted a specific badge name. This line also lists what type of membership you have (e.g., Adult, Teen, Youth) and how many tickets to the Dessert Salon you purchased (D:0, D:1, D:2, &c.).

On the back of everyone’s badge, we also print the contact information for our Safety team. This includes Safety’s phone number and (new this year!) the URL to use to get to Safety’s online reporting form.

Are you participating in programming this weekend? Your schedule is also printed on the back! This includes the day, time, location, and title of each programming item.

The front of the badge

On the front of your badge we print your name as large as we possibly can so that it’s easy to read from a comfortable distance. Under your name (much smaller) we print you home city, state/province, and country.

And that, in a nutshell, is the stock WisCon badge.

But wait, there’s more!

Pronouns

Pronoun stickers at WisCon 40.
Pronoun stickers at WisCon 40.

We also provide — available at our Registration Desk whenever you’d like to stop by to take them — pronoun stickers. This year’s stickers include she / he / they / e / xe / ou / ze / zie. As well as “any pronouns” and “singular they is always grammatical”. You can absolutely choose to not wear a sticker. You can choose to wear multiple stickers! You can change your sticker(s) throughout the weekend if you want! And if you don’t see the pronoun you need, please email us and we’ll try to get one custom printed for you: registration@wiscon.net If you’d like to know more about our pronoun stickers, this post from last year does a great job of covering the etiquette and protocol of navigating pronouns.

Interaction indicators

A full set of interaction cards at WisCon 40.

Our interaction indicators are an idea that comes from the autism community, and we are proud to offer them for everyone who feels it’s helpful to give folks some guidance on the best way to approach you in any given moment. The cards are designed to fit into your badge holder right behind your badge, with the top portion sticking out to indicate which interaction you prefer. Here’s a quick guide to how to use the cards.

First, take the whole set! You’ll need all of the cards — red/hexagon, yellow/triangle, green/circle — for the system to work. Each of the cards is marked in three ways: by color, by symbol, and with text that spells out the name of the color.

  • Red / square*: STOP. Don’t talk to me! (* A change from WisCon 40 when it was a hexagon.)
  • Yellow / triangle: I only want to talk to people I know in person — not strangers or people I only know from the internet.
  • Green / circle: I would like to talk to people, but I may have trouble initiating conversation.

Please respect these badges! It’s okay to mess up at first — you’ll soon learn to look for them and follow their cues.

“Ask Me!” buttons

“Ask Me” — now in button format for WisCon 41!

Who are these folks with the teal/turquoise buttons that say “Ask Me”? These are concom members and other long-time WisCon attendees who have volunteered to share their vast wealth of WisCon information. Have a question about WisCon? “Where’s the Con Suite?” “When is the Tiptree Auction?” “Can I register for next year’s WisCon yet?” “Which way to the pool??” Anyone wearing an “Ask Me” button can likely answer any of these questions — and many more! Don’t be afraid to ask!

Return your badge holder before you leave

As much as possible, WisCon reuses its badge holders from year to year. This saves us money and reduces waste, which is important for our commitments to affordability and sustainability.

This also means that we ask you to please not affix stickers to your badge holder. Please stick them directly on your badge!

And we also ask you to please not stick convention ribbons on your badge. We especially ask those of you planning parties or readings, and so forth, to not have badges for your event. Yes, badge ribbons look totally awesome! An amazing technicolor convention coat of sorts! But… then we can’t re-use the badge holder, and we’d really like to.

So please, as much as it’s possible, keep your badge holder in pretty good shape and return it to the Registration area as you leave WisCon this year. If you forget or something unspeakable happens to your badge holder, no harm done. We’ll have one for you next year!

WisCon 41

Volunteering at WisCon 41 — Art Show, Registration, & Green Room

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Kristin Livdahl
Volunteers

Are you looking for a quiet place to get away from the big crowds for a couple hours? Do you need a way to meet new people at the convention but are more comfortable having people approach you? Do you want to help out with the convention but need a position where you can sit or stay sitting most of the time? We have volunteer opportunities that allow for all of those.

Art Show

The Art Show is usually a quiet oasis during the convention and there are many shifts available during the convention. Volunteers staff the desk during the show preview, assist with sales and check out sold items near the end of the convention. This area has traditionally been understaffed.

Registration

Helping check people in and register new arrivals is one of the best ways to meet new people and put faces with names. Email in advance if you are interested in taking a shift — or stop by at the beginning of the convention to see when they need help. Volunteers are needed for shifts from Thursday until Monday.

Green Room

We can always use a few more dependable volunteers to take shifts helping in the Green Room which is open during all the hours programming runs. Volunteers count attendance at programs, assist programming participants with name tents and other duties. The Green Room is great way to meet some of the interesting people who are participating in panels, readings and other programming in a relaxed environment.

For more information on these or any other volunteer opportunities, please contact Kristin Livdahl, Volunteer Coordinator at volunteers@wiscon.net

WisCon 41

Updates on — Registration & Childcare, Dessert Salon tickets, and hotel cancellation policy

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WisCon is less than two weeks away!  Here are some updates and upcoming deadlines you’ll want to know about as Memorial Day weekend draws ever nearer.

Pre-con registration closes Monday, May 15 (11:59pm Central Time)

Want to make sure you have a pre-printed badge waiting for you at the convention?  Online registration is still open!  You can pay right away via PayPal.

Did you know you can register now online and then pay in person at the Registration Desk?  You can!  This is a good option if you want to ensure that you’re registered and have a printed badge, but would rather pay in cash.

We do cap membership at 1,000, and we make no guarantees that memberships will be available at the door, but this year chances look pretty good for at-the-door memberships.

WisCon's registration desk, staffed by 2 volunteers
The Registration Desk at WisCon 40, staffed by the friendly Sheree (left) and Lenore (right).

Single-day memberships

Want to try out WisCon without committing to a full membership?  In town for only a day?  We offer — for purchase at the door only! — single-day memberships at the following rates:

  • Friday: $0
  • Saturday: $25
  • Sunday: $25
  • Monday: $0

Yes, Friday and Monday are FREE!

Childcare

WisCon offers Childcare at a cost of only $1 for children ages 0-6 — but you do need to register them in advance!  Childcare registration closes on Monday, May 15, along with online registration.  You can register your child for Childcare by logging into your WisCon account and using the registration system.

Dessert Salon tickets

The Dessert Salon is capped at 400 tickets, and we have sold out!  If you’d like to be added to the wait list, please email: registration@wiscon.net

Hotel cancellation policy

Huge news for reservations at the Concourse hotel — we now have a 24-hour cancellation policy!  Our room block with the Concourse used to come with a full week cancellation policy, but that’s been changed starting this year.  If you need to cancel your Concourse reservation, you can now do so with only 24 hours’ notice before your reservation begins.  If you wait too long to cancel your reservation, you will incur a cancellation fee.

If you need to reach the Concourse, call: 1-800-356-8293

If you have questions for our hotel liaisons, email: rooms@wiscon.net

See you soon!!  🙂

WisCon 41

Get ready for WisCon 41!

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

It’s 9am on the Sunday morning of WisCon, and that means — if you’re ready to starting thinking about WisCon 41, then so are we!

WisCon registration is open for you to buy your membership!  Memberships remain $50 for adult memberships for another year.

The Concourse reservation system is available for you to book your room.  If you’re at the Concourse today, there’s also a reservations agent at the front desk who can help you book your room.

Idea submission is open!  Sometimes your best programming ideas for next year’s WisCon happen during this year’s convention.  This year we’re also opening Guest of Honor nominations at the same time!

WisCon 40

Pronouns: Yours, Mine, Ours

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Heidi Waterhouse
SF3 Communications Committee

Hihi!  I want to take a minute to talk to you about an exciting option we’re offering at Registration this year: pronoun stickers!

We offered them last year and got a lot of reaction, so here’s the explanation:

Pronoun stickers are totally optional to wear. You don’t have to declare anything to anyone. You don’t have to wear the same sticker all weekend. These exist to make it easier for all of us to treat each other respectfully.

If someone IS wearing a pronoun sticker, we expect you will use that pronoun for them. Part of our social contract is kind and respectful treatment of each other, and there are few things that feel as terrible as being misgendered ON PURPOSE. If you make a mistake, just correct yourself and move on.

If someone is NOT wearing a pronoun sticker, the default polite behavior is to ask them what pronoun they prefer and then use that. If you don’t know and can’t ask, use the singular “they”.

We also have stickers that say “The singular they is grammatical.” Because we’re nerds like that.

No one is the pronoun police, and you’re not going to get shunned for an honest mistake, but if you persistently and deliberately misgender someone, it’s not pleasant and is sometimes a conduct violation.

If your pronoun is not represented in our pre-printed stickers, we’ll be happy to print a sticker for you custom. You can email registration now at registration@wiscon.net and we’ll try to have it for you when you check in, or it may take up to a day if you ask as you check in. We’ll do our best!

We’re all looking forward to seeing you in less than a week. We hope these stickers make it easier for you to feel safe and respected. As always, if you do not feel safe and respected, please feel free to ask Safety for their help and advice.

Options. God bless WisCon. #WisCon

A photo posted by Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) on

WisCon 40

Who ya gonna call? Someone with an “Ask Me” badge!

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

WisCon is a convention of hundreds of people, dozens and dozens (and dozens) of programming items, a few decades of traditions, and even several pretty brand new things.  Whew!  What’s a body to do when things are confusing and opaque?

Ask Me!  About a dozen members of WisCon’s convention-planning committee have volunteered to be wandering FAQs.  When does the Tiptree Auction start?  Where are the all-gender toilets?  Which way do I go to find the Concourse’s Assembly room??

Our Registration / Info Desk on the 2nd Floor of the Concourse is available, of course, to answer all your questions general and specific about WisCon.  And if you’re a panelist/moderator, the Green Room is at your disposal for panel-related questions.  But if the Registration Desk is closed or you just happen to see a member with an Ask Me badge while you have a question on the tip of your tongue, then please!  Go ahead and ask us.

A WisCon 40 member badge with 'Ask Me' printed in red
You can literally ask me — that’s my badge! 😀
WisCon 40

Registration update — including free day passes for Friday and Monday!

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

the Registration Desk -- gently cluttered with bookmarks, Registration infoYou have just a few short hours left to register for WisCon using our online registration system!  We’ll be turning that off at 11:59pm Central Time tonight (today’s Thursday, May 19, by the way — the last week before the convention is a blur and we keep forgetting, too).  [Midnight update:  IT’S DEAD, JIM.]

But if you still haven’t quite made up your mind if you’re coming this year, don’t worry!  We will still have at-the-door memberships available when Registration opens at 9:30am on Friday.  We also offer day passes for all four days of the convention.

And speaking of our day passes — for those of you who are on the fence about attending WisCon 40, here’s the really great news…

Friday and Monday day passes are now FREE.  Yes, $0!  ZERO.

(Saturday and Sunday day passes are $25 each.)

So if you’ll be in the Madison area over Memorial Day weekend and you’re interested in checking out this feminist science fiction convention you’ve heard about, please swing by on Friday or Monday for a visit!  Friday would be an especially great day to get a taste of WisCon because there’s The Gathering on Friday afternoon, followed by some of our famous panel programming, Opening Ceremonies, and evening parties (and more panels)!  Monday is a more low-key day, with panels only in the morning and both the Dealers’ Room and Art Show wrapping up around lunchtime, but Monday is also when the SignOut happens if you’re interested in getting any books/comics/&c. signed.

WisCon is only a week away now and we get more and more excited as each day gets crossed off the calendar!  We are really looking forward to seeing all of you who will be joining us this year to honor Sofia Samatar, Justine Larbalestier, and Nalo Hopkinson, and to celebrate 40 years of smashing the patriarchy with science fiction!

Register for WisCon

Register for WisCon

WisCon is returning in 2023 as a hybrid convention! Registration details are below, but if you have any questions, please email registration@wiscon.net. WisCon is continuing many of our COVID policies from the 2022 convention (see here).

Since COVID vaccines and boosters for children ages 6 months and older are recommended by the CDC, we will allow fully vaccinated children ages 6 months and older at WisCon 2023.

In-person registration will remain open through the start of the convention or until we meet our cap of 600 in-person members. There is no deadline or cap for online memberships.

Register prior to Sunday, May 21, 2023 to receive a pre-printed badge. Memberships after that time will need to fill out a badge at the registration desk.

Some WisCon 2023 programming and events will be available online. These virtual offerings will be determined and communicated as we move closer to the convention. However, we will not be able to broadcast all in-person programming to virtual attendees, due to limitations on AV equipment and volunteer time.

For affordability reasons, we try to keep the cost of WisCon memberships low (currently $65 for an adult in-person membership). However, if you can afford to pay more for a WisCon membership, please donate to the WisCon/SF3 general fund alongside your registration. This allows us to not only fund the current convention, but also build a reserve to make sure that future conventions can be funded. Because SF3, WisCon’s parent organization, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers.

If the cost of membership—or any other aspect of attending the convention—presents a financial barrier to you, please reach out to the WisCon Member Assistance Fund.

For updates and announcements on WisCon events and deadlines, subscribe to our email newsletter.

How to Register for WisCon

Register here for WisCon 2023

You can pay online by credit card, or if you plan to attend in person, you can pay at the convention by credit card, cash, or check.

If you register online but choose to pay at the convention, your membership will be reserved, but listed as unpaid. If we approach the in-person membership cap for WisCon, we may contact you to confirm that you still plan to attend; if we don’t hear back from you at that point, your membership may be cancelled.

If you can’t use the online registration system but wish to pre-register, email registration@WisCon.net.

Membership Types

An In-Person membership gives you access to the full weekend of in-person events (except for the Dessert Salon, which requires an additional ticket), as well as to all online programming and the WisCon 2023 Discord server.

An Online membership gives you access to all online programming as well as to the WisCon 2023 Discord Server.

You can upgrade from an online-only membership to an in-person membership any time before the pre-con registration deadline. You can also upgrade your membership at the door (assuming we do not reach our in-person membership cap), though in this case you will not receive a pre-printed badge.

A supporting membership does not give access to either in-person or online convention events but allows you to support WisCon. Supporting members will be mailed any print materials from the convention (e.g. program book and/or souvenir book) after the convention is over.

Pricing:

Adult Memberships (18+ at the time of the convention)

  • In-Person: $65
  • Online: $25
  • Friday only: Free
  • Saturday only: $35
  • Sunday only: $30
  • Monday only: Free

Teen/Youth Memberships (7-17 at the time of the convention)

  • In-Person: $25
  • Online: $25
  • Friday only: Free
  • Saturday only: $10
  • Sunday only: $10
  • Monday only: Free

Supporting Membership: $20

Former WisCon Guests of Honor: Free

Child Care (age 6mo – 6 years) $1 per child; requires pre-registration. Please provide the age of each child to be enrolled in childcare. More child care information for 2023 is available here.

Both free memberships and financial support for attending WisCon are available through the WisCon Member Assistance Fund (WMAF)

Dessert Salon

The Dessert Salon takes place Sunday night, before the Guest of Honor speeches. One ticket gets you two items from the dessert buffet, and physical access to the room where the Dessert Salon and the Guest of Honor speeches are held. For those who do not attend the Dessert Salon in person, the Guest of Honor speeches will be broadcast to a secondary viewing room at the Concourse, as well as shared with online members of the convention.

Proceeds from the Dessert Salon help to financially support the convention, allowing us to keep things like Child Care and the con suite available to all members. For this reason, Dessert Salon tickets are available on a sliding price scale beginning at $20, with a suggested default price of $35.

COVID Safety

Proof of Vaccination

All members who attend WisCon in person in 2023 must comply with CDC Guidelines concerning being “fully vaccinated.” This standard applies to all in-person attendees, regardless of age. Please visit the CDC’s COVID-19 information page for current requirements, and the WisCon COVID policy here.

When you register, you must attest that you are currently vaccinated, and you will be asked to show proof of vaccination at the door of the convention. While you are at the convention, all attendees age 2 or older are required to mask in all convention-controlled spaces, and encouraged to mask in other public hotel spaces

Questions and Answers

What if I’ve already registered but can’t attend?

If you are unable to attend, refunds are available until May 15 in the year of the convention. You may opt at any time to defer your membership or Dessert Salon ticket to a future year, or to donate your membership or Dessert Salon ticket to the WisCon Member Assistance Fund.

What Is the In-Person Attendance Cap?

In-person memberships are limited to 600 attending guests. There is no cap on online memberships.

I have more questions!

If you have any questions about registration for WisCon, feel free to email us at registration@wiscon.net.