For my part, I believe a gross error has been made in picking John-Henri
Holmberg as GoH, for several reasons but the main one being that Sam J Lundwall
would have been the natural choice of a GoH from Sweden.
Sam J FOUNDED Finnish sf conventions! Without him there might not even have
been a Helsinki Worldcon bid. Here's why:
In 1982 Sam J announced he'd organise an sf convention, to a smaller part on
the Stockholm-Helsinki ferry and then with a big program in Helsinki. (I was
among those recruited to the committee. I helped with the art show and some PR,
contributed to the program and was liaison for Erik Andersson and David Nessle,
who entertained con-goers). On the Finnish side, one Tom Ölander pulled all the
strings. He rented the Old Student House. Sam J's buddies Brian Aldiss and
Harry Harrison were GoHs.
It was called King-Con and became a major success. 1500 people turned up and
there were several news reports on TV about the event. (In fact, also a huge
number of newspaper pieces. Tom worked at a Helsinki newspaper, and managed to
get a telegram through to all the media through the main Finnish newswire
service!) Later, in 1986, Tom himself - no doubt inspired by King-Con! -
organised the very first con in the series called Finncon, also in the Old
Student House. Even the tradition that Finncons have no attendance fee comes
from our 1982 convention, which Tom repeated in 1986. It was cheaper to rent
the Student House if you didn't charge a fee.
Who knows if there would have been any Finnish sf cons without Sam J's idea
to organise that 1982 convention, which also got a lot of media coverage. And
we shouldn't forget the efforts by Tom Ölander! (He did very, very much for
Finnish sf. Unfortunately he passed away in 2002.) I get the impression that H
in '17 people aren't in touch with their own sf history. Picking a GoH from
neighbouring Sweden is fine. But bypassing Sam J Lundwall is a mystery, active
in sf since the 1950's, long long time publisher, an sf author himself, editor
of the longest running Swedish sf magazine (Jules Verne Magasinet)... ...and
the guy who started Finnish sf conventions! *
--Ahrvid
* With some help from others, naturally. But it was Sam J's idea.
--
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