On Thursday 6th August Rachel and I headed off to Leonardo Hotel, Hinckley for the 2026 Discworld Convention. The last time the Convention took place at this hotel was 20 years ago in 2006.
Upon arriving at the hotel and stepping into reception I realised just how much the hotel had changed since my last visit. Gone is the giant statue of Poseidon in the entrance. Now there is a large circular reception area with a small self serve shop.
My initial thoughts of the hotel were marred by our room not being ready even though it was past 3pm check in time. It was past 5pm before our room was available. Not a Convention problem but an indication of some of the problems we would have with the hotel. At one point the manager said that they only had four staff cleaning and preparing the 800 rooms the hotel had!
While waiting we sat in the new coffee bar at the front of the hotel. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting with friends. This was in fact something that we would do for a lot of the Convention.
We looked at the programme of events and found about three items that we wanted to do over the whole weekend. I go back to my assumption that many of the panels are really only suitable for people new to the Conventions - some of us have been around for a long time and finding new panels is hard. I don't think there is much Conventions can do about this sadly. The new things were talks with people that were still active in Discworld such as the AGM of Discworld Biographers.
The main reason we go to Conventions now is to catch up with friends and to meet new people and hopefully make new friends.
The opening ceremony on Friday was better than many we've been too and it was made very apparent that it was an event about Terry Pratchett - something that was sorely missing from the last Convention we attended in 2022.
Problems with the hotel continue through the weekend. With bars closing early and then everyone being ejected from any of the public spaces. As a nearly 55 year old adult I don't appreciate being told that I have to go to bed by someone half my age!
I enjoyed visiting the V&A&A 30 years of Discworld Conventions exhibit. It was good to see some memories from the past. My first Convention was in 1998 when I was still young and Discworld fandom was still relatively new to me.
I hadn't planned to be involved in any of the panels over the weekend but did help out in the lodge on Friday night and also helped run some alternate entertainment to the Auction with Dave Trace. We had a hat full of names of Discworld Novels. We each drew one at random and got the audience to vote for their favourite of the two. The rejected one was put to one side and through a series of rounds we managed to get down to the last three. It was a lot of fun and sometimes the random choices made hard work when choosing between two of your favourite books. I think this is an event that should be run again as it's an excuse to geek out about our favourite author and to plead passionately for the survival of one book against another.
I really enjoyed the company of my friends and also enjoyed the panels that I did go to. As an observation I couldn't help wondering what the convention will look like in two years time.
As we get further and further away from Terry's involvement and the fact that for some time now we've not had Bernard and some of the other established guests are beginning to look quite frail. We're an aging fandom and we don't seem to be embracing the new stuff that is being released.
I don't understand why there was no representation from Modiphius (the makers of the new TTRPG system), or anyone from the upcoming Amazing Maurice Two movie. I don't know if they were asked but didn't want to come or just we're not asked.
There was roleplay sessions available but they were understandably, for the Gurps system because they were being run by guest Phil Masters who wrote Gurps Discworld. But there were no scheduled sessions of Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, the new TTRPG. I ended up running a couple of sessions of the kickstarter adventure in the coffee bar which were quite fun and I think the participants enjoyed playing.
I enjoyed the weekend but still felt it was a bit flat. The conventions have never been the same for me since we lost Terry. I loved meeting up with friends and that's what the conventions have become for me, a meeting place. I don't have an answer to what would magically fix this feeling (and it might just be me). I have to say that this one was a marked improvement over the last one we attended in 2022. But it was, for me, still missing the essential Terryness (if I may use such a word!).
I don't envy the committee having to find a new hotel for the next one but I think they are going to have to. The Hinckley Island hotel just doesn't have the social space for such a big convention and it doesn't have enough room to hold all the attendees at the big events. Has this put me off, no! But good hotels are hard to find! We'll hopefully see you all in 2028.