I was in the running to be the GUFF delegate this year. The Get Up and Over Fan Fund is a SF fan run scheme that sends an Australian fan to Europe one year and then sends a European/UK fan to Australia the next.
Amazing news! I won! I’m heading to World Con in Helsinki in August. That’s just so fab I am finding it hard to digest. Also, I get to meet fans there, get hosted and travel around a bit. I’ll also take some time to do my own stuff while there (and I’ll be working on my PhD novel too). So now I am crazy busy doing some planning as I need to get my ticket while they are relatively cheap.
I’ve been to World Cons before and they are magic, truly mind blowing stuff.If you haven’t been to one, you should. My first was in Glasgow in 2005, then Denver, Montreal, Melbourne and London. Why do I like them? Wall to wall authors and fans. I mean really big names and even just ogling them in the traders room or standing next to them in the lift-picture fan girl squeeing or listening to them read. I’ve heard George RR Martin read three times. Amazeballs. Also, just meeting people who love the things you do and learning new stuff. I’ve learned so much about the genre just going to conventions and I have made life long friends. Even finding out about authors who I had never heard of, be they old or new.
I don’t get to go often to World SF conventions so this is special indeed. It is fab to be the GUFF delegate. There are other fan funds too. DUFF brings someone from the USA here and vice versa. Also NZ to Australia etc.
Here is a link about GUFF in case you’re interested. Click here.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 
I’ll be there too— maybe we’ll bump into each other! I’m a British Fan who fell in love at her first (British) worldcon, and is still married to him decades later…..
That’s fab. I would love to meet. I can totally understand that. My partner calls me Dweebette and I’m call him Dweeb.
We are Fang and Fangette! (after the monster of Fang Rock, who I apparently resemble early in the morning). My Badge name at the con will be Kim Whysall.
Haha! I like it.