Marguerite Smith and Lauren Raye Snow will join the DisCon III team as Vice Chairs and help lead the team of dedicated volunteers bringing the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) to Washington, DC., December 15-19, 2021.
Lauren will be the first female Latinx to serve as a Vice Chair*. Marguerite will be returning to the Worldcon team, having been a DisCon III World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Deputy Division Head earlier in 2021.
“We are fortunate to have Marguerite and Lauren as Vice Chairs. Marguerite will be responsible for the mechanical aspects of the convention, such as logistics and back of house operations, and Lauren will focus on the aesthetics and everything in the front of house,” said Mary Robinette Kowal, Chair of DisCon III. “They each bring a unique set of talents and skills that will help make DisCon III a success.”
“I am honored that Mary Robinette asked me to help, and I am delighted to rejoin the DisCon III team. I look forward to our creation of a Worldcon which honors DC and highlights the current fans and creators while acknowledging the decades-long history of the event,” said Smith.
“I am thrilled and honored to join the exceptionally talented team who are already hard at work creating DisCon III!” added Snow.
Marguerite Smith spends her professional day helping teams uncover what they need to achieve their goals and then determines the best way to make that happen. This carries across to her volunteer roles with conventions. She started as a volunteer at her first Worldcon, Interaction (Glasgow, 2005), and has most recently been a Promotions Division Head for Dublin 2019, An Irish Worldcon, and a WSFS Deputy Division Head for ConZealand in 2020. She currently divides her time between DisCon III, the Glasgow in 2024 Worldcon bid, and her hobbies of art and classical singing.
Lauren Raye Snow is a designer, illustrator, and arts activist from South Texas. During the course of her career, she has served as Creative Director for multiple nonprofits and mission-driven campaigns. In her personal work, she is inspired by the Symbolists and the Pre-Raphaelites, by the Catholic and Indigenous religious icons of her native South Texas, as well as speculative works of wonder, horror, romance, and beauty in literature and music. She is currently serving as Art Director for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Worldcon, or the World Science Fiction Convention, is the annual gathering of science fiction and fantasy fans, writers, artists, musicians, and other creators from across the globe. First held in New York City in 1939, Worldcon moves around the globe, held in a different city and organized by a different volunteer organization each year.
Worldcon originally focused on and still has a strong emphasis on science fiction and fantasy literature, but has grown to include genre television, movies, animation, games, and other popular media as well. It has truly become the world’s fair of science fiction and fantasy fandom. No other event brings together fans and creators, regardless of genre or medium, under one big tent with the intimacy of Worldcon.
DisCon III is the third World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) held in Washington DC, USA. Previous DC-based Worldcons were Discon I in 1963 and Discon II in 1974. DisCon III will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, on December 15-19, 2021.
DisCon III is sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association, Inc. (BWAWA, Inc.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Maryland.
“World Science Fiction Society,” “WSFS,” “World Science Fiction Convention,” “Worldcon,” “NASFiC,” “Hugo Award,” the Hugo Award Logo, and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Trophy Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
For more information on DisCon III, Worldcon, and how to become a member of the 79th Worldcon, visit http://www.discon3.org.
*note – This release originally went out stating Lauren Raye Snow was the first Latinx to serve as a Worldcon Vice Chair. This is incorrect, as Fred Duarte served as a Vice Chair of LoneStarCon 2, the 55th Worldcon. We sincerely apologize for our error.