FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 28, 2001 Libertarian Futurist Society announces first national conference (Reply to mikegrossb@aol.com) The Libertarian Futurist Society will celebrate its 20th anniversary by sponsoring its first national conference May 25-27 at Marcon 36 at the Hyatt Regency hotel and Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. LFScon will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear Prometheus Award winners and LFS leaders explore the future of freedom and the potential of libertarian science fiction to shape a more rational, diverse, tolerant and optimistic vision of what is possible in the 21st and coming centuries. The Libertarian Futurist Society will present its 2001 Prometheus Hall of Fame awards ceremony before an audience of more than 1,500 people during the intermission of Marcon's Saturday night masquerade-- its most popular event. LFScon will feature more Prometheus Awardwinning novelists than any other sf convention or libertarian conference in history. So far, the LFS has confirmed eight Prometheus Awardwinners, who collectively have won 11 Best Novel awards and five Hall of Fame awards: special LFScon Guest of Honor L. Neil Smith (The Probability Broach, Pallas), Poul Anderson (Trader to the Stars, The Stars are Also Fire, The Star Fox), F. Paul Wilson (Healer, Wheels within Wheels, An Enemy of the State), James Hogan (Voyage From Yesteryear, The Multiplex Man), Vernor Vinge (Marooned in Realtime, A Deepness in the Sky), J. Neil Schulman (Alongside Night, The Rainbow Cadenza), Brad Linaweaver (Moon of Ice) and Victor Milan (The Cybernetic Samurai.) Marcon and LFScon are jointly planning a major LFScon program track, with a dozen major panels on libertarian themes, including: * Heinlein's Children: The Libertarian Writers of Science Fiction. with a full panel of our Prometheus Awardwinners; * Will the Future Be More or Less Free? * Who Wants to Be a Zillionaire in Space?- A Free Market Approach to Exploring, Industrializing and Colonizing the Solar System * Intelligent Self-Defense, the 2nd Amendment and the Hi-Tech Weaponry of the Future * The Internet & the First Amendment Electronic Frontiers * Illuminati! -- Conspiracies, Real and Imagined * Cloning & Artificial intelligence: The Freedom Issues * Freedom Filk: A Filk (sf folksinging) Concert in Honor of Liberty, with filking pioneer Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson's wife. As Ohio's oldest and largest sf/fantasy convention, Marcon annually attracts more than 3,000 people (3,400 last year), including authors, artists, editors, scientists, costumers, gamers and fans from more than 30 states and Canada. There's something for everyone, including autographing sessions (with all Prometheus Awardwinners); author readings; dances; parties (including an LFS Friday night bash in a Hyatt Hotel suite); art show & auction; charity auction; panel discussions on separate program tracks about literature, science, animation, art, children's programming and more; and a large dealer's room (with 120 tables, including a large Libertarian Futurist Society exhibit/book-sale.) Besides freedom, Marcon's other 2001 program themes will be intelligence (in honor of 2001: A Space Odyssey's and "2001" guest star Gary Lockwood) and heroic fantasy (in honor of Marcon fantasy guest Robert Jordan.) Other featured Marcon/LFScon guests include Babylon 5's actor Peter Woodward, libertarian sf authors Steven Burgauer ("The Grandfather Paradox,The Last American) and Joseph Martino (author of "Science Funding: Politics & Porkbarrel" and "Analog" short stories); First Amendment/Internet advocate Matt Gaylor; and LFS leaders Victoria Varga, Amy Rule, Chris Hibbert and Lynn Maners. Deadline is March 10 for advance-discount LFScon/Marcon registrations--with a special offer of $75/person for non-members, including a trial-year Basic LFS membership, and $60/person for new LFS members's guests. Mail your name, address, email, phone number and guest names along with your check (make checks to Libertarian Futurist Society) to LFScon, c/o R.W. Coffin, 3164 Plymouth Place, Columbus OH 43213. For more information, explore the website at www.lfs.org, email mikegrossb@aol.com, or call 614-236-5040. ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor, 2175 Bayfield Drive, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************