Kevin Roche
Subscribe to updates from author Unsubscribe to updates from author

Kevin Roche is the chair of Worldcon 76 in San Jose.

Kevin is “a fan for all seasons,” with extensive experience in convention running and many other aspects of SF/F genre conventions. He co-chaired Westercon 66 in Sacramento in 2013 and chaired Costume-Con 26 in San José in 2008. Worldcon attendees will have most recently seen him as...

Kevin Roche is the chair of Worldcon 76 in San Jose.

Kevin is “a fan for all seasons,” with extensive experience in convention running and many other aspects of SF/F genre conventions. He co-chaired Westercon 66 in Sacramento in 2013 and chaired Costume-Con 26 in San José in 2008. Worldcon attendees will have most recently seen him as Masquerade Master of Ceremonies at the 2015 Worldcon, Sasquan. He also co-directed the 2011 Worldcon’s Masquerade as well as Masquerades at Anime Los Angeles, Westercon, and BayCon. He has been part of convention programming teams at several past Worldcons.

Kevin has extensive and well-received convention hospitality experience, including running the convention hospitality suite at the 2009 World Fantasy Convention in San José, and recently as bartender for the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid. Fans across the USA have seen him as Fan Guest of Honor at conventions from the San Francisco Bay Area to Texas, Iowa, and Boston. He also has conference organization experience outside of the SF/F genre, having been the event registrar for scientific events (SpinCurrents 2009, SpinAge 2010, and Superconductivity 297k! organized under the direction of IBM Fellow Dr. Stuart SP Parkin).

Kevin has been making costumes since he was 8, and continues dressing funny to this day. In his secret identity as a research scientist at IBM Research Almaden, he's hard at work wrangling giant robot vacuum chambers and electrons in atomically engineered materials, and has recently joined the IBM Q quantum outreach team.

 

Kevin is also created Thinbot, the gold-medal winner in robotic bartending at Robogames, the international robotics competition, in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Thinbot is not infrequently found hard at work serving visitors to Kevin and Andy's parties at conventions.

As part of the San Jose Worldcon bid, Kevin designed and constructed the San Jose Galactic LIght Tower, a 32’ tall (1/10 scale) replica of the historic San Jose Electric Light Tower, which was first exhibited at MidAmeriCon II, the 2016 Worldcon in Kansas City last August. The tower incorporates 3000 addressable animated LEDs, controlled via cell phone app. (photos of the tower are also viewable at its facebook gallery)
Kevin is also the editor of Yipe! The Costume Fanzine of Record (www.yipezine.com),

More
Kevin Roche

Attention Dealers and Creators: Info and forms are available now!

The Worldcon 76 Staff have been hard at work this summer, and information and forms for dealers (vendors) and creators is now available via this website.

For a summary of our plans, we recommend you check out our Exhibit Hall overview page.  (It's good reading for everybody, in fact!)

Interested in dealing/vending in the Dealers' Room? The rules and a link to the application form are available on the Dealers' Room FAQ!

Want to exhibit/sell your art? Check out the Art Show Rules and Application!

Want to sell your own art/items/services for just part of the convention? Check out the Creators' Alley information!

Continue reading
Tags:
announcements
Tweet
Kevin Roche

Announcing new Guests of Honor: John Picacio and Frank Hayes

Today I had the great pleasure of announcing two more Guests of Honor for Worldcon 76 in San Jose. 

At the "Future Worldcons" panel today at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, I revealed that artist John Picacio and musician Frank Hayes have been added to our roster of honored guests. We're excited and thrilled that they will be joining us next August!

Continue reading
Tags:
announcements
Tweet
Kevin Roche

RIP Jordin Kare

Worldcon 76 mourns the loss of Dr. Jordin Kare, real-life rocket scientist, musician, songwriter, and friend to many of us in the Bay Area.

Jordin could always be trusted to liven up the most serious panels and the most humorous music circles. His knowledge and wit will be missed.

Our thoughts go out to his wife, Mary Kay Kare, at this difficult time.

Jordin and Mary Kay Kare were two of the people I first met in convention fandom, back when I was actively joining music circles more often.

For a while, it seemed like every time Andy and I traveled via air, we would run into Jordin and Mary Kay in the airport, or, just as likely, already at our destination, and it was always a pleasant surprise. It seems unimaginable to me that can't happen any more.

Jordin, I will miss your ready smile and astonishing mind.

Requiescat in pace

Continue reading
Tweet
Kevin Roche

Out and About with Worldcon 76

The Worldcon 76 team has been out and about this winter, and we're just starting to ramp up our presence! Since January 1, we've had ambassadors at Arisia, Further Confusion, Boskone, Capricon and Gallifrey One, and have at least that many appearances planned in the next couple of months.

Watch for us at a convention near you... or, even better, drop a line to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you'd like to be an ambassador for Worldcon 76 at your  local or regional convention!

Continue reading
Tags:
announcements
Tweet
Kevin Roche

What's Happening with Worldcon 76? Registration and Rate Changes

A quick update on Worldcon 76 as we come to the end of 2016: 

If you haven't been watching our Facebook page, you may have missed some recent announcements about registration. We are working on bringing that here to the website as well, but for now here's what you need to know.

Most of our activity on Worldcon 76 is still behind-the-scenes. We've started building up our program, events, and exhibits divisions, and they are diving right into designing our convention; we want to make it as spectacular as we can. While that has been going on, there have been a number of developments on the membership front that you might want to know about:

Continue reading
Tags:
announcements
Tweet

Service Mark Notice

"World Science Fiction Society", "WSFS", "World Science Fiction Convention", "Worldcon", "NASFiC" and "Hugo Award" are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society. You can contact the WSFS Mark Protection Committee at mpc@wsfs.org.