Post by Doug Burbidge
Swancon 14 was at the King’s Ambassador on Hay Street (more recently known as The King’s). It was the first convention for a whole bunch of Curtin Imagination Association people (including me), because Cindy Clarkson came and recruited us.
But I’m supposed to be talking about the badge.
Back then we didn’t have a badge laminator – the badges were instead in plastic inserts with a clip on the back. This makes for a smaller capital cost – you don’t have to buy a laminator – but a higher per-badge cost.
One side-effect of the plastic insert is that it’s easy to slide the badge out, customise it, and slide it back in. That’s what happened to this one – all that was on the badge in original condition was “SWANCON XIV”, my name (mispelled) and “Ansett” – you can see “Ansett” still very faintly visible at the top centre. Celine Zhu, one of the CIA “gang”, customised this one (and several others).
Photograph by author.