Bid Committee

Our bid committee has extensive con experience.

This page is a work in progress.

Wayne Brown, Bid Chair

Wayne Brown (he/him) is the founder of Astronomicon, Rochester’s science fiction convention, and he has been chief organizer of the convention for the past thirty years. He is well known in Western New York and central Ontario fandom. He’s been attending Worldcons for almost 40 years. After Discon 3, he saw an opportunity to bring WSFS fandom to upstate New York, so he has assembled a group of Western New York, upstate New York, and central Ontario fans to bring a NASFIC to the region.

David Ennis, Corporate Secretary

David Ennis (he/him) moved to Buffalo to attend college in the late 1980s, and has been active in local fandom since. He hosted a pop-culture radio program on WBNY radio for a decade. He has also worked in a technical role supporting popular media websites. He joined the Buffalo Time Council, a local SF fan group, and was a regular contributor to their zine. He’s been active in many conventions in the Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Toronto areas, including chairing Polaris (formerly Toronto Trek) three times and chairing EerieCon twice. His convention experience includes registration, hotel liaison, programming, and other functions.

Debi Chowdhury

Debi (she/her) was born in Calcutta, India and grew up in New York City before moving to upstate New York to attend University where she currently resides. She has thirty years of event management experience for a diverse array of events, including writer’s conferences and gardening events. She has been working on Worldcons for the past decade, helping with the Masquerade at several Worldcons, and has also worked in hospitality and guest liaisons, party coordinator, and other roles. She was an organizer of the New Orleans in 2018 Worldcon Bid.

Lisa Hertel

Lisa Hertel (she/they) is an artist and former pharmacist. Her first convention was Boskone in 1979; she started volunteering a few years later, and has volunteered at over 300 conventions, including chairing twice (Arisia and Albacon). She has worked in every division possible, and on all sorts of conventions, including anime, gaming, media, and literary, and of all sizes, including two previous NASFiCs.

Nate Hoffelder, Webmaster

Nate’s (he/him) experience as an organizer includes stints as president and program director of writing clubs. He has also programmed a conference, built numerous con websites, and organized a variety of events including picnics. When he is not volunteering, he writes bad jokes on Twitter and creates memes and graphics.

In his day job, Nate has been helping people fix broken tech since 2010. He turns broken down WordPress sites into sites which convert visitors into superfans, also builds sites from scratch, and helps authors with their social media and newsletters.