The Toastmaster for this year's Nebula Awards® ceremony will be author Neil Giaman, who was Toastmaster for the ceremony in 2001 in Los Angeles.

The 2005 Nebula Awards weekend will be Thursday-Sunday, April 28-May 1, at the Allegro Hotel, 171 W. Randolph Street, in the heart of Chicago's Loop Theater District. The special rate for rooms starts at $129/night.

The weekend program will begin on Thursday with a special joint Continuing Professional Education Program co-sponsored with the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Illinois State Bar Association. Thursday evening there will be a welcoming event designed to be a mixer for Chicago area SFWAns and an opportunity for them to network with representatives of Chicago area conventions.

Friday's tentative activities include tours of of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), onsite presentations and a large book signing at a nearby Borders.

Saturday's activities include the SFWA business meeting, more presentations and the awards banquet.

At this time, Sunday's activities include a second autograph session and possibly an opportunity to take a zero G flight. The flight would require a minimum of 25 registrants at a fee of approximately $4,400 per person.

Registration, including the banquet and one drink ticket is $105 through March 31. Parties, awards and panels without the banquet and the drink ticket is $45. Several activities have additional fees.

The banquet menu, more detailed schedule, and registration information is available at http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2005/.

Posted January 23, 2005