Every year, millions of people go on vacation.
Hawaii, the Caribbean, Cancun, wherever. For the two of us, geeks that we are, most of our vacations are planned around conventions.
In addition to local cons like Emerald City Comic-Con, Geek Girl Con, and PAX, we also head down to California every year for Wondercon and San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC).
Next year we hope to branch out further and hit one of the East coast cons.
Back when Laura was doing her research for her Master’s thesis on the use of Shakespeare in the Star Trek universe, most cons were small affairs: a few dozen tables, fewer cosplayers, the odd media celebrity or two, and a lot of enthusiasm at prospect of a social situation where it was unnecessary to explain your conversational references or passion for a show or story or character.
You went, wandered, chatted, laughed, and hopefully went home with new friends and wonderful treasures.
Now, conventions have exploded both in terms of size and prevalence. Attending a con the size of SDCC (where attendance is capped at 130,000—basically, a town the size of New Haven, Connecticut under one roof) is not for the faint of heart or light of pocket. Good planning and better execution are essential even for a much smaller con, as we’ve learned from all the mistakes we’ve made over the year. But rarely have we found that the work we put into it outweighed the fun. So rather than put you off going, we’ve gathered some tips (that apply to smaller local cons and the huge international ones) to help turn that ratio well in your favor.
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