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Five Things They Never Tell You About Attending Conventions

If you go to Otakon, choose the Q&A panel for the guest or the signing for the guest, but you can't have both. When the Q&A gets out, you won't make it in time to the line for the signing, which is already too long by that point. The con staff will cut the line off at a certain point and tell the people behind that cut off point to leave. Back in 2012, this happened to me every time, and so I got nobody's signature (I tried three times). So if you're lucky, this may work, but even then, it might not.

Seems to me the first point of advice in this article should've been something like "Don't go to a convention unless you have at least $x dollars to freely spend." I've never been to a convention, and the amounts of money I need to spend to actually have a good time, at least according to the article, scares me away pretty badly.

If you're wary about costs, I'd start with smaller, local cons to cut down on costs. This article is really for the big cons, which tend to take place in summer.

Small cons are a good place to cut your teeth on the con scene, see if that kind of thing is really for you and what not.

Cille wrote:

Don't steal the light bulbs in the elevators.

People do that sort of thing?

GhostStalkerSA wrote:

Also, regarding cabs, almost every major city regulates their cab industry, so if you're going to a con in a major city, you have almost nothing to worry about taking cabs. Mass transit should also be a thing you look into if you're a city worth it's name.

I can say that finding a cab in Los Angeles, however, can be troublesome, as taxi services are appointment-only in the region. It's not like New York City, where there are cabs everywhere and you can flag one down. Los Angeles also has a big gypsy cab scene, though they will usually treat you with respect too as they're in competition with licensed taxi drivers.

And then there's Uber, if you're interested in that. Also appointment-only, though I trust that way less than gypsy cab services.

reanimator wrote:

Regarding conventions not sending out badges via mail, their reason is valid: I've seen certain young people at Wondercon pestering their friends to make photocopy of the original badge just because they don't want to pay the money. That being said, not everyone is honorable and some of them will go lengths to make perfect forgery.

Asrialys wrote:

AX last mailed out badges in 2006. Since then, as others have mentioned, they no longer do it due to counterfeiting (which I personally don't think is a big issue) and to verify identification. AX will be mailing Premier Badges this year.

I've got three reasons to be skeptical about badge counterfeiting, which I think is more speculation/anecdote than actual thing:

1. It requires the deeply cynical assumption that a large number of attendees are going to try to cheat the very con they're interested in, for the sake of a badge that only costs $40 or so. And yet…
   
2. It assumes that these same cheaters are also so industrious and talented that they will succeed in creating forgeries that pass a basic inspection. And then there's the empirical consideration that…
   
3. The third-largest con in North America (Anime Central) has been doing mail-out badges for years with no problems, at least nothing so bad they chose to stop offering badges in advance.
   

Keep in mind that advance ticketing is also how our society generally does admission to major sporting and music events. Are those subject to widespread counterfeiting?

Actually, yes, major sporting events do sometimes have issues with counterfeiting, especially the really big ones. And weekend-long con badges for the major cons typically run well over $40; I don't think even the the order-months-in-advance badges at Acen ran that cheap, and the base weekend-long badge for Gen Con, the country's biggest gaming-focused con (over 56k unique attendance last year) runs at twice that.

That being said, I have not in years heard much talk about counterfeit badge concerns.

As a veteran congoer I would say this article is spot on. I would also offer my own bit of advice when it comes to food. Con food is over priced shit. Often the large cons are also in big cities where the cost of food outside at nearby restaurants is over priced as well. Then everyone runs to the fast food places and you get 5 mile long lines. There are 2 cheap and easy solutions.

Second, if you must go out find street vendors. Food trucks. Street carts. Etc. They will be cheaper than most actual restaurants and you'll normally, not always but normally, have shorter lines than fast food joints in the area. Plus most smart street food vendors will cut deals during cons knowing they will snag business. At Otakon there are no less than a dozen guys selling $1 bottles of water outside. One guy is so famous even made it into the AMV opening credits bit last year at Otakon. Anyone who's been there multiple times knows who I am talking about. There's a street vendor right near the entrance that every year hat has burgers, dogs, brats, chicken, etc all day long. There are hot dog street carts all along the main roads. I'm sure most large cons have similar things. Street food is actually a good rule of thumb for any sort of travel to save money and also get more authentic food when touring internationally.

I've attended Anime Central for six years, and now Anime Midwest for going on three (this year will be the third year). Both are in the same venue, with Acen being in May and Anime Midwest being on 4th of July weekend. I honestly have little interest in going back to Acen because I love the experiences I have at Anime Midwest. That, and I feel like Acen is turning into more and more of a "party con" than an actual anime con, and things like that aren't interesting to me.

- More friendly and polite people, and the stink of tobacco and alcohol aren't as abundant as at Acen.
- A lot less crowds. Anime Midwest tends to cap their attendance to around 10k verses Acen that can see 20k-30k attendance. It's still difficult to move around at times, but things seem to move faster than at Acen.

Really? I've never had a problem with the former at Acen, and outside of the dealer's room I never found it hard to move around there.

From what I read this year, the smell of smoke and weed were abundant this year than in previous years, especially in the lines for the dances. Vaping was also rampant in the dealer's hall, which irritated a lot of congoers.

From what I read this year, the smell of smoke and weed were abundant this year than in previous years, especially in the lines for the dances. Vaping was also rampant in the dealer's hall, which irritated a lot of congoers.

I've also seen and overheard a lot of rude congoers, ranging from inappropriate or mean comments about other cosplayers to people (namely Homestuck cosplayers) deliberately wiping their body paint on other attendees and hotel property and laughing about doing so. I did report these people to IRT, but I have no idea if anything was actually done about it. So far, based on my experience at Anime Midwest, these things are considerably less frequent than at Acen, but admittedly this could be my own observations.

The dealer's room at Acen is where most of my crowding comments tend to come from. In 2012, I remember them having autographs in the dealer's hall and my conmates and I ended up taking 5-7 minutes trying to get around the extremely long lines that were forming in the middle of the convention hall from the autograph section.

At AX2012, traffic was so bad in the grapevine that I got to LA in the middle of the night after Day 0, missing my chance at staff parking and getting to the hotel (so yes, I did cheap out on parking at the hotel). I parked at the nearest free lot at a rail station and slept there. Just left my car there and took the train in the morning.

Keep in mind that advance ticketing is also how our society generally does admission to major sporting and music events. Are those subject to widespread counterfeiting?

Concerning dealer's rooms, when I go to major cons I am typically looking for one of three things:
1. Something that is being released before its official street date. (Some anime and game companies commonly do this.)
2. Something that is not readily available elsewhere. (For me this often means anime OSTs or wall scrolls, or it could be old games that you didn't even know existed; I recently ran across Ghettopoly this way.)
3. Something that I would only buy if I could see it in person first. (I'm not going be plunking down serious money on a functional sword via online ordering, for instance, and I have been known to buy such things at cons.)

10am-noon on day 1 unless you want to be in that crowd that someone photographed for Zac's article. Wait until 12:15pm and you can get in after the legitimate stampeeeed and if your exhibit hall plan is focused, you won't miss out on merchandise. Tip #3, last year the compass cafe' did away with the Ramune and Pocky and really good sushi, so bring your own snacks and go to the food trucks across the street.

Forgot about how different the cab industry is in LA compared to NY and Boston (the only places I've been for cons). I remember the one trip out to LA I did for my Jeopardy taping last year, and yeah, we needed to call cabs in advance unless we were going from the hotel or someplace with a cab stand, like the airport or a major museum. Even getting back to my hotel from Sony studios after Jeopardy finished involved the producer calling a cab company and arranging a ride back.

Never really had a problem with gypsy cabs ever since they implemented the borough taxi system here in NY so we can actually find cabs for hire outside of midtown and downtown Manhattan. They used to be more prevalent years ago, but I never really had a problem with them either. There are also car service companies with which you could arrange a ride which were and continue to be more prevalent in the outer boroughs of NY, but I sure as hell wouldn't take them anywhere into the city when I can take the subway for less.

Also, never really got into Uber. I'm not some sort of Brooklyn yuppie, able to afford those regularly... Besides, the Taxi and Limousine Commission here hates Uber with a burning passion, and is trying to set up all sorts of regulatory roadblocks to prevent them from getting any more prominent here.

...

Restaurants near convention centers can get pricy, but often you'll find something relatively cheap if you look enough. There's always fast food, but the lines get ridiculous unless it's pretty much the end of the day. The one McDonald's a block from the Javits on 34th Street on 10th fills up real quick during NYCC, especially since cabbies love to get a bite there as well, since they can park their cabs in the lot, a luxury not available to many other places nearby. I only brave that place or other fast food places further down 34th once the con has shut down for the day and my fellow Crew members are looking for quick bites to eat. The diner a couple blocks down is also a popular choice most of the time amongst us.

Anime Boston has a food court in the Prudential Mall which is attached to the Hynes Convention Center as well, but that gets packed real quick, as well as some decent sit down restaurants in the same building, but those get pricy and will fill up as well later in the day as people start to leave and such.