Convention tales!

[Streetdoc270]

Who has ever gone to a Sci-Fi/Gaming con.

Bonus points if you ever worked at the con!

Me: Hexacon at UNC-G 1988-1991 guest in 1988 security 1989-1990 Head of Security in 1991.

[ralps]

1. I went to gencon in Milwaukee a couple of times.

It was fun.
:hi:

[TOhioLiberal]

2. Been to about a dozen Trek cons...

between 1993 (my 1st), and 2003.

guests:

TOS
William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
Majel Roddenberry
Nichelle Nichols
Geoge Takei
Walter Koenig
Jimmy Doohan

TNG
Brent Spiner
Marina Sirtis

DS9
Nana Visitor
Rene Auberjonois
Terri Farell

Vogager
Kate Mulgrew
Ethan Phillips
Robert Duncan McNeil
Tim Russ
Robert Picardo

I've gotten Autographs from most of them; Shatner wanted MONEY for his, and Brent Spiner does not sign at conventions either.

Saw the whole 'Ferengi family' at a con once, but I cannot pull their real names from the depths of my memories; I can remember their character names--Quark, Nog, Rom, Mookie...let me tell you its hell getting old!

[Love Bug]

3. Well, let's see

I worked (as a member of a fan club) at probably a dozen Creation conventions in the Twin cities. I've also attended a few non-Creation Star Trek cons. I've also attended probably 20 fan-run general SF conventions, not to mention working on one for 6 years. One of these days I want to go to Worldcon and Dragoncon.

[Chovexani]

4. I mostly go to anime cons

This year my nerd herd went to AnimeNEXT in NJ and Otakon in Baltimore. We plan on hitting the next I-CON out in Long Island. I'm still mad the Big Apple Anime Fest was cancelled this year because of the damn Repuke convention screwing everything up. Stupid goddamn Republicans.

We were also very active in the Xena fandom and went to a few Creation cons. There's a local lesbian bar that used to have Xena Night on the first Tuesday of the month, and we were regulars...lordy that was fun. Fans of all persuasions (but with one thing in common, we were all big subtexters) would get together usually costumed, watch some episodes and have trivia contests, fake plastic swordfights, etc. The booze flowed freely. Lucy Lawless herself even showed up unannounced one night and we had a blast. Now that the show is off the air we don't do it every month but we try to have an event every so often, the last one was in June when we staged a wedding for Xena and Gabrielle. I mean, we had wedding cake and everything. It was awesome. We also had a little auction and raised some money for a group that runs bus trips to Canada for GLBT couples that want to get married. It's all about the Greater Good, after all. :)

My friends and I dress to the nines for every con. It's just not as fun without costumes.

[ikojo]

5. During the 1980s I attended MANY Doctor Who conventions

including the huge 1983 "Monster Con" near O'Hare Field in Chicago. It was awesome! I miss the old days when, if you wanted a good close seat, you sat IN LINE sometimes for many hours. Now those who have more money can buy their way to good seats. Kind of takes the fun out of it and lessens the camaraderie that is supposed to build in the fan community. Had it been like this in the 80s I might have never met some good people.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Used to be media liason for Dragon Con for several years...

I woke up with a Klingon once.

That's as strange as I ever want to get.

[Orsino]

7. DragonCon Every Year

My wife and I are pretty fed up with all the posing that gets in the way of the important business of gaming, but we spend all four days there each year. In '05, we'll be in the Marriott rather than the Hyatt, to avoid some of the pretentiousness.

[lazarus]

8. I got so tired of DragonCon

it's just too damned big. Or it was back in the early 90s when I was a regular attendee.

I got to the point that I preferred smaller, more intimate cons, especially if they have a guest I like. I got to spend a lot of time with Steven Brust at WolfCon in Mississippi. He took the panel outside, since most of us were smokers (I've since quit). And it went way over schedule, and turned into just a bull session about the world he's created.

That night, a bunch of us met with Steve to play poker. Could you see that happening at DragonCon?

[Orsino]

9. I dunno...

I'm definitely not on the celebrity track. I met Tim Powers a few years ago, and Peter Woodward, but I never imagined trying to hang out with them.

This past year, my crew and I spent most of our con time playing board and card games amongst ourselves, and ducked out in the evenings for stuff like Sting/Annie Lennox and the Shakespeare Tavern, and for fine dining.

My wife and I go mainly to see out-of-town friends, to try out games we wouldn't ordinarily play, and to shop. A big, big con is fine for those sorts of things; we've even figured out how to get around the Hyatt lobby via the dungeons, so the Saturday night sardine can doesn't inconvenience us.

[lazarus]

10. Oh, I'm not a big celeb fan, either

Steve is just my favourite writer, so of course I had to meet him.

I spent a couple of years traveling with some con merchants, helping out at their tables in exchange for a room and time off to play in the Magic tournament (I usually did quite well at those). Since I quit playing Magic, I find myself reluctant to go to a con anymore. It was such an addiction, I'm afraid to be around it again.

[ikojo]

11. Yeah, we used to call Magic

Cardboard crack.

[Ready4Change]

12. Gonna date myself here. Been to many generic Sci-Fi cons in the past.

So far back that they had no rules regarding weapons carried, toy or otherwise. Not even regarding costume contests. Just walking around the hallways in general, toy gun armed to the hilt.

I and my friends all had disc and dart and rubber bullet guns in holsters, and uniforms as the crew from a starship we had made up (we were the first to wear uniforms as I recall, and the first to use the now obligatory headsets for radio comms.)

Glorious were those days.

At one con we met another "crew", less regimented in dress but comparably armed, and the hallways lit aflame in warfare. The carpetting was thick with spent plastic disks and little round pellets.

I remember well coming around a corner and finding, seated there in a circle, the entirety of that other crew. In one fluid motion I cocked and fired my trusty ping-pong ball "grenade" rifle. Perfectly the destrive orb landed in their very center. And as I dodged back into cover I recall seeing at least half of them leaping backwards as if flung by the blast.

Glorious, glorious all. Todays cons are far too tepid for my tastes.