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As with any large event, a visit to a nerd convention requires some planning and preparation. Newcomers and veterans alike should ensure that they plan their con just right to have the best time possible. With the extraordinary amount of events and attractions, not to mention the sheer size of most cons, determining the best way to approach them can be intimidating. On top of all that, you also have to deal with transportation, hygiene, and the ever-present need to sleep. Since I’m about to hit up a new convention myself, I thought I’d write down a few tips on how to best prepare for a convention experience.
Plan Your Days
If you’re going to a convention of any kind, chances are that there’ll be so many events and booths and tournaments you’ll want to see that your head will be spinning as you get in the door. Instead of wandering around the convention with no idea what to do next, look at the con’s event schedule a few days beforehand and plan your convention accordingly. First, decide which panels, screenings, or signings you absolutely need to get to and ensure that you will be able to get in line for each of them in time to actually make it in. Most of a convention’s largest events are the ones that diehard fans will line up for hours (if not days) in advance, so you should pencil in an hour of waiting time at the very least before every “major” panel. Once you’ve scheduled the events in which you desperately want to participate, fill up the remaining time with simple and accessible fun, like the artist’s alley or dealer’s room, or with survival necessities, such as eating. It’s incredible how quickly one forgets about meals at a convention, so make sure you know when you’re going to consume something.
Bring Something to Do
The huge number of nerds who attend these conventions means that you’ll always spend several hours of your weekend waiting in lines. Lines suck. Lines are incredibly boring. Lines are the worst part of conventions. Unless you brought something fun along with you. So bring along your favorite comics to read through (or just read the ones you get there). Odds are that if you want to read more of it, there’ll be some vendor who has the next volume in stock. Take your favorite handheld gaming system. I’m a huge fan of bringing a 3DS to conventions because there are always tons of people with whom you can SpotPass, Pokemon battle, or challenge in Fire Emblem. Bring along a screen for watching a TV show or movie. It doesn’t get much better than watching an episode of Doctor Who before seeing a panel with David Tennant or watching Batman: the Animated Series before getting signatures from Kevin Conroy or Mark Hamill. Bring a few Magic: The Gathering decks or your Cards Against Humanity pack. You can even make good friends playing these games with some of your fellow line-mates. Cons are always fun, but they also involve some waiting. Make sure that you’re prepared.
Know How You’re Coming and Going
Convention tickets tend to be fairly expensive, so you’ll want to spend as much time at the con as possible (also because they’re awesome). As such, you need to know how you’re getting from where you’re sleeping to the convention center. If you’re staying at a nearby hotel (which are usually very expensive and hard to find, by the way) there’s no reason to worry, but anyone staying further away will need to coordinate their transportation to and from the con. Parking near convention centers can be absolutely awful and most public transportation options still require a decent amount of walking, so plan your route ahead of time. If you stay at the con from open to close (like I do), you’ll be always be exhausted at the end of the day and you certainly won’t be interested in figuring out the “best” way to get home. On the other hand, if you have all the to-and-fro miscellany handled from the start, you’ll be able to enjoy your convention time to the fullest.
Make a Con Budget
As fun as seeing the sights, interacting with the community, and admiring the visitors might be, conventions are designed to sell you a lot of nerd-related merchandise. This inherent capitalism doesn’t make any of the panel moments or line discussions any less genuine, but it does mean that every you see will be tempting you to buy something that’s “convention-exclusive”… regardless of whether it is or not. To stave off this kind of temptation, put together a con budget to manage your impulsive spending. It could be as simple as “I’m only going to buy this comic.” Maybe you’ll give yourself some kind of dollars-per-day or dollars-per-weekend plan. It’s even possible to just go cold turkey and promise yourself that you won’t get anything at all (though I find this incredibly difficult). Regardless of what you choose, the decision to budget your con is a decision that will ensure that you still have a bit of cash in your pocket when the weekend is over. Or you could do what I do and just resign to your base spending habits. I won’t say it’s smart, but it’s definitely fun.
Prepare Your Cosplay FAR Ahead of Time
Not everyone is interested in cosplaying, but those who are should understand that it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare a proper costume. So if you’re headed to your first convention in a week or two and you suddenly decide that you want to cosplay, don’t. Sorry if this sounds discouraging, but the people who are really into cosplay spend months (if not years) preparing for their con debuts. They start creating and purchasing everything a long time in advance so that their costumes are perfect while they’re walking the convention floors. Conversely, a getup that’s rushed over the space of a few days is not going to be nearly as spectacular or as satisfying (unless you’re some kind of sewing savant, in which case disregard everything I say). Furthermore, sophisticated cosplay can be extremely hot, cumbersome, or otherwise exhausting, so don’t just commit to doing it if you haven’t considered how it might affect your con experience. It might not live up to your expectations. Cosplay is an art: if you don’t have the time to make your costume the best it can be, wait until next year. I guarantee it’ll be even more awesome then.
Just Shower and Sleep
It’s frequently repeated at conventions, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Some would say it’s the most important, so I’ll be up front about it. Personal care is paramount at conventions, particularly because it’s so easy to ignore. Maybe you want to plant yourself in the 24-hour game room all night, but you will regret it at the end of the weekend. Neither work nor school is fun the day after a convention, but it’s even worse if you haven’t slept a wink. Also, no one wants to hang around smelly people. They just don’t. You don’t either. Don’t be that person. Just go home when there’s a lull in the action, relax a bit, and take a shower. Or a bath. Or whatever. You do you. Just also do water and soap. Follow these steps, and I guarantee you’ll love every moment of your convention experience.
You can ready this moderately-informative post (at least relative to my other ones) as well as a bunch of other stuff at the N3rd Dimension.
