Dirty Weekend on Cybertron, Part 3
Whew! Sorry for the split post, guys - the size of some of the images ran me right into LJ's posting limits. This is the last one, I promise.
( Part III: I'm here to spout catchphrases and chew gum, and I'm all out of catchphrases! )
( Part III: I'm here to spout catchphrases and chew gum, and I'm all out of catchphrases! )
If I were you, I'd try to find a convention that's not too big or too corporate. Auto Assembly is a great size at 500 people - big enough to attract high-profile guests, small enough that there's really only one set of events, all taking place in the same, reasonably cozy room. MCM Expo and London Film and Comic Con were fun, but they weren't as friendly, it wasn't nearly as easy to strike up conversations, and there was less of a tribal feel. Granted, part of that could be the difference between a general scifi convention and a franchise-specific one - a fifty-year-old Star Wars fan may not have a lot in common with a seventeen-year-old anime cosplayer - but I think it was also the large, decentralised nature of those cons, vs. Auto Assembly.
I'd look for a convention where most of the events are taking place in a single hall, and where the advertisements devote a significant amount of space to the panels they'll be having, rather than just to the dealers, the artists you can buy work from, and the celebrities you can meet one-on-one. Shopping, buying sketches, and getting autographs are all great - I did all of those things this weekend - but they don't really bring people together in that orgy-of-nerdom way.
If you can find - and if you're able to attend - a convention that has an evening programme, especially if it's one that's exclusive to the attendees who will be there all weekend, so much the better. Special Friday previews for weekend attendees can also be worthwhile, provided that there are actual events scheduled, and it's not just, "Pay for Friday, too, and we'll let you in to buy stuff early."
And there may actually be an advantage to attending cons outside the London area. It's more expensive, definitely, but if it's not prohibitively expensive, it does mean that you're sharing a hotel with the same nerdy gang for a full weekend, and there are likely to be more dedicated fans and fewer casual attendees.
Finally, a few things of which I have no personal experience, but that might be worth considering as ways to get more deeply involved and meet more people: Most cons are looking for volunteers, and many allow people to volunteer for part of the weekend only. It's a tradeoff - making friends, free gifts, possibly discounts on tickets, but you have to work, and might miss some of the things you want to see. Also, the con may have a forum or a Facebook page where you can pre-meet people; there may be competitions (Auto Assembly has fanfic and art competitions, as well as tryouts for the script reading); and of course, there's always cosplay if you've ever been intrigued by that.
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