Fan conventions?

[SomeRandom]

My fellow geeks/nerds!!!
Have you or anyone you know ever been to one of these things?
Any that you would consider going to?
Any that you like? Just because.

I’d go to a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings convention. Honestly

Come on guys!!
Geek out with me
Lol

 

[JDMS]

As an Asian American, I've participated in a lot of fan conventions for Nintendo games and anime more than Lord of the Rings or other western fan spaces. I have a lot of fun with it, though, and I met many of my friends through these events.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I went to one in Massachusetts and got to meet Brent Spiner and two of the Monkees: Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz. It was sort of cool. I don't get quite as starstruck as some people. I think it was comicbook based and I am not a comicbook fan.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

I absolutely go to these conventions and enjoy them! My man is a writer who frequently gets invited as a guest speaker to fan conventions, and I get to tag along as his guest. The most recent one we attended was held last weekend in England, celebrating the long-running, British television series Doctor Who.

One tends to see a lot of the same people returning annually to these conventions, and there's always a "family vibe" of welcome among the attendees. I think that's what I love best about these conventions, but it's also cool meeting actors, attending various film events, discussion panels, costume events, and so on.

I have to say that the kindest and most friendly people you are likely to meet anywhere are those who attend fan conventions. If that's geeky, then geeks rule!

 

[ChristineM]

Not attended one but in the famous words "I was there..."

I was staying in an airport hotel in London for a morning flight. Unbeknown to me there was a STNG convention being held in the hotel beginning that night.

I had breakfast with Patrick Stewart, Arthur C Clarke and David Prowse.

At other tables were Brent Spiner, Johnathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, LaVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, plus loads "supporting cast", off screen techs, writers, directors.

Arthur C Clarke and David Prowse happened to be in London and asked if they could be special guests at the convention.

Unfortunately had a plane to catch so only spent about half an hour with them. I could have listened to them all day. Missed the conversation of course but the morning left me with lifelong memories.

 

[Callisto]

I use to belong to a club that ran sci-fi conventions. I miss those days, there was greater variety among conventions and they were just more enjoyable plus the guests were accessible on a level that just doesn't happen today. It was a lot of work and everyone was doing it in their spare time so we only pulled off one convention a year.

This was back in the day before Comic Con et.al. Most conventions were not run by large companies but by local groups and fan clubs. The only large convention organizer (and it wasn't that much by today's standards) besides WorldCon was the early days of Creation Con (who are big now). The owners were a couple of guys who ran a comic book store and started hosting conventions, then decided to take the show on the road. To save on overhead, they'd make a deal with the local sci-fi club in that city for volunteers to flesh out their staff. Each volunteer would get a weekend pass and (this may have only been with really well-established clubs), your club could take the guest(s) to lunch or dinner. Yes, they'd literally hand over actors/artists/writers to a bunch of fans. And it helped us too: because they'd met us and liked us we were able to get some of them as guests at our own con.