Conventions and Conferences

[Guest]

Back in April I went to UppCon (Upp comes from Uppsala - the town it was in, and Con comes from convention). After I promised I'd start a thread about cons. So here it finally is, two months late.

I though it would be nice to have just a general discussion about conventions and conferences (although I wasn't thinking of work-related conferences, they can still be discussed).

I love conventions personally, but I've noticed that too big conventions isn't really my style and that's because there are some things I want to get from a convention that a big one won't give me.

Why Miss Dagger goes to conventions:

1. For the people. To meet new people with the same interests that I have. A convention usually have something special it is about. The two I've gone to have been Games and Anime/manga conventions.

2. The openness to weird. In a convention the more "normal" you are the more you look out of place. You'll see lots of people in strange costumes or interesting t-shirts or so. Everyone is open and accepting. At least that's my experience. On the cons I've been to you'll see plenty of signs saying "Free Hugs". So people actually want to hug strangers!

3. Being away from home and the normal routine with your friends means you'll spend a lot of time together in just a few days. It's easier to play broad games and watch anime together, if you go to the same type of conventions I do. (You can borrow broad games, and they usually have a place where they show anime.)

So really, it's the love on the conventions I've gone to that pulls me back. When a convention gets bigger it becomes less personal, and I have to admit I don't like that. That's why the convention I went to in April wasn't as good as the other one I attend every year. It's too big, and it's only a anime/manga convention. So not enough focus on games.

In late July I'm going to my regular con, which I've been going to since 2007. So it'll be my fourth year. Wow. It's called Närcon, and I'm not sure where "när" comes from. Maybe it's just the word "när" that means "close". Alas, it's a two hour train ride from where I live. I'm already looking forward to it, and I expect to have a really good time.

So have you gone to any conventions? Did anything interesting happen? Do you love/hate them?

[Guest]

So, although this thread seems dead (well is dead) I'll still post about the convention I'm going to this weekend.
I'm going to Närcon, which have an awesome loggo of a dragon hatching this year. Here it is:


Närcon is a gaming and anime/manga convention. Anime and manga have been added in the later years since so many cosplayers (those who wear costumes of their favorite characters in manga/anime/games) came to Närcon. It's in a town called Örebro in Sweden. The con have a great atmosphere and lets you borrow broad games, which is one of the things I usually do the most. Play broad games I mean. I'll tell more when I get back about what I did and so.