Convention Going 101 – Planning

It seems like there is at least one anime convention going on somewhere in North America on any given weekend and while this is certainly a good thing, it can be overwhelming to someone who has never been to an anime convention before or even to someone who has been to a couple of conventions, but is still new to the convention scene.  As someone who has 40+ conventions in my con going resume ranging from super small (Pacific Media Expo) to massive (San Diego Comic Con and Anime Expo) I’ve learned plenty about attending conventions over the last 20 years. Wait, has it really been that long? It seems like just yesterday; I would say something about being old, but I’m only 42 and that’s hardly old, though some days I feel older than that.  Back on topic, I want to offer some helpful advice to those of you who might be thinking of attending your first convention this year.  Even if you’re a con veteran like me, there are always tips to getting the most out of your con going experience that sometimes go forgotten, even common sense ones like hygiene (which I will talk about in the next post). There are a few phases of con survival which I will break down into three posts: Pre Con Planning/Preparation, At Con Survival and the dreaded Post Con Letdown/Blues/Depression that we all go through (don’t lie, we all go through it in some form). 

Each phase is a different animal so to speak so it doesn’t feel right to try and condense all three phases into one single post and you’re not trying to read a novel here. This post deals with the first stage of the process, that being the basics of planning and preparing to attend a convention.

You’ve heard friends talk about how much fun they had at the latest convention they attended, be it a local con or a convention they traveled out of town for. You’ve seen pictures from said conventions and have decided that you’re finally going to see what the convention scene is all about for yourself instead of living vicariously through pictures and social media posts, but where to start?  First of all, planning will vary depending on the con and whether you will be commuting back and forth from home or if you are traveling to another city and staying onsite for the convention. Or maybe you’re local to the con, but plan to stay onsite in a nearby hotel anyway to fully immerse yourself.  The one constant to both factors of attending a convention is that early planning is always beneficial in making the con an enjoyable experience. Most cons will open pre-registration for next year’s con several months ahead of time if not right after the latest convention ends. Badge prices are almost always going to be cheaper the earlier you register so unless you don’t mind paying top dollar at the door, register as early as you can to get the cheapest price.  Before registering, it’s always a good idea to check each convention’s policy as relates to cancellations and refunds on badges and whether badges can be rolled over to next year. If something comes up that keeps you from attending whether it’s not being able to get the time off or there’s a family commitment that comes up, it’s nice to know what your options might be in case you can’t go and whether you can avoid having just spent the money but gotten no value from it.  I also speak from experience here, but make sure you request time off of work as soon as you can; while a good rule of thumb is usually one or two months of notice, the sooner the better especially if you’re taking time off after the con to recover(highly recommended if you have the time available). For the purpose of this post, let’s assume you’re planning to travel to a con out of town, whether it’s a two hour or more drive away or in another state altogether

Conventions can be costly especially if you’re traveling out of town, so it’s important to set a budget and start setting money aside as early as you can to cover costs of transportation, hotel room and food for an enjoyable weekend.  Of course if you plan to spend some money in the Exhibit Hall that’s a separate budget altogether and will vary wildly depending on what kind of merchandise you want to buy.  In this case, planning a spending budget for extras like merchandise is dependent on each individual and as I said, will vary wildly depending on what you’re after.  It should go without saying that you should always keep your spending money SEPARATE from money you’ve budgeted for your hotel room as no figure is worth the embarrassment of being unable to pay for your room or risking being the flake in a group.  Don’t be the person who can’t cover their share of the room, nothing is worse to your friends or roommates than making it that much more costly for everyone else to have to cover your share. As soon as you know you are going to go to a convention, sit down and crunch the numbers on estimated costs that will go into traveling to and attending the con.  Airfares and hotel rates can and will change often and your costs will go down with the more people that split a room with you thus why your initial cost estimation is just that, an estimation. 

Whenever possible, booking through a convention sponsored hotel block will usually get you cheaper costs on that room regardless of whether you’re sharing with friends or not.  If you can afford a room by yourself all the more power to you, but I’ve found that sharing a room with friends makes a con so much more fun. Once you have a rough number on the cost, make a plan to put away a set amount each week or whatever time-frame best works for you.  One thing you also want to make sure of is what you can actually afford to put away and if you can afford to put a decent amount (in this case, we’ll say $10 a week) keep in mind, no convention is worth sacrificing to the point where you are unable to support your basic obligations like rent and other bills. If you are so tight on finances where you have to decide between putting money away or paying a bill on time, you should consider planning to attend the con next year or when finances aren’t so tight.  I digress though, I’m kind of getting off topic here but it still ties into planning as budgeting is important, the same basic concept really goes for any other vacation you would go on.  The better you budget and the more you can save, the more fun you will have as no one wants to go to a convention and be worried about overdrawing on their checking account or racking up huge credit card debt to pay for everything.

It may seem intimidating when you finally come up with a rough estimate of the total cost of attending a convention, but really it doesn’t have to be that way.  With enough planning you can cut costs in every aspect of your convention going starting with travel.  If you’re driving to a convention that’s out of town, carpooling with a group of friends will not only save on gas and parking; but everyone in the group can also take turns driving in shifts so that one person isn’t stuck doing all the driving, a godsend on a long drive.  If you are attending a convention where you will be flying, check airfares early and often. Fares can and will change sometimes on a weekly basis depending on where you’re flying to and where you are flying from as well as the dates (holiday weekends will almost always be more expensive).  An additional tip to note when looking for the cheapest airfare is that the cheapest day to book is usually on Tuesdays, which is when airlines tend to run new sales trying to match their competitors. If you live close multiple airports, check fares in and out of all airports as you may be able to get an even lower fare if you’re willing to travel a little more to the airport and don’t wait too long to book airfare as waiting till the last minute will not necessarily present you with the cheapest fare (in fact the closer to the departure date you get, the more expensive the fare will get). If you have extra time and can afford it, another option would be train travel.  I recently took the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to San Jose for Fanime and it was an enjoyable experience to watch the scenery roll by while not having to worry about making a pit stop, but back on topic, if time is of the essence then train travel isn’t your best bet.

The next important thing to consider is a hotel room for the convention which to me is a central part of enjoying the full experience of the con; there’s no better way to immerse yourself in the con from start to finish than to stay in the host hotel or a nearby hotel.  Sure, if the con is local and close to home a hotel room is perhaps an unnecessary extra expense but what I’ve found out with attending a con like Anime Expo or Anime Los Angeles, both of which are local to me is that it’s so much easier to have a place nearby to take a breather from the action or change costumes if you are a cos-player.  Having that hotel room is also a great thing to have if you’re someone who takes in the party scene at cons; spending that money on a hotel room to crash in when the party is over is so much better than getting a DUI or worse like seriously injuring yourself or someone else. Unless you’re fairly financially stable or have been saving up for a long time to do so, most of us who attend conventions can’t afford to rent a hotel room on our own so we turn to room sharing with friends (or strangers if you’re feeling adventurous). The sooner you can get a group together to split the costs of a room, the better.  Most conventions have either a forum where people may post looking for roommates or a Discord server for the con where you can also get in contact with people looking for a room or roommates, so if you can’t get friends together have no fear, there’s always a way.  If you are going to room with strangers, I highly recommend looking into trying to get to know the people in advance whether through Zoom, Discord or in person if possible so that you can at least be familiar with each other.  I’ve roomed with people I didn’t know at all before the convention and have gotten very lucky that I’ve been able to not only avoid drama but make some truly good friends out of it that I’ve roomed with at conventions over the years, even spending a non convention weekend with a few of them in Las Vegas. I’ve been lucky, but not everyone is that lucky, which is why getting to know the people you’re going to spend the weekend with as much as possible is so important, no one wants con drama.  I would also recommend against room stuffing (the practice of packing rooms with well beyond the allowed occupancy) to the point of having 10+ people in one room.  Not only is it unsafe and against fire code policy, but it can be uncomfortable, and trust me from experience on that, though it’s from the years of being in rooms with a lot of people that I met some of my best friends. I get it though, perhaps room stuffing is the only way you can attend a convention, even if you’ve budgeted and saved; I’m not saying don’t do it, but trust me, saving an extra $50-100 isn’t worth it in the long run when it comes to comfort in the room.  Even if you’re someone like me who isn’t too keen on the parties, when you return to the hotel room at the end of the day, you want to be able to relax and prepare for the next day.

To summarize, once you have decided to attend a convention, follow these steps (in no specific order) and you’ll be sure to have a good time when you finally get to the convention:

• Pre-register as early as possible to get your badge at its cheapest and make sure you are well versed on the con’s registration policies.
• Plan a budget for travel (if applicable) and hotel costs
• Carpool with friends or check airfares early and often so you don’t spend top dollar getting to the convention.
• Find friends to split costs on the hotel with or make new friends through social media (try to avoid room stuffing if possible)
• Plan a spending budget for the convention to spend on food, drinks and merchandise (if you plan to buy anything) and I can’t stress enough to SEPARATE this from your share of the hotel room.

Now that you’ve decided to attend a convention and have set forth a budget for transportation, badge and your split of a hotel room, all that’s left is to save money to spend on food (actual food, for the love of God) and maybe some merchandise in the Exhibit Hall while you’re at the convention.  Now to begin that long wait until it comes time to attend the actual convention itself, hang in there it’ll be here before you know it!  While basic in nature, if a bit wordy, I hope this basic post on planning in the early stages of convention going provides some helpful assistance.  Stay tuned for the next post which will deal with the lead-up to the con and the actual convention itself!