Good afternoon all! So as I sit at my friend’s place half playing Shadowrun and half doing research for a Grad School assignment I opted to write up this little blurb detailing a few tips and tricks for a general convention going. The goal here mostly being an article that’s different from what we normally do but that will hopefully still be helpful for others and sum up the podcast we had last week, so feel free to skip this if you saw that or have been to a con often enough. Realistically this is mostly a common sense post but lets be honest, common sense isn’t exactly common sense.

1) Keep Your Mind On Your Money

Conventions are expensive, and things at conventions are expensive. If you’ve ever been to Disney or a theme park akin to Disney, you are spending buku bucks for this fun. I highly advise planning out at least a month or two for a con in general whether you are going and budgeting out how much. The first and foremost reason being that your tickets can be cheaper if you buy early bird discounted. Next being you can plan out if you want to buy a small $1 anime button, a couple $35 pillows, or some massive $300 Gundam statues you know how much you can spend and have an idea for your wiggle room. Additional costs you need to take into account are parking, food, and hotel or transportation if you are visiting and again, planning ahead can save you hundreds of dollars.

2) Cosplayers Have Feelings Too!

Jessica Nigiri, Yaya Han, and a number of other women (and a handful of men) dress up in amazing cosplays ranging from beautiful video game characters, to busty distractions, to amazing individuals in transformer or Space Marine costumes. Unfortunately something individuals forget is that Cosplay is not Consent, and this has become a common sight in conventions as a warning sign to con-goers to not harass cosplayers. It’s a sad sight for our community that such a thing must be said but unfortunately another common stereotype of con-goers is that they are socially awkward. Please remember that you can’t just grab someone to take photos and especially cannot grope individuals. Just like anything else pertaining to social interaction, just ask for consent. A simple “Hey, mind if I take a photo with you?” will suffice and as per life, remember No means No, don’t be that guy.

3) Mind Your Hygiene

Yet another pretty common sense topic but for the love of god shower. Seriously, you are going to be in cramped confines with thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of individuals and if you are in a hot and humid area in a hot and humid time period (i.e. Florida in summer) sweat and BO become a thing of serious concern. Ideally there will be great ventilation and amazing AC plus a large area to allow you to breath regardless of being packed in a proverbial sardine can. Worst case scenario you learn what its like to live in a gym bag. Now I understand there will always be individuals of a less savory smell but if this article can be read by one person who will think to throw on a bit more deodorant than usual, then mission accomplished.

4) Rule Zero: Have Fun

So this right here is the most common sense of the common sense. You, I, and anyone that goes to a convention does so for a fundamental reason. We were forced to by our nerdy friends. JK but for real, we do this to have fun. I understand people work there but a vast majority of individuals go to conventions as attendees to have fun. Whether going with friends, coworkers, or on your own make sure you know we’re all here to have fun. All in all I hope this article was able to help someone either themselves or a friend of a reader and I will probably do more of these for random bits of advice.