I didn't choose the con life, the con life chose me.

[Crop]

They started doing a con in Cardiff about four years ago, they put one on every 6 months. I went to the first couple because they had excellent guests - Lance Henriksen, Robert Englund, Christopher Judge, Brian Blessed, John Rhys-Davies, The Hoff, among others.

Now I don't know if the guests made like, no money or something but since those first two the guests have been awful. A few extras and extremely minor characters from GoT and Harry Potter mostly. I think even if there were some decent actors I'm over paying 20-40 quid to queue for an hour just to get an autograph, I was just dazzled by meeting famous people the first time round.

As for the stands and stuff, I think Jinx said it best in that it's just looking at lots of cool stuff you can't afford, and even then it gets dull after about 20 minutes. Guess it's just not my thing.

[Calliope]

As you know, I used to work for NZ's major con, probably for about six years? I'd gone a couple of times prior to that and I always thought they were fun - running around hyped up on sugar, scamming free stuff, gawking at cosplayers, trading stories with the celebs I'd been paired up with that day (Ernie Hudson, Billy West, Summer Glau, John Rhys Davies, Dean Haglund, Clare Kramer, etc. etc.).

Spuuky and I have only been to one con in the states, and it was a small zombie themed one, and we pretty much just went because I wanted to see Bruce Campbell. I still regret that we (much like every other attendant at the con) walked past a couple of guys at a booth by themselves...that months later we would know as Glenn and Daryl xDDD

Cons are great for people watching, there's always a competition or a gaming demo or something else going on. However, having almost only attended as a staff member, I'm sure I'd be uppity about having to queue for things and pay for things as a common person, now. I've been thinking a bit recently about trying to go to some kind of con for my workplace, or trying to create a small one for my workplace. If you get too bored you could always claim half of your partner's booth as an EoFF table, I guess?

[Darth Ganon]

I'd like to attend one sometime, but I have nobody to come along and it wouldn't be any fun alone. Old Power Rangers are in town pretty often (Adam, Zack, and Tommy seem to be regulars) and it would be kind of cool to meet one of them. Lou Ferrigno was here not long ago as well.

[Aulayna]

I went to MCM in London about 10 years ago, possibly more. It was pretty much just a nerdy flea market as Jinx described. Although they seem to have upped their game in recent years and tend to have things like discussion panels, cosplay contest etc so it's more in-line with some of the bigger US cons now.

Smaller cons are just pretty much nerdy flea markets. Bigger cons are an insane crush of people. Then there's something like gamescom in Cologne which is just insane levels of magnitude of people.

[Laddy]

I actually help run the local con here, a modest 5000 or so usually attends. It's a lot of fun if you're into a lot of the more social events but unless you're a huge extrovert, deeply into the subject matter, a cosplayer, or wanna buy stuff it might not be for everyone.

[Doomie]

I attended a FanExpo and pretty much went everywhere David Hayter went, including having him sign an old-school Foxhound t-shirt and watching a live reading of the original Ghostbusters. It was a panel of people (forget their names, but the guys who play Pinky/Brain/Goofy/Daffy/One-Piece main dude), and they'd switch voices every scene. It was smurfing awesome.

[Darth Ganon]

I attended a FanExpo and pretty much went everywhere David Hayer went, including having him sign an old-school Foxhound t-shirt and watching a live reading of the original Ghostbusters. It was a panel of people (forget their names, but the guys who play Pinky/Brain/Goofy/Daffy/One-Piece main dude), and they'd switch voices every scene. It was smurfing awesome.

I forget his name, but the guy that voices Pinky is the same who does Yakko Warner and to this day he can apparently recite "The Nations of the World" by memory. There are videos of him doing it on the fly when asked during Q&As and it's awesome.

[Chibi Youkai]

I love conventions. Been to almost any type you can image, from SDCC, all the way down to local ones. Was at Otakon last weekend. Meeting new people with similar hobbies is always fun, especially if you can find a group to join that's cosplaying the same way. Sometimes, the panels are even decent, but mostly, it's just about hanging out and peoplewatching.