The Glade 4.0

If you are going to have less than 200 people attend, why are you the most expensive con to art at of ever? Why? You are ridiculous!

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Does that even qualify as a convention? It sounds more like "open geek night."

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

What is a con?

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Short for Convention.

Rent out one or more large buildings (hotels, convention centers, etc.), pick a theme, host panels (Q&A's with well known artists, actors, authors, for instance), sell space for vendors to sell stuff, and charge fans and geeks admission.

Unlike trade shows, they target fans and geeks rather than press and industry insiders, and thus the vendor focus is less on showing off new stuff than making sales.

They cover a wide range of topics and themes, as well as locations. Some of the largest/most famous are:

GenCon (Role Playing Games, primarily -- Indianapolis, IN)
Origins (Gaming of all types -- Columbus, OH)
ComiCon (comic books -- San Diego, CA; NYC, NY; and I think Chicago; San Diego's the biggest, though)
DragonCon (Science Fiction and Fantasy -- Atlanta, GA)
Numerous Anime Cons that I don't know
Penny Arcade Convention (Computer Gaming -- Seattle, WA and now Boston, MA)

The ones Phe's talking about are smaller, more local ones, where the vendor tables are more affordable for a smaller operation like hers. She sells costume jewelry and trinkets -- lots of convention-goers go in costumes related to the theme, and so a lot of the vendors are frequently targetted to helping people complete costumes they're working on. Googling the conventions I listed (or "cosplay") will probably turn up a bunch of examples!

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

A convention

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Holy shitsnacks!

Do not Google "cosplay". This is just a bit of advice. Unless you are interested in seeing a fat guy in a Sailor Moon costume (or worse), in which case, well, go to town.

Although I am surprised that Kaffis wouldn't have kicked off the list with Worldcon.

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Oh ! Cool, I have never been to one. It sounds fun. Phe is so talented with her art, I would love to go see something like this.

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Yeah, forgot WorldCon.

And yes, I should have stipulated that you *definitely* want to have Google's safe-search on for googling Cosplay, and I'm not responsible for what technically work safe, yet still quite terrifying horrors it might reveal due to denial meeting body type mismatches.

Still, the Internet amplifies this effect, and the truly horrific is fairly rare to encounter in person, so don't let that turn you off to checking one out!

Kirra, I'll have to tease you with some pictures from last year's DragonCon. FarSkee, Phe, and I try to go annually..

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I would love to see pics Kaffis! I bet it is lots of fun!

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Quite possibly the most awesome example of cosplay.

Also quite possibly NSFW.

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

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Example of con madness -

I work for an anime con. Tonight went like this

8pm - Artist Alley registration went live
8:02pm - Artist Alley is full

>_>

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Out of curiosity, which con is that?

Oh, and Imagicon: cost over $200 to show there, made only $85. Poor spacial planning and a very small number of attendees. I had more artist/vendors/guests come by my table than anyone else. Unless you count children on field trips, because they held it in the science center and left the entire place open to the public.

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But on the plus side of that con, Timothy Zahn thought our comic was good.

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