Fandom: Worldcon

[escritoireazul]

I'd be interesting in hearing people's thoughts on why they do or don't attend Worldcon and ways to enjoy it if you do or things to watch out for, etc. There's some potential things brewing over the next couple years, and I always love hearing about people's experiences. 

Comments

[ambyr]

I attend Worldcon about once every five years--I enjoy it a lot, but I also enjoy my local cons, and they're a lot cheaper and easier to get to! If you don't have experience with traditional SF&F con-going fandom, I'd recommend checking out some in your area before committing to Worldcon--it will give you a sense of whether it's the sort of thing you like, and also it will help you meet people who'll be attending Worldcon. Worldcon is much more fun if you know people there--and I don't just mean a couple people who you're specifically attending with, although those are good to have, but random people you vaguely recognize in the con suite who you can strike up a conversation with over slightly stale pretzels and apple juice.

If you do go to Worldcon with people, I at least find it a lot more fun if we acknowledge right at the beginning that our interests are not in perfect alignment and that we're all free to go do our own thing, with plans to reconvene for meals or a few specific panels or presentations of shared interests. If nothing else, all doing your own thing means you've got more to talk about at dinner. Personally, I have a limited tolerance for panels--they always all sound super exciting in the run-up to the convention, and I go through the program with a highlighter and flag 2-3 things per time slot, but when it comes to actually attending them, I can do about 3 a day before I burn out. So I try to supplement with other things: time in the game room to feed my need for interaction, time just sitting in the video room to let my brain rest, time attending dances or yoga or walks with the stars to get some physical activity in the mix. My best experiences with panels are when I pick them based on panelists who I know are interesting speakers rather than based on topics.

I like kaffeeklatches and craft workshops a lot--they also feed my need for interaction--and those tend to require advance sign-up. One of the first things I do at a con is figure out what the sign-up system is and when and where I need to be for sign-ups (often sign-up sheets will be presented one day at a time, appearing the previous evening; sometimes they'll be put out in half-day chunks instead). Like book signings, filling out the sign-in sheets for limited-space events is something you sometimes need to budget 30-60 minutes of queuing time for. It's worth it for me.

What I don't tend to leave a lot of time for is meals. My goal is to have one sit-down meal every day (with friends), and to make sure I carry enough granola bars, fruit, sandwiches, or other snacks that I can eat when time does present itself without needing to hunt down more food. If I'm staying on site and can get a fridge in my room, that makes things even easier. (Staying on-site is always best if I can possibly swing it, IMO.)

[marginaliana]

I have never been and I think it's just generally not my kind of thing in that it's focused a lot around published authors. I'm in fandom for fun and I'm also fairly solidly in the 'don't meet your heroes' school of thought, so the idea of meeting up with writers whose works I loved doesn't really appeal.

It's different for a fan-focused con, where all the attendees are fans and it's more about sharing a mutual love of a canon or a trope or whatever. In those, everyone is more or less on the same playing field (there are BNFs, of course, but they could know your name, too). So I've been to several of those and really enjoyed myself, but I don't think something more pro-focused would be a good fit for me unless I was trying to get into pro-writing myself.

[snickfic]

I've been to one Worldcon and am making plans to go next year. The appeal for me is the focus on literary SF and the incredible nerdiness and breadth of expert knowledge you can find on the panels. I went away with the last one with a renewed love of SFF lit, which I hadn't been reading much of for years, and just a new hunger for knowledge, as over-earnest as that sounds.

My main takeaways in terms of how to enjoy the con were that you shouldn't pin too many hopes on panels (and should be willing to walk out if they're really wasting your time), readings are really worth going to even if you're not a superfan of the author, and make sure to map out downtime in advance and plan for meals.

I don't go to Worldcon more often because of expense, inconvenience, and difficulty of scheduling. :(

[dolorosa_12]

I'm going to Worldcon for the first time next year, and have never been to any cons. However, I've been to a lot of large academic conferences, and they're very similar in a lot of ways. My advice here is based on both my experience at academic conferences, and what I've gleaned from reading about other people's experiences at various Worldcons and other large conventions.

If you are attending with friends, or planning to meet up with friends there, don't feel you have to be completely joined at the hip. Your fannish interests aren't necessarily going to overlap completely, and you'll have a much better time if you go to the panels, readings and so on that you want to see, rather than dragging yourself to events you're not interested in. You can always make plans to meet up at set times (for meals, coffee breaks, or just time away from the crowds) in advance.

Map out what you want to do in advance, and accept that it's going to be hard to get from one back-to-back event to another, unless they're in the same room. Prioritise the events you really, really want to attend, and try to schedule a gap in between them. Accept that you will not be able to see everything you want, particularly if the con is extremely crowded or badly organised (I heard the Worldcon last year in Helsinki was particularly bad for this, with large queues and crowds, as they hadn't properly anticipated the number of attendees). Try to spend the first day/morning getting the lie of the land — how to sign up for things, how long you're likely to have to queue, and how far apart things are.

Schedule some kind of downtime, unless you're the world's biggest extrovert. Bring a book, or some kind of internet-connected device (and charger, if necessary). When I go to large conferences I always eat lunch on my own away from the conference, because I find crowds and small talk overwhelming, so this gives me an easy break for an hour or so — and generally much better food.

If you can afford it, the convenience of staying somewhere really close to the convention outweighs any monetary saving you might make by staying somewhere further away and cheaper. My impression is that there are a lot of spontaneous, unscheduled events at Worldcon such as hanging out in hotel bars, parties in people's rooms and so on, and you don't want to feel you're missing out if this is something you're likely to want to do. Also, speaking as someone who is fairly familiar with Dublin, a lot of public transport stops around 11pm, meaning you may end up spending lots of money on taxis if you're staying further out.

Accept that you will spend time queuing, and bring things to do to keep you occupied while waiting in queues. Make sure to build time into your schedule to eat and drink.