TV Tuesday: Geeking Out

[yourlibrarian]

Have you ever been to a convention focused on a particular TV show? Or have you been to panels on one in a multi-fandom convention? What aspects are a draw for you?

Comments

[olivermoss]

I went to Con-Con, the Leverage convention that Electric Entertain ran. I've been to a SPN con. I also went to Electric Con, for all Electric shows.

Panels at a con? More than I'd be able to recall right now. I went to White Collar and Burn notice panels at SDCC. Lost Girls, Haven, I'd need to take a long think to even remember most!

[yourlibrarian]

I imagine so if you have a lot of favorite shows! Heh, love the Con-Con label for Leverage 😄

[olivermoss]

I also just used to go to a lot of cons

[dine]

I've never done a fandom-specific con, though have attended tons of fandom-specific panels over the decades at Escapade and Bitchin' Party. basically I enjoy the chance to discuss favourite canon/characters with other fen. sometimes it's squee, sometimes it's criticism of showrunner decisions, but just having a shared obsession with a roomful of folks leads to interesting discussions

[yourlibrarian]

It's a real plus to be at fan-run cons. I agree that there's a lot of opportunity there to engage in discussions.

[rogueslayer452]

I've been to several conventions. It started with Creation Con for Supernatural, which was my gateway into conventions. Then I went to Dragon*Con, and after that it was more local fan/anime conventions which I attended more frequently as a means to save money (because traveling is expensive).

For me, the draw of conventions was the atmosphere. It's one of the places where it gathered so many fannish individuals and where you could express your enthusiasm of the things you were interested in on that level, from cosplay and the vending areas and getting to see and converse with other fellow fans of something. Also yes, seeing the actors and creators of a particular fandom you were into was definitely a massive draw too, because there is something surreal about seeing someone you admire from the screen in person. Although admittedly, over time, it became less of a spectacle for me. That's not to say that I don't enjoy seeing them in person when I do, but it's about the intent of it, if that makes sense. Panels, autographs and photo ops, while fun, it can depend on whether or not you want to sit through a possible repetitive questionnaire session and/or be perceived by the actor/creator in question (and also spending money, because that can vary too depending on the actor). So for me, it's more about the fan atmosphere than anything else. Especially the vendors area, because you get to see a lot of goodies that fans are selling which you can only get at these kinds of events.

I haven't been to a convention since a little before 2020, and for obvious reasons I've been hesitant on attending another one even though I do miss it.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, con costs are very expensive, even without travel (depending on the con and what you want to do). It's a definite change from cons pre-2000 IMO. I still recall how, when I was visiting a friend in California, it was a spur of the moment trip down to San Diego for Comic Con because there was going to be an Angel panel with the new showrunners. My friends dropped me off at the box office and I got a ticket for the day.

I was able to see everything I wanted to, and though there were a lot of people there it wasn't very crowded given the space. And the ticket cost far less than at the show cons I'd been to, probably because you weren't guaranteed to see anything.

[alchemicink]

I haven't been to a show-specific convention before, but I'd like to one day attend a Star Trek convention. I think it'd be fun to see all the different cosplay in person, and just get to talk in person with other fans about the franchise. (I don't get to do this with offline people)

I have, however, been regularly attending an anime convention for more than a decade, and I've definitely attended some panels for some specific shows. But I really enjoy more generalized panels that are focused on specific guests (like a voice actor or director) because there's always really interesting insight you can learn about a show's production from them. That's usually the draw for me. I love behind-the-scenes stories, and conventions are great for that

[yourlibrarian]

Very true! The last con I went to was Whedon Con near L.A. My favorite panelists are writers because it's always great being able to hear what did (or didn't) come together for an episode, and we got to hear from a longtime writer and also the Firefly co-showrunner. It's a shame more writers are rarely promoted as panelists.

[alchemicink]

That sounds like a fun experience!

Now that I think about it, the convention I go to often has actors, directors, producers, and animator as guests, but writers are rare. Which is a shame because writers always have really interesting stories to share