Unsolicited Advice on Making the Most of a Con

An Intro

Hello all, so do you plan to hit the floor of a convention very soon? Well you've come to the right place! I've actually been to TONS of conventions, fairs, and meet ups where a lot of walking, vendors, and panels were involved! I wanted to see if I can give you guys few pieces of advice to make your experience as good as possible! Sorry to make this so long I’ll try to bold or put a picture  next to points I think that are important! Even though this write-up can be applied to many conventions this one will be mostly be focused on EverfreeNW/ in particular [EFNW Official Website Site ]. Why EFNW? I will be vending there this year as well as it is one of my favorite conventions I go to!

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW! Official EFNW Registration Page

First off, a question that you should ask yourself is: “What are your expectations?”

Do you want to talk to Tabitha or get a print signed by you favorite artist? I’ve been to conventions where a cast/staff members of tv shows were attending as well, and because of my own piss poor planning I didn’t get a chance to meet them. Even with planning some talent/staff don't make themselves available to the public, so don't feel discouraged if that occurs. Basically what I am trying to say is Be Realistic with what you want to accomplish. Don’t forget to roll with the punches, you may not get into that panel, not get the swag you wanted, or even forget something that you really wanted to buy. The most important point is to have fun! To be with people with similar interest, see things you will only see there, and have an all round good time; EFNW 15 will be 100% limited edition! So make the most of your time at the EFNW convention, hopefully this write-up will assist in this goal!<da:thumb id="287525852"/>

Before you go!!!

What to bring:

Deodorant: The convention space will be full of people, it can become really warm (even when air conditioning is on full blast). When people are gathered in the vendor hall, in a popular panel or one of the concerts it will get warm and people can perspire! It is good tact to bathe and wear deodorant every day while attending a convention. In general really...

Comfortable shoes: basically your best walking shoes, anything new are going to hurt your feet! Need arch supports? Get ‘em! Don't know weather they are good enough? Take a half an hour walk, you can usually tell if they'll give you major problems! Even broken into shoes can get you some blisters and rough up your feet. So you should bring...

Bandages. For both covering up blisters (if the blister hurts it's a good idea to drain it.), if you get a paper cut, and any small emergency.

Cell Phone and call phone charger: Probably your best tool for a convention, twitter access, keeps you updated, and easily contact with friends/buddies.  TIP: So to make your phone's charge to last longer, set the screen to dimmest setting, shorten the amount of time it goes to sleep mode, make your lock screen wallpaper as dark as possible, and take advantage of texting.

Snacks: Yeah they sell food at conventions centers but they usually comparable to buying food at a theater. My recommendations are carrots, nuts, jerky, and gum (mint flavor usually lasts longer). TIP: I look for a nearby grocery store (I think I’m going to do that for booze anyway) usually a better source for snacks among other things.

Edit- Alahmat recommends to use the 7-11 outside the west side of the con for food. All I would suggest is to watch the sugary drinks and food, because you can have a sugar crash!

A screw top refillable water bottle or any non pop top bottle is the best (you use your fingers to open a pop top water bottle which can easily be contaminated with germs), Convention centers do have drinking fountains which are great places to refill these bottles.

Purell/hand sanitizer, seriously you don’t want to get sick in the middle of the trip.

Shoulder bag/poster tube: A bag, backpack, is usually a great idea, to carry merch, snacks, and water. If you want large prints and don't want to risk bending them out of shape, you’ll want to get a poster tube! I have a large cardboard envelope that works for my uses.

PRE-CON PLANNING 

Use Events Page: A schedule usually comes out 2 weeks before the con. Mark out or mental note what you want to see, remember to note some of the more popular panels/events, program. You will have to judge how popular some panels could be, and figure out if you need to arrive early for that event or not. Link for EFNW: EFNW Events page, and it really works well with a cellphone make sure to bookmark it!

Use Website and Social Media about the latest news! The EFNW website and social media will be your best spot for information. Including autographs, guests, collectibles, events, and vendors. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to EFNW before the event, actually earlier the better. I’ve seen that that they have been attentive to questions on all their sites. I’ve drunkenly asked questions one night and received a reply the next morning! EFNW Facebook HERE and EFNW Twitter HERE

Look how helpful the Social Media guy for EFNW is! The turnaround time for a question to be answered ranged from 2 hours to 8 hours.

Edit - Get Familiar with the Area: Ruthalas made a great mlpforum post with area maps of the con floor as well as what each floor and room are typically used for, never too early to be familiar with an area! Linked HERE!

You are at the Con!

What you’ll get:

ConBook: I would double check everything that you wanted to do to make sure that locations and times haven’t changed. You’ll also should check out the ads, many vendor put coupons or promotions there for their merch. Sometimes there are last minute changes to the programing schedule, in this event the con usually adds a loose sheet with the changes make sure to note those changes.

ConBadge: Make sure you badge is secure, if it looks like it could fall off, it might! so fix it so that you know it won't. It happens (ask for another badge holder, get a safety pin, clips, I sometimes buy a button and use that too). At every con I’ve been to, someone loses it and can’t get back in.

Panel Tactics: Here’s some tactics to help you get into a panel you want: Check out the panel room of the panel you want to see early in the day, see if people are already lining up, this will give you a better judgement whether or not to line up then or later. The buddy system, save a spot in line while the other check out other stuff then trade places, don’t forget to use cell phones/texting to keep in contact and warn each other if the line is moving. It has been regular practice that someone would go to the panel before the one you really want to see; so when people are leaving that one you can move up rows to get a better view of the one you wanted to see.

Vendors and Courtesy: I find shopping at a convention is different from any other, its more like a farmer's market. The vendor booths are small and don’t take that much space, and if you’re running through the hall you are guaranteed to miss something. So take your time! Really look around! There are really cool items you can find when you spend the extra time at a booth. Because of this odd way vendor halls are set-up and how exciting it can be, some people forget how to act in the hall. Here are some basic courteous things you can do to make it a better experience for everyone: Don’t put food and stuff from other places on vendor tables, yeah they worked hard to set up their items around, and particularly sweaty drinks on the the table. The best solution is to place your stuff on the floor or in your bag.

Edit- Stick to the designated aisles and use designated entrances and exists, this is for your safety. Don't cut through between vendor tables, you don't want to step on or bump over prints or commissions, costing vendors stock and money! (Thanks for the info Ardail)

Shopping: credit or cash? Cash is more preferred in the dealer's hall. It much easier for vendors to exchange money and cash. Most vendors also accept cards now and have a swipe attachment on their phones, but Wi-Fi and 4G are a big concern in the hall; there’s no guarantee that the hall will always have reception. I rarely had an issue the making a digital transaction in the EFNW vendor hall, but I can say, “I prefer cash.” Cash is your friend.

Spending and budget; An important note to watch what you spend, make and keep a budget! Make sure to calculate meals into this as well. It is very easy to get overly excited in the dealer's hall or artist alley and spend a lot of money in very short amount of time. A great tip is: you can take out in cash what your budget is, so you can physically see what you have left in your budget; and when you run out of cash you're done. I want congoers to have a good time but at the same time I don’t want anyone to run themselves into debt.

Twitter App: make sure to have a twitter app, for both the latest news on EFNW, latest information from special guests, and what major vendors are doing at the con, for both insider information, discounts, and even gifts. Yes you would need to have an account but you can only benefit from doing so, by “following” specific talent or organizations.

The following are some links to important twitter pages...

Links:

EFNW twitter

Twitter accounts to announced guests:

Tabitha St. Germain 

Nicole Oliver 

MA Larson 

Kelly Sheridan :bademoticon: 

Jayson Thiessen

Big Jim Miller

Lee Tockar

Ingrid Nilson

Musician/Concert Links

Full Ponystock Schedule

The following are some highlighted artists and buddies! Make sure to catch them on stage!

Jeff Burgess and the Bad Mares preforming 7:15 to 7:45 on Saturday

HACKD  preforming 11:30-Midnight on Saturday

 
Believe he makes intense and great sets!

and many more! Make sure to check out the full schedule!

Links to Vendors Page

Full Vendor List

There are many awesome vendor coming to EFNW this year. I decided to highlight a few vendors, Basically Friends of mine or friends of BerryTube:

#71 The Official Unofficial Store of Berrytube, BT Twitter, There will be 4 artists represented here! Including yeendip, Jerick:, JoRoBro (me!), and MoonlitBrush. I will be making an official post later on... Make sure to stop by!

Some stuff we'll be selling:

              

#9 Athena's wink, Twitter HERE, need a hat or flask she's your gal!

#11 MyLitteTies!, Twitter and Website, I already own a few pins and ties, great quality! I‘ll probably be sporting one of these great ties at my table! OH! Not to mention his Oculus rift Ponyville game! Where you can travel through Ponyville as a Pegasus or unicorn, absolutely well done and fun, it is really like you're in their world. You have to try it out!

#39&40    BumbleBun fantastic artist! Looking forward to grabbing one of her BP charms! Also Look and this!

#45: DarkFlame75 , website, Wonderful artist, extreme hard worker, and has very slight Luna obsession ! I am going to get his Winter Luna print! I mean come-on! Why don't I have this yet! also many more great prints 

And many more great vendors will be at the con!

#64: Ardail  , Twitter here, want some well done prints featuring your favorite MLP Character in the tron world or just well drawn art? Ardail is your guy!   


Charity Auction!

  

Conclusion:

I hope that my experiences in attending conventions and some of my insight will help you in your trip to Seattle for this awesome con. If you’re not going, I hope this little write up this will has given you some ideas for the next convention you attend. If you never gone to one, they are amazing events and I would highly recommend going to one. Web search “local Dr. Who Cons,” or “Star Trek Cons,” “Anime Cons” or “Comic Con!” Believe experiences at con are amazing and are a lot of fun!

Yeah I think I covered everything I think is universal for conventions and in particular to EFNW. If you have another question I didn’t cover write it up in the comments or message me!

Thank you for reading!

~JoRo

TL: DR: comfortable shoes, water, deodorant, bathe



Edit- Better musical TL: DR (Thanks Dizz)

PS Thanks to all the artists who made their art available as a thumbnail through dA, to find out more about the artist or the piece just click on it, that take you straight to the deviation page!