Friday, December 21, 2012

[Cons]/Just How Do You Hit Them All?!


We get asked this question a lot by friends and folks who follow up on us via Twitter and G+ quite a bit, so I figured it was time to dive into the situation and see if there's anything worth saying. As it turns out, there is! 

Completely lunacy is the only answer that I can give you.

No, that's not entirely true but it's pretty damn close when you get down to the nuts bolts of attending a lot of cons in a year. Most of the time we pay for these things ourselves. Sure, every once in a while someone could throw us a bone and we'll get press passes or comp'd for doing panels, but the majority of the expenses are shouldered by myself and my co-conspirator kitty (aka my wife/Curious Kitty/DarkSins/Queen DemandyPants over at InsanityLurksInside). It's stressful, it's chaotic but damn is it a lot of fun!



Plan Early, Plan Smart.

So, you're thinking that you would like to attend a lot more cons too? First step...find out all the cons that are somewhat near you. Myself and CK (Curious Kitty), usually try not to travel more than 300 miles for the cons that we hit. Yes, there are exceptions to this but for the most part we keep to within that range. It's under a tank of gas and no more than 6 hours or so by car. So right there we're keeping costs and lost time at work down to a minimum which helps out with things quite a bit. Planning things out early also helps so you can know what cosplays (if any) you plan to do as well and a time table to finish them.

This seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't do this. You really should and it makes figuring things out much easier as the year goes on. After a while, you just kind of know, but it still helps with getting time off work and planning as a whole.

Early Badge Prices: Love Them. Use Them. Abuse Them.

Aside from checking to see when the cons you want to go to are, see how much badge prices are and when the prices change for them! I implore you, do this far in advance. Some conventions such as Colossalcon, Katsucon, Otakon, Ohayocon and others have some great early prices that make attending much cheaper if you get in early. These cons are also expensive due to the hotels that they're located at so it's important to plan ahead and save every penny you can. Again: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EARLY BADGE PRICES! Yes, that needed to be typed that way and yes it needs to be said again. Why? You may not think that $10 or $15 is a lot, but when you have 5 or 6 cons it adds up fast. I mean $10 or $15 per con is a tank of gas to one, possibly part of your hotel stay at another event, a piece or two for your cosplay or even a badge for another con (maybe even two!). So, as you can see, this is very important to consider and plan for. Remember, saving money is key to all of this after all.

Color coding for certain things helps a lot too!
Calendars: They Are Your Friend.

It can be rough as many cons can have their pre-reg all starting up early. To combat this, I use Google Calendar (sometimes even setting reminder alerts) to set the dates when prices increase and such for each con that we go to.  Once it's paid, I take it off the calendar so I don't go "Wait. Didn't I pay that already?!" and start to panic. It just makes life a little easier and less stressful. This goes hand in hand with marking every con that you plan to hit on the calendar as well. This makes it easier to see if there are any conflicts or possible times where two cons may be too close. If that's the case, you may have to cut one out.

Our usual rule around here is that we don't do more than two cons in a month. We have certain exceptions to this, but generally the big ones are spaced out enough that it's not a problem. Now, we occasionally get a few local cons near us and that helps too. Why? Well, no need for a hotel or anything like that. Sometimes we'll go to them for just a day or two which lowers the cost to get in too. So since we have 4 cons that are like that for us...it's 4 cons that we'll go to pretty much no matter what. Even if just for a day/night.

Another handy thing to do with the calendar idea is write down when the room block opens. Now, this doesn't apply for every con out there but some open their room blocks later. I know that Anthrocon doesn't open theirs until sometime in February before the con that year. So, I mark it down. Sure, I already know when it is...but I still do it. That way I don't go "Oh yeah...I should really call the hotel" only to find out that I'm a month late and rooms are gone. Yes, some cons have that problem. Others don't. Like, say, Dragon*Con. They sell out about 11months before the next one. Colossalcon is also approaching those kinds of levels for sell outs. So, checking back for forum, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and forum posts as well as the news/announcement sections on the con websites is highly recommended!

What's the point if you can't get a room and don't live that close, right?

The view from our room at Colossalcon 2012.

To Room Alone or Not to Room Alone.

This is a bit tricky and can be problematic. We're lucky here in the Kitsuneverse since we have friends who like to travel to the same conventions we do (or at least we make them go with us at the very least ~.^). This makes life a lot easier on us as we can split the room usually 4 or 5 ways at most conventions we go to. However, we still always get saddled with paying twice the amount of everyone else, since there are two of us. Not that big of a deal, just another thing that we have to contend with. Most people don't have this issue but some do.

Either way, being able to split up the room between 4 or 5 people helps out a lot. Though, if it's a regular room I wouldn't go over 6. I've covered the reasons for this before and trust me, you don't want to. Many cons and hotels are cracking down on overcrowding rooms as well. That said, if you're sharing a room, even with just one person, it helps out immensely. That room that was going to cost you $125-$300 a night? Yep. Now it's half that at least, hopefully even less.

You'll also want to book your room early! This is really important since if you wait too long, you could be out of luck on a room at all. Sometimes it's not too bad, but for a lot of cons there are many places where you'll end up finding yourself farther away from the con than you'd like or not even remotely close and having to drive there or taking public transit. Which, could be extra costs like parking, bus/subway/train tickets, etc. Not always a huge deal, but something to think about.

Eating and Hygiene Are Your Friends!

Can't really stress this one enough. We've all heard the stories of con funk and no one wants to be that person who everyone talks about smelling all the time. Showering is a necessity, especially if cosplaying because let's be serious. You've spent time, money and a lot of creative power on it in a lot of cases...let's not ruin it by smelling like the compost heap out back, okay? It'll also make your life easier with your roommates and panel attendees who are close by. Don't argue, just do it.

Eating is another thing, most people don't factor in the cost of eating when going to conventions and while it can be easy to overlook, don't be that dense. I admit to having forgotten to eat, or even being too broke to afford food at a couple of conventions in the past. However, it's far easier to pack a little cooler with some lunch meat, bread and some cheap snacks than to go hungry for a few days. Sometimes you can get lucky and the hotel is really posh and has a full kitchen, a lot of times we bring a crock pot with us and make things in that in the room as well.

Yes, convention goers are really friendly and helpful but it's not good to get to the reputation of being the broke freeloader either. Granted some of them are really nice, but wearing out one's welcome is far too easy to do.

If that fails and you have no other choice, scout out the area and see what kind of cheap places are about the convention area to eat. May not be the best method, but at least you'll know where to get something to chow down on if you need to.

Lots and lots of cons...just one month too!
Don't Kill Yourself Trying to Do Too Many!

Okay, so now that you've gotten through all this. You're probably saying "Hey, with this much planning and thought I can do tons of cons!" Whoa there...love the enthusiasm but it's still going to cost a good penny to do this and you don't want to stretch yourself too thin. This past year, on our OCD Tour (Operation Curious Derpy), we hit up 9 conventions. The only one that was beyond the distance we like to go was GMX down in Nashville and we gave ourselves about a two month breather between that and the con before it, which was somewhat close to us as well. Even then, it was a bit tough but we managed due to being able to plan things out.

As I said before, we try to keep things down to about one a month or so just to make our lives easier and a bit less stressful for the most part. This helps with getting cosplay cleaned, fixed or new cosplay finished. If you're doing too many you'll not only run yourself ragged but your cosplay and most likely bank account too!

Overall these are just a few tips that someone could find helpful in the long run. The system that we use here may not work entirely for you, maybe pieces of it will. Maybe you already knew all this, either way I hope that maybe it gave you something to consider in at least one area that I covered.

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