I snuck into a defense industry convention once and just ate all the the free food and coffee while watching CEOs try and sell warships to admirals and stuff. It was dope. Free candy at every booth, it was like Halloween for business bigwigs.
A very nice Japanese businessmann spent 15 minutes telling me about the benefits of a Unicorn radar and radio mast array for medium sized frigates and I’m just like “Interesting!” As if I’m actually in the market for naval radar masts and not just some nerd who snuck in.
Honestly, I like to avoid them. They sound fun at first, but then you realize that you’re going to be in a room with strangers for 8 hours and at the last minute you realize, “would anyone really notice if I just skipped out?” And, “why do I always get invited to the talc and sulphates convention and not the candy convention?”
I do travel a lot for work, and frequently see conventioneers at hotels. The Excruciating Implantable Medical Device Convention (with posters) looked amazing. I honestly thought about crashing that one.
I actually left a job because every other employee was sent to attend a conference, and when it was “my turn” the word was that they were just… Not going to be sending anyone to conferences anymore.
At the last minute, management decided to go to the conference I was supposed to attend, without any of the lower level employees (it was just managers).
Trade shows suck. Go to a convention run by fans of something like sci-fi or anime and you’ll have fun even if it’s not something you are all that into because everyone around you is having a great time.
Trade shows involve people pretending to have a great time until it’s the evening and they can go find a bar.
I’ve never been to a convention. :(
I snuck into a defense industry convention once and just ate all the the free food and coffee while watching CEOs try and sell warships to admirals and stuff. It was dope. Free candy at every booth, it was like Halloween for business bigwigs.
A very nice Japanese businessmann spent 15 minutes telling me about the benefits of a Unicorn radar and radio mast array for medium sized frigates and I’m just like “Interesting!” As if I’m actually in the market for naval radar masts and not just some nerd who snuck in.
Honestly, I like to avoid them. They sound fun at first, but then you realize that you’re going to be in a room with strangers for 8 hours and at the last minute you realize, “would anyone really notice if I just skipped out?” And, “why do I always get invited to the talc and sulphates convention and not the candy convention?”
I do travel a lot for work, and frequently see conventioneers at hotels. The Excruciating Implantable Medical Device Convention (with posters) looked amazing. I honestly thought about crashing that one.
I’m in tech. We have… Different conferences.
I actually left a job because every other employee was sent to attend a conference, and when it was “my turn” the word was that they were just… Not going to be sending anyone to conferences anymore.
At the last minute, management decided to go to the conference I was supposed to attend, without any of the lower level employees (it was just managers).
I was… Salty about it.
… I still am.
I’d be salty about that too!
Trade shows suck. Go to a convention run by fans of something like sci-fi or anime and you’ll have fun even if it’s not something you are all that into because everyone around you is having a great time.
Trade shows involve people pretending to have a great time until it’s the evening and they can go find a bar.
I wouldn’t know.
Honestly, fan-run cons are an awesome time. Find one near you and check it out.