If you're a teenager or a young adult with love for all things sci-fi, anime, comic book, and video game, a comic-book convention or anime convention, whatever they may call it, considered to be their greatest weekends of their lives because this is where geeks and nerds gather themselves not just for the panels, the events, and everything in store but for the cosplay everybody's doing during their three-day weekend.
Conventions happen once a year and if you managed to gain an admission to them, what are the best ways to survive a convention?
- MAKE A PLAN! - Before heading to the convention, you'll need to know what panels you will be entering, some celebrity guests you might be encountering, group photos you will take on if you got the right outfit, and everything you might come across at the convention. Convention committee will hand you out a guide so you will know what you will expect from there so don't feel nervous to plan first before setting off. Also, if you're into cosplays, costumes are a must and you need to notify everyone what you should be dressing as during the convention.
- KNOW YOUR LUGGAGE - Luggage plays a major role for convention-goers and for cosplayers, dressing as one of two characters they've set up for themselves really means they need to bring on the packs to carry their outfits but what about stuff they bought from the convention? This is a cracker of a dilemma because as convention-goers, they need to know the things they'll need to carry and if things get a little heavy, it will be a major pain in the arms on the convention or worse, the common "bumping on other people without knowing" scenario so know your luggage very well. Carrying paper bags won't help because when it gets heavy, it shreds easily and you will be massively embarrassed by your peers so it's best to carry a durable, reusable bag while dealing with the extra stuff for the convention when your backpack's jammed with your cosplay essentials and no room for souvenirs to spare.
- UNDERSTAND AROUND YOU - You got yourself the necessities to complete the cosplay you've always wanted to do at the convention but hold on just a darn minute because not all cosplays are acceptable in the convention because there are rules for certain cosplays. One such example is the weapon props and if the character you're cosplaying as comes with a weapon, such in the case of the Biohazard cosplays for example, you need to fully understand what's going on around here and thanks to current affairs surrounding us, cosplaying can be very nervous. Some conventions will allow anyone carrying a weapon replicas but they need to subject to peacebonding regulations. In the case of carrying gun replicas, that's going to be a very complicating process because as rules apply, they need to be non-working and can't be fired upon as well as the orange markings on it, like most replicas had. Also, the trigger needs to be removed so when they see that it's not working, they will allow it as long as you abide by the agreement the committee they set to you. Be sure that you promise to them not to flash those replicas around you or you will be ended up in the slammer.
- BE IN YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR - As your parents warned you, you best to behave yourselves while you're at the convention and when you encounter someone donning a cosplay so rare, super rare, super super rare, or ultra rare, be courteous before asking them to take a picture. A simple please and thank you would do the job rather nicely.
- KNOW YOUR ALLOWANCE! - Getting an admission to the convention can be very costly at the start but if you pre-register, think how much you will save some on your allowance but be warned, the later you pre-register, the more expensive your admission fee will be. Even if you are in the convention, it's important that you need some ample amount of cash on your wallet in case you want to buy some snacks or some souvenirs from the convention.
- HAVE FUN! - Once you're in the convention, you don't have to worry about a thing or two so take your time to see what's in store at the convention, meet new people, and make great memories.
And there you have it, the Geekdom's Guide to surviving a convention. There's nothing more fun than being prepared at the convention because you'll never know what to expect from there and more importantly, have fun!
