In Praise of the Smaller Fan Convention

We’ve all heard of the big fan conventions – San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con, and the like. These conventions have become one of the center points of nerd experience. The media machines shoot-out announcement after announcement and we eat it up. Nerds love HYPE as much as they love any superhero, and big conventions serve it up with an extra side of “BAM”. You can never have too much BAM.[divider type=”space_thin”]But we can’t all get to The Big Show. There are innumerable smaller, fan-run conventions that happen all over the country on any given weekend. There’s Emerald City in Seattle, WA in April; ConCarolinas in Charlotte, NC in June; InConJunction in Indianapolis, IN in July; and Convolution here in San Francisco, CA next September, just to name four. (Yes, most have punny, corny  names. No, I don’t know why.) These conventions offer a very different experience from a ComicCon. There is usually only one Guest of Honor – probably a writer – and a bunch of other professional nerds – cartoonists, video game designers, editors, and costumers. They’re joined by people like you (volunteers) with skills and information to share: maybe a local college professor who wants to share his folklore and fantasy research or an artist who wants to teach mask-making for cosplay. They all collect in a local mid-priced hotel with geeks and nerds across different genres. The Guests and volunteers put on panels about topics of interest to fans. People collect in hallways and at fan ta…