How to Convention: Room Parties
Some conventions shut down around 5:00 in the evening and expect the attendees to go find other ways to amuse themselves until the next morning. Some hold raves, concerts, and balls to fill up the late hours. And at some conventions, the evening social events are room parties.
Sometimes called “evening get-togethers” or other anodyne names to reassure nervous facilities, these are held in hotel suites and hosted by a variety of professional and volunteer groups. Publishers, conventions, and convention bids may host one for promotional purposes; other parties may happen in honor of a birthday, an obscure anniversary, or just because someone had a bunch of themed decorations they needed to find a use for.
Although they look like independent operations, room parties involve close coordination with the convention. A party coordinator helps arrange bookings for the party suites. If parties can have food and drinks available, that will be because the convention has negotiated a waiver to allow that. The party coordinator will let the hosting groups know what limitations there are on serving food and beverages, both under the waiver and any relevant local regulations, as well as logistical details like when the suites are available, when they need to be cleared out, whether things can be taped to the walls, and whether the furniture can be moved. Party times and themes are announced in the convention’s daily newsletter and/or social media.
Parties can provide an order of magnitude more promotion than a dealer or fan table, but they require a commensurate number of volunteers. A party needs people to put up flyers beforehand, set up the room, keep the food and drink replenished, to check IDs if serving alcohol, to do the actual promotional work of talking up a publisher’s new releases or a convention bid’s host city, to sell books or memberships, and, most importantly, to clean up the whole shebang in the wee hours of the morning.
It’s a lot of work for a few hours of socializing, but, like everything else in the volunteer convention world, it keeps getting done because people enjoy doing it.
In Brief
Tampa Bay Comic Convention (Tampa, Florida, July 28-30) has added Danielle Panabaker and Mark Sheppard as guests.
Cincinnati Comic Expo (Cincinnati, Ohio, September 22-24) has added Vincent D’Onofrio, Tara Strong, Floyd Norman, Joe Corroney, Jay Fosgitt, Guy Gilchrist, and David Michael Beck as guests.
FanX Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah, September 21-13) has added Katee Sackhoff, Jake Abel, Timothy Busfield, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, and Denise Crosby as guests.
Event Calendar
Weekend of May 26-28
Balticon 57, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
MisCon 37: Monster Mash-up, Missoula, Montana, USA
Satellite 8, Glasgow, UK
Fargo CoreCon: Portals to Fantastic Worlds, Fargo, North Dakota, USA
Marcon 2023: Save the World, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Åcon 12 (relaxacon), Mariehamn, Finland
WisCon 46 (feminist sf), Madison, Wisconsin, USA
ConFuzzled (anthropomorphic), Birmingham, UK
AnthrOhio: To the Fur Flung Regions of Space (anthropomorphic), Columbus, Ohio, USA
NomadiCon (anthropomorphic), Nashville, Tennessee, USA
KublaCon 21 (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA
ReCon (gaming), Kernersville, North Carolina, USA
PrairieCon (gaming), Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Rocky Top Game Con, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Evergreen Tabletop Expo, Renton, Washington, USA
Gamex 2023 (gaming), Los Angeles, California, USA
TableTopCon '23 (gaming), Southport, Australia
BGG.Spring (boardgames), Dallas, Texas, USA
Enfilade 2023 (miniatures gaming), Olympia, Washington, USA
PaizoCon Online 2023 (Pathfinder/Starfinder RPGs), online
Otaku Link 6 (anime), Derby, UK
FanimeCon (anime), San Jose, California, USA
Thy Geekdom Con (anime), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA
Animazement (anime), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Mizucon (anime), Miami, Florida, USA
AniMinneapolis (anime), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
ExpOtaku A Coruña (anime), A Coruña, Spain
Anime Riverside 2023, Riverside, California, USA
Chibi-Con 2023 (anime), Winterthur, Switzerland
MomoCon 2023 (anime), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Sabaku Con 2023 (anime), Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Naka-Kon 2023 (anime), Overland Park, Kansas, USA
FedCon (media), Bonn, Germany
MCM London Comic Con, London, UK
Cherry Capital Comic Con, Acme, Michigan, USA
Weekend of June 2-4
ConCarolinas 2023, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
ConQuesT 54, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Fantasticon 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark
Oz-Stravaganza 2023: Over the Rainbow to Oz (Wizard of Oz), Chittenango, New York, USA
JodiWorld (Chronicles of St. Mary’s/Time Police series), Coventry, UK
Cogs & Corsets (steampunk), Bloomington, Illinois, USA
FlaMinGoCon 22 (gaming), Delray Beach, Florida, USA
UK Games Expo (gaming), Birmingham, UK
Y-Con 2023 (gaming), Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
SaltCON Summer (gaming), Layton, Utah, USA
DieCon 2023 (gaming), Collinsville, Illinois, USA
Zomerspel 2023 (gaming), Merelbeke, Belgium
Wellycon 2023 (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand
NordCon (gaming), Hamburg, Germany
Ultra Gaming Expo (video games), McAllen, Texas, USA
North Texas RPG Con (vintage tabletop RPGs), Irving, Texas, USA
A-Kon Episode 32 (anime), Irving, Texas, USA
My Hero Convention: Alabama (anime), Birmingham, Alabama, USA
KimoKawaii (anime), Conroe, Texas, USA
Anime Marathon, Königslutter am Elm, Germany
YUMiCON (anime), San Antonio, Texas, USA
DoKomi (anime), Düsseldorf, Germany
Awesome Con (media), Washington, DC, USA
3 Rivers Comicon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Austria Comic Con, Wels, Austria
Portsmouth Comic Con, Portsmouth, UK
Argentina Comic Con, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phoenix Fan Fusion (media), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
ColossalCon (media), Sandusky, Ohio, USA
North Country Comic Con, Watertown, New York, USA
Warsaw Comic Con, Warsaw, Poland
Etna Comics 2023 (media), Catania, Italy
Sci-Fi-London 23 (film festival), London, UK
Whinny City Pony Con 2023: Tropical Getaway (My Little Pony), Schaumburg, Illinois, USA
Weekend of June 9-11
Konflikt, the 2023 European Science Fiction Convention, Uppsala, Sweden
2023 Metropolis Superman Celebration, Metropolis, Illinois, USA
Heroes, Villains, and Blerds (art), Winter Park, Florida, USA
áyA Con (indigenous comics and art), Denver, Colorado, USA
Airikas Traum XVII (music), Erbach, Germany
Bayou Wars 2023 31 (miniatures gaming), D’Iberville, Mississippi, USA
AnimeCon 2023, Rijswijk, Netherlands
Wie.MAI.KAI (anime), Flörsheim am Main, Germany
Rocket City Anime Convention, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
JAFAX 2023 (anime), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
OMG!con 2023: Magical Girls (anime), Owensboro, Kentucky, USA
Space Coast Comic Con, Cocoa, Florida, USA
Oz Comic-Con: Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
SWFL SpaceCon (media), Cape Coral, Florida, USA
Sci-Fi Valley Con (media), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA
Fan Expo Dallas (media), Dallas, Texas, USA
Comic Con Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
The Bride of FrankenCon (horror media), Alcoa, Tennessee, USA
Weekend of June 16-18
YetiCon, The Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada
Pyrkon, Poznań, Poland
4th Street Fantasy, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
StokerCon 2023 (horror), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
International Steampunk Symposium: Steampunk Under the Big Top, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
CastleCon 12 (anthropomorphic), Horb, Germany
StratosFur (anthropomorphic), Houston, Texas, USA
Arcon 39: Drager og Demoner (gaming), Oslo, Norway
Congress of Gamers Summer Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA
Q-Con 2023 (gaming), Belfast, UK
Board Game Fest, Chavdar, Bulgaria
Gaming Istanbul (video games), Istanbul, Turkey
AnimeCon UK, Birmingham, UK
Anime Onsen, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Cosplacon 2023: Onward to Battle (anime), Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
Desucon 2023 (anime), Lahti, Finland
AnimeNEXT 2023, Atlantic City, NJ
Anime Festival Orlando 2023, Orlando, Florida, USA
ExpOtaku Zaragoza 2023 (anime), Zaragoza, Spain
Heroes Convention (comics), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Rail City Fan Fest (media), Saint Albans, Vermont, USA
Contropolis Massachusetts (media), Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA
Awesome Con (media), Washington, DC, USA
Weekend of June 23-25
LibertyCon 35 / DeepSouthCon 61, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
PortConMaine: Year of the Yokai, Portland, Maine, USA
Narrativity 2023 (storytelling in literary sf), Plymouth, Minnesota, USA
Cosplay America, Cary, North Carolina, USA
The Town That Never Was (steampunk), Telford, UK
Aurawra (anthropomorphic), Sydney, Australia
Origins Game Fair 2023, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Nexus Game Fair, Brookfield, Wisconsin, USA
Magic City Con (gaming), Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Game Con Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
GeeklyCon 2023 (gaming), Rochester, New York, USA
Too Many Games (video gaming), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA
Neo Anime Oasis:02, Boise, Idaho, USA
SunnyCon Anime Expo, St. James Park, UK
Black Hills Con (anime), Rapid City, South Dakota, USA
Anime Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Bold Matsuri (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Anime Sekai, Abilene, Texas, USA
Finn-Con@MDC (anime), Miami, Florida, USA
Anime Festival Wichita, Wichita, Kansas, USA
Kyokai Con (anime), Mission, Texas, USA
AnimeSHOW 2023, Bratislava, Slovakia
Forest City Comicon, London, Ontario, Canada
Mississippi Comic Convention, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Smallville Comic Con, Smallville, Kansas, USA
Lewisburg Comic-Con, Lewisburg, Ohio, USA
Greater Austin Comic Convention, Cedar Park, Texas, USA
TrekFest 38: Quark's Bar (Star Trek), Riverside, Iowa, USA
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