One year at Diecon a gaming convention outside of St. Louis, MO, the monthly psychic readers meeting was scheduled the same weekend in one of the smaller halls. I always wondered if any of them got mixed messages with us fight our way through dungeons and the 50k tournament. I kind of hope someone walked away thinking there was a orc battle in their future.
MechaCon 6 (2010) in New Orleans was the same weekend as the National Lutheran Youth Conference. The Marriott (where MechaCon was held) was filled with “Green Baggers”* and it made for quite a few interesting situations and some not-very-christian-like behavior.
Bourbon Street was also packed with “Green Baggers”.
*we called them “Green Baggers” because the Conference gave all of them Lime Green bags that you could spot from blocks away.
P.S. I’m creating a character to explore this sort of theme for stand-up.. he’d be dropped into a con and the funny will be how he views the reality around him thru his lens of reference.
First year WonderCon was in Orange County/CA (very conservative politically and religiously) it shared the Anaheim Convention Center along with a high school girls volleyball tournament and a cheerleading competition. About 50k total. Everyone had to pass each other all day. So imagine girls of all ages in skimpy outfits along with cosplayers plus moms giving all geek girls and boys nasty looks for being too near the daughters.
I think it was the first year of animeland wasabi (colorado) They shared the hotel with a cat show. Otakus kept trying to submit catgirls for the cat show, it was hilarious!
I’ve been to a con sharing a hotel with a youth hockey tournament, it was SuperCon in Minnesota.
The first Anime Central shared the hotel with a Christian women’s leadership conference. I had an interesting elevator conversation with some of them. Later I realized I was wearing a t-shirt from Hades Project Zeorymer.
Hmm… reminds me of the year Geek.Kon shared with a fancy wedding! I still think the gift opening ceremony was kinda pretentious, never knew that was a thing. What was that, 2011?
Let’s see..
Anthrocon: Baptist group (surprisingly chill), Wedding party (They dug us), Mensa (They all wanted to hang out at our con). and lots of incoming-overlap with engineering groups (Curious, polite)
Furfright: Wedding party (they dug us), Scrapbookers (They TOTALLY dug us), Miss Teen Connecticut (Mutual ‘who ARE these freaks’ staring).
And I haven’t been, but Further Confusion had to share their convention center with both a high school volleyball tournament AND HempCon (Exactly what you think) on the same weekend this year. Those poor convention center staff.
Wedding seem to intersect positively in general with furry cons, so long as there’s no bride or bride’s mother flipping out (Califur). People in tuxes and dresses love to get pictures with fursuiters.
I once herd of an incident at an Iowa con that shared space with an NFL team for something that same weekend.
One of the players paid and enjoyed part of the con but his buddies came in too. There was supposedly a sexual harassment incident that came out of this with NFL players hitting on and asking for sexual favors from some of the girls in the skimpier cosplays.
Most surreal one I’ve seen was the first year Daisho was at the Kalahari. Bunch of other groups, but the one that stuck out was seeing a couple people in band uniforms going through the convention, turning to my friends going “That’s neat, which show is that from” as an entire marching band rounded the corner.
Aquatifur decided to hold their first con (2017) at Kalahari.
They didn’t allow any fursuiters to leave the convention center way at the far end of the resort from the waterpark. Guess they didn’t want anyone confusing them for mascots.
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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19 thoughts on “Worlds Collide”
Blitzkrieg1701
Oh look! It’s every convention I’ve ever attended at the Gaylord in DC!
Langland
there’s a typo, you have wekend instead of weeked unless you intended it that way.
Trae Dorn
It’s a typo. I’ll fix ot in a bit.
xero
i see what you did there
clparis
One year at Diecon a gaming convention outside of St. Louis, MO, the monthly psychic readers meeting was scheduled the same weekend in one of the smaller halls. I always wondered if any of them got mixed messages with us fight our way through dungeons and the 50k tournament. I kind of hope someone walked away thinking there was a orc battle in their future.
Pac
MechaCon 6 (2010) in New Orleans was the same weekend as the National Lutheran Youth Conference. The Marriott (where MechaCon was held) was filled with “Green Baggers”* and it made for quite a few interesting situations and some not-very-christian-like behavior.
Bourbon Street was also packed with “Green Baggers”.
*we called them “Green Baggers” because the Conference gave all of them Lime Green bags that you could spot from blocks away.
z-space
GeekKon 2009 had a shared venue and I have this pic capturing some woman’s bewildered look at a very well-done Zelda cosplay.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7195/6873058831_38a603706c_z_d.jpg
P.S. I’m creating a character to explore this sort of theme for stand-up.. he’d be dropped into a con and the funny will be how he views the reality around him thru his lens of reference.
Marsia
First year WonderCon was in Orange County/CA (very conservative politically and religiously) it shared the Anaheim Convention Center along with a high school girls volleyball tournament and a cheerleading competition. About 50k total. Everyone had to pass each other all day. So imagine girls of all ages in skimpy outfits along with cosplayers plus moms giving all geek girls and boys nasty looks for being too near the daughters.
EcchiKitty
When sub-cultures collide, there’s always some funny to be had.
JadeApple
I think it was the first year of animeland wasabi (colorado) They shared the hotel with a cat show. Otakus kept trying to submit catgirls for the cat show, it was hilarious!
Trae Dorn
Probably not to the people running the catshow 😛
JadeApple
Yea, they were less than thrilled 😛
KORfan
I’ve been to a con sharing a hotel with a youth hockey tournament, it was SuperCon in Minnesota.
The first Anime Central shared the hotel with a Christian women’s leadership conference. I had an interesting elevator conversation with some of them. Later I realized I was wearing a t-shirt from Hades Project Zeorymer.
Ren
Hmm… reminds me of the year Geek.Kon shared with a fancy wedding! I still think the gift opening ceremony was kinda pretentious, never knew that was a thing. What was that, 2011?
Trae Dorn
2012 I think.
Chiaroscuro
Let’s see..
Anthrocon: Baptist group (surprisingly chill), Wedding party (They dug us), Mensa (They all wanted to hang out at our con). and lots of incoming-overlap with engineering groups (Curious, polite)
Furfright: Wedding party (they dug us), Scrapbookers (They TOTALLY dug us), Miss Teen Connecticut (Mutual ‘who ARE these freaks’ staring).
And I haven’t been, but Further Confusion had to share their convention center with both a high school volleyball tournament AND HempCon (Exactly what you think) on the same weekend this year. Those poor convention center staff.
Wedding seem to intersect positively in general with furry cons, so long as there’s no bride or bride’s mother flipping out (Califur). People in tuxes and dresses love to get pictures with fursuiters.
Langland
I once herd of an incident at an Iowa con that shared space with an NFL team for something that same weekend.
One of the players paid and enjoyed part of the con but his buddies came in too. There was supposedly a sexual harassment incident that came out of this with NFL players hitting on and asking for sexual favors from some of the girls in the skimpier cosplays.
Zummers
Most surreal one I’ve seen was the first year Daisho was at the Kalahari. Bunch of other groups, but the one that stuck out was seeing a couple people in band uniforms going through the convention, turning to my friends going “That’s neat, which show is that from” as an entire marching band rounded the corner.
Zarpaulus
Aquatifur decided to hold their first con (2017) at Kalahari.
They didn’t allow any fursuiters to leave the convention center way at the far end of the resort from the waterpark. Guess they didn’t want anyone confusing them for mascots.
About the Comic
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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