Good Idea, Bad Idea
The website Convention Fans has an ongoing series of articles detailing the pros and cons of different aspects of conventions: big versus small, whether or not to fly, the advantages of pre-registration and so. For example, with regards to day tripping, site admin dreadpiraterose opens with:
Not every convention requires a hotel room reservation six months in advance to be enjoyable. In fact, a lot of people skip the weekend long encounter and just show up to a convention on a Saturday. Not only is it cheaper, but it requires less planning and less luggage. Of course, there are also downfalls to only doing the “day trip” thing.
While dreadpiraterose seems to come from a background of mostly media-oriented conventions, most of her points are equally applicable to gaming-specific events. After all, everyone’s heard stories about legendary wait times when registering for Gen Con.
If you have any thoughts on the pros and cons of convention size, organization and associated trials, be sure to tell us about them in the comments.