Autograph Hound's Blah Blah Blog

Friday, May 27, 2011

SDCC letter of the day D for Decisions

I’m telling you right now; there is no way you will be able to do everything you want to do at ComicCon.
Even if you didn’t have to fight the crowds and the long lines, you would not be able to see everything.
ComicCon has that many quality panels and vendors.
You have decisions to make and a lot of them.
In the coming weeks ComicCon will release a list of attending vendors and some of the shows exclusives. You’ll see updates and press releases about the movies and TV shows and actors that will be present.  It’s just an attempt to tease and excite; and it works.
About two weeks before the show the schedule will come out.  That’s when the real drooling begins.
You will pour over the schedule and find all kinds of discussions and previews you want to attend. And they will be at the same time.  Yes, the cruel mistress called ComicCon has just lured you into her dark clutches. A siren and you can’t look away. Every day you’ll be visiting the online schedule and looking at the additions and changes and getting more and more excited and frustrated.
You’ll idly wonder if you could skip sleeping for 5 days.
I create a spreadsheet by day and time.  I create my A list of things I want to do. Then I create my B list items.  And then my C list and sometimes I even create a D list. 
The reality for me I’ll do very few of the things I want. The days of attending a panel and leaving after you find out it’s not nearly as entertaining as you hoped and then joining another panel mid-stream are gone.
The days of attending a panel in Hall H and going to the next one immediately after in Ballroom 20 are gone too.  The amounts of people attending ComicCon fill the rooms to capacity so there a long line of people waiting to get in.
Yes, in days gone past, you could hop from panel to panel and maybe even pick up some of the swag given out at the panels.
Now you commit to a panel. Your committal is more than just the hour at the panel; it’s the hour or two it takes in line to get into the panel.  So choose wisely.
You might have to sit through a panel or two or three you didn’t want to see to get a seat for the one you really really wanted.  So think about it and choose wisely.
After I make my spreadsheet I often deviate from it because something else has come up.  I’ll find out an autograph I want is being held at a vendor’s table or one of the raffle events I won is having their autograph session in the middle of a panel I wanted to see. It’s hard but it’s also rewarding to change plans on the spur of the moment.
Besides making some hard decisions, you need to be flexible and adaptable.
Hall H, where the movie previews are – people are in line all night long.  If you get in line 4 hours early (start of the day) you have a decent chance of getting in.
People are also in line all night long to hopes of getting those exclusives on the convention floor.  If you want you an exclusive you will be spending the night.
The lines for Ballroom 20 and Room 6CDF don’t start until they let people into the convention center for the day. That happens about 8:30AM or so.  Again people have camped overnight but getting there 2 or 3 hours early should be early enough to get into the room you want.
This leads to the last decision – how much sleep do you really want? ComicCon comes but once a year.
Good Luck.
AH

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