SDCC a day in the life of a SDCC attendee

Well, this is more than just a day in the life. This is what my convention is like.

The timeline gets compressed and some details are omitted.

1) 7/20/16 3:00 PM - Arrive at SDCC for SDCC. Or to repeat that without the acronyms…arrive a San Diego Convention Center for San Diego ComicCon.
Pick up Warners Brothers (WB) Bag and program guide. Those are the bags that my friend Amanda uses to make those awesome dresses each year.
Review Program guide for any hidden nuggets not previously found on social media
Walk around the outside of the SDCC to look over the displays and events that were created to promote various movies, TV show, and video games.

2) 07/20/16 6:00 PM – doors open to expo floor
Wait about 45 minutes in line to enter the doors as 10,000 people were ahead of us
Walk thought the very warm and crowded expo floor
Visit any booth that has a possibility of autographs and try to squeeze out any possible info

3) 07/20/16 8:00 PM – done exploring for the night, seeing old friends, and visiting favorite booths. 

Walk the ½ mile to the bus stop.
Take the 15 minute bus ride to the hotel
Wash up and eat
Plan and pack for the next day
Lights out at 10:00 PM

4) 07/21/16 1:30 AM – get up, shower and wait for shuttle.
Shuttle never came. After an hour of waiting I called Uber and arrived in line at 3:00 AM.
About 1500 people in front of me.
Pretend to sleep on sidewalk.

5) 07/21/16 5:30 AM SDCC security wakes everyone up and tells us we will be entering the building at 6:00 AM

6) 07/21/16 7:15 AM line actually starts to move into the building
Walk through a 1/2 mile of roped off cattle lines on uneven trash filled grass to enter the convention center.

7) 07/21/16 8:00 AM – primary choice at WB is no longer available.

8) 07/21/16 8:30 AM – stand in Fox line

9) 07/21/16 9:00 AM - join the wife in the main exhibit hall line

10) 7/21/16 9:45 AM – get on the expo floor

11) 7/21/16 10 AM – swim upstream through crowds in an attempt to try to win a ‘when the doors open’ raffle at a particular booth

12) 7/21/16 10:15 AM Do convention stuff all day. 

13) Convention stuff is:
Participating on the ‘sails pavilion’ raffles. These are usually the leftovers ones that no one else wanted
Replanning of the day based on success and failures of the morning
Following up and getting other autographs (paid autographs or authors)
Revisiting booths and getting more detail on possible autographs for this day or the next day (Do I need to buy something? Do I need a line ticket? When to line up? Where to line up?)
Revisiting booths (not WB or Fox) and trying to pull a winning ticket for autographs (massive lines on the expo floor make this a slow and time intensive exercise)
More replanning of the day
Trying to squeeze into or talk my way into a standby line for autographs
Networking with fans
Visit booth for swag (very little success this year)
More replanning

14) 07/21/16 6:00 PM leave convention for day
Walk the ½ mile to the bus stop.
Take the 15 minute bus ride to the hotel
Wash up and eat
Plan and pack for the next day
Lights out at 6:45 PM

15) 07/21/16 8:30 PM - get up and wait for shuttle.
Get in line at 9:00 PM and try to sleep on the sidewalk/grass until 1:00 AM. 
Maybe 1000 people in line already.

16) 07/22/16 1:00 AM – friend swaps places with me in line and I go back to hotel for 3 hours of sleep.

17) 07/22/16 4:30 AM – get up, shower, pack, wait for shuttle

18) 07/22/16 5:30 AM – back in line

19) Wash, rinse, and repeat for the rest of the convention
Each night the lines to enter the convention center were much longer than the night before.

AH

So you want to go to ComicCon – my SDCC 2016 time line

Every year as I talk about ComicCon (THE ComicCon aka SDCC. Please don’t confuse it with any other convention in the USA.), I hear people tell me how they want to do it next year or how it’s a big bucket list item.  As I try to explain the effort needed, I see a lot of glazed eyes and disbelief.  I know people assume I’m overstating the process and I’m making it sound more complicated than it is. If anything, I oversimplify the process as most people have no frame of reference to share the experience.

To be quite frank, I’m amazed how many ‘first timers’ I meet every year. Some of that is luck. Some of that is excellent planning. Some of that success comes from help from veterans.  Oh, and scary as it might sound, an SDCC veteran is someone that has attended SDCC only 2 or 3 times.

This link is from a third party explaining the effort. Please read the article:

Thecrazy lengths people go to for san diego comic con

The above article is generic. I’ll fill in the blanks for my 2016 adventure.

1) 07/08/15 - attend SDCC 2015. 
Yes, that was over a year before the start of SDCC 2016. The first step for attending 2016 was attending SDCC in 2015. That allowed me to be part of the 2016 ‘preregistration’ process for badges.
That also implies I had ready logged into SDCC site and created my membership ID for 2015 which was also used for 2016.

2) 08/05/15 – validate badge registration number with SDCC

3) 11/14/15 – enter the virtual waiting area to ATTEMPT to purchase badges for SDCC 2016
This is for preregistration attendees only. Newbie need not apply. This is a very stressful day.it involves lots of waiting with your hands tied as you watch the badges sell out.

4) 11/14/15 – receive confirmation email from SDCC on the badge purchases
I was able to get the 4 day w/preview night for myself. The wife only got Sunday.

5) 11/16/15 – receive email with bar code for badges
This is an important email. If you get lost in the ether and never receive an email confirmation, your 2016 might be over before it started.

6) 02/20/16 – enter the virtual waiting area to ATTEMPT to purchase badges for SDCC 2016
This is general registration. This is for people that have not attended SDCC in 2015 and people attempting to add additional days to their convention. All of them must have created a membership ID at least 2 weeks before this event. This is the last chance to get a badge for attendees from 2015.

The wife was only able to add a Thursday badge to her Sunday badge she picked up during the 'registration' sale.  Just because you went last year does not mean getting a badge the next year.
the end results form 2 attempts: She could not attend Friday or Saturday.

7) 02/21/16 – receive confirmation email from SDCC on the badge purchase

8) 02/22/16 – receive email with bar code for badges

9) 02/24/16 – bought airline tickets

10) 04/05/16 – register for Hotel accommodations

11) 04/07/16 – receive email that a hotel room was NOT available
Yes, that is correct. For 2016, we did not have a hotel for SDCC.
My friends and I did a lot of scrambling to find a room. We found something very expensive and not very convenient to get to and from the convention center.

12) 05/09/16 – confirm shipping addresses for the badges

13) 06/01/16 – people on the hotel wait list people (like me) were being notified about available rooms.
The rooms were slowly being released to the wait list.

14) 06/07/16 – received email that our waitlist number was drawn and we selected a room
That was a long 6 days to wait to get to finally notification about room. The pickings were pretty lean.
Our hotel was about 1 mile way. Not a very nice hotel but not horrible one.

15) 06/24/16 – receive physical badges in the mail

16) 07/15/16 – confirm hotel reservations were transferred from the travel agency to the actual hotel

17) 07/20/16 – arrive SD, check into hotel, wonder around the outside of the convention center to look at the ancillary displays

18) Drink from the SDCC firehose for the next  4 ½ days

19) 7/26/16 – check out of hotel and fly home exhausted as you mutter ‘never again…’

If you are thinking about 2017 – create your membership ID now but you are already behind the curve.

AH

#SDCC – From A to Omega

Re-publishing for the upcoming SDCC

From A to Omega, the recap of my hints and tips and advice for San Diego ComicCon.
These are the links to the previous posts.

Ambulate	Nerds	Cheat Alpha	Cheat Xi
Backpack	Observe	Cheat Beta	Cheat Pi
Camera	Poster Tube	Cheat Gamma	Cheat Rho
Decisions	Quiz	Cheat Delta	Cheat Sigma
Eat	Resist	Cheat Epsilon	Cheat Tau
Friends	Stretch	Cheat Zeta	Cheat Upsilon
Gum	Tipping	Cheat Eta	Cheat Phi
Handwipes	Un	Cheat Theta	Cheat Chi
Ignore	Vendor	Cheat Iota	Cheat Psi
Jealousy	Water	Cheat Kappa	Cheat Omega
Keep	Xyloid	Cheat Lambda
Lines	Yellow Journalism	Cheat Mu
Manage	Zombie	Cheat Nu

Hope you found them useful.
Any updates or corrections are welcome.


AH

#SDCC autograph tip

The convention floor is huge.

A lot of guests are not just there for just one thing.

If someone is signing, then they are most likely signing elsewhere on the floor or somewhere else in the city.

Do some research and if you miss out at one event, there most likely will be other chances of success.

More importantly, in my mind, you might find the signer at a location that isn’t as well publicized.

Both Morgan Spurlock and Gene Simmons were signing at several booths over the course of the convention. Some were big corporate booth that did a lot of publicity.  Some booths weren’t as well-traveled or as affective at publicizing the event. 

Instead of fighting the crowds and taking a chance with a raffle/lottery, I purchased an item that more or less locked in my chance of getting the signature.

Look for signings at smaller booths.

Look to purchase an item (book, action figure, DVD) to ensure your chance of meeting the celeb and getting the signature.

Even after the frustrations of getting both of those autographs, I still saved time and wasted less time adding to my collection.

AH

#SDCC walking versus standing

I must not Stand.
Standing is the mind-killer.
Standing is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will rock in place.
I will shift my weight from side to side and prevent myself from being still.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the standing has gone there will be nothing......Only I will remain

Standing is SOOOO simple.  You don’t lose your breath like running or walking fast.  You can relax and enjoy the people watching and slowly have the gravity of the Earth crush your spine.

Standing is sneaky painful. 

#SDCC and we’re walking

So – have you started walking yet? 
For you newbies – believe me you will do a lot of walking.
For your seasoned veterans – why haven’t you started?

Seriously. You’ll be walking several miles each day on hard concrete; thinly veiled on some substance they call a carpet.
So go outside and start walking; a block or two tonight.   Then start adding to the distance each week.
You’ll want to be able to comfortably walk a few miles before the big show.

Then I want you to climb some stairs.  
No really. Mixed in a few slight (up - not down) each day.  Do it when you go to work or come back from lunch.  The escalators always stop at some point during SDCC. Or the stairs are just faster.  Often if you are queuing up for Ballroom 20, you’ll be outside and possibly down the stairs. So mix in the stairs now and be prepared.

#SDCC – time to take your vitamins

There are 3 good reasons to start taking your vitamins now.

21 days to make a habit –

It takes 21 days to make a new habit.  This gives you a buffer to start a habit of taking your vitamins.  Since most people will have a few failed attempts in making a new habit, you have plenty of time to restart and establish the new routine before SDCC.

It does a body good –

Very few people actually have a healthy well balanced diet. We are lacking in vitamins and minerals and often never realized it.  We also don’t realize what they are doing to our bodies.

Think of your car. It’s low on oil. You can still drive it. You can still go fast and pass other cars. You can go to the mall and shop.  The low oil becomes dirtier quicker. The engine gets hotter. The pistons have more wear on them.  In the long run – you are hurting your car.

As we are deficient in vitamins, we can still do the things we expect to do but we are not letting the body repair itself effectively.

Starting a vitamin regimen now give the body time to recover and become stronger and healthier.

It’s a marathon not a sprint -

Once SDCC starts, most likely you will forget all about taking vitamins. You will be shorting yourself on sleep and stressing the body with more exercise than normal.

Even though the body eliminates most (not all) excess vitamins and mineral, so you can’t build a reserve, you have allowed the body enough time to recover and become stronger for the endurance test know at ComicCon.

Think of it as changing the oil and getting new tires before a long road trip. You will be running the car hard but you have fresh oil to help cool the engine and minimize the damage.

Since the body is healthier, you should be able to endure the marathon, recover quicker afterwards and avoid the ‘convention crud’ that hit many people.

AH

#SDCC – The project – Execution phase

The 5 phases – Initiate Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

This the sweat phase. It’s easy on paper but this is where you are doing stuff.

Execution will be long and change over the course of its duration.

At first a lot of Execution will be working through the items on your task list:

Airlie tickets

Hotel Rooms

Attendance passes to the show

Some of it will be goals you are working toward:

Saving a specific amount of money each week

Putting ‘x’ amount of hours into –

                                Getting in shape

                                Create you cosplay outfits

                                Beefing up the portfolio

Some of it will actually occur at the convention:

                Attending panel

                Networking

                Collecting swag

#SDCC I want to talk about socks

Yes, I’m going to talk socks.

If you are going to cosplay or you need to dress up as you are working the convention, then skip this post.  It’s not for you.

 If you are one of the masses walking and standing all day then bend a little closer so I can talk about socks.

You should already know about getting a good pair of shoes for the show. You will be walking a lot.  And while most of you think your ugly crocs or your cute little ballet slippers are comfortable – you are wrong – you also need to think about some new socks.

The first thing I would do before buying your new shoes is getting some good socks.  Go to REI or Dick’s and find someone that knows what they are doing and ask about walking socks.  Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as walking socks.

 And just like Nancy’s boots, they are made for walking.  The toes and heels are padded more heavily than normal shoes. The top of the foot will usually have some extra padding too. They material will be moisture wicking which help prevent blisters.

And the kicker is – you can buy a dozen or maybe 2 dozen pairs of regular socks for the price of one pair of these walking socks.

At the end of the day are your feet swollen like sausage?  First, go ahead and schedule an appointment with your doctor.  Second follow his advice.  Most likely his advice will be compression socks.  These are heavy duty socks that are very tight fitting and they come in different grades of compression.

The idea of compression socks is to keep the blood from pooling in your feet and that keeps the swelling done.

You can buy them on-line or in a medical supply store.  I would opt for a medical supply store first as you can discuss your needs and they can fit you.  Yes, you should be fitted for these socks.  Also, remember, once you try them on, you can’t return them.  It’s not like a pair of pants or a dress.

And here is a bigger kicker, one pair of these socks might cost as much as 5 pairs of walking socks.

And I want you to buy 5 pairs of socks, whether it’s walking or compression - One for each day of ComicCon.   

The expense is worth it. 

Now buy the socks first. The new walking shoes you will be buying will be bought while you are wearing these socks.  Since the socks are padded differently, they will fit slightly differently and the shoes you buy will fit differently.

It’s an investment in your feet.

The feet you will most like be standing on all day or walking 5 or so miles a day with will give you your return on this investment.

AH

#SDCC travel light even with water

Saw something on Twit I wanted to follow up on.

It was good advice from one SDCC veteran to a newbie – travel light.

The newbie was staying out at Hotel Circle and the veteran said it would be hard to get back to the hotel during the day and it would be good idea to travel light. The thought process was whatever you bring with you; you will be stuck with all day.

There is a Convention Center baggage check area but that is out of the way. You really don’t want to be wasting time or energy trekking back and forth all day dropping things off and picking things up.

I’m a big advocate of bringing and drinking water all day long. I say it all the time - Half your weight in ounces in water.  That means if you weigh 200 pounds, then you should drink 100 ounces of water a day. You need to drink more if you are drinking a lot of caffeine or exerting yourself.  100 ounces is about 6 of those half liter bottles.  If you are a dainty girl and weigh close to 100 pounds then you need 50 ounces of water and that’s 3 of those bottles.

Remember the old rule of thumb – a pint a pound the world around? A pint is a little smaller than a half liter. So those half litter bottles as just over a pound a piece.

That a lot of water to drink. That’s a lot of weight to carry.

Bring one bottle.  And refill it throughout the day.  Most of the panel rooms will have several water coolers.  There are also water foundation sprinkler throughout the convention center.

This way you are carrying one bottle filling as needed.

And remember – the water doesn’t help you in the least if you keep it in the bottle. Drink early and drink often.

AH

#SDCC – The project – Plan phase deliverables -Schedule

The 5 phases – Initiate Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. Don’t over plan.

There really are 4, count them 4, deliverables from the Plan portion of the Project:

Scope, Time Estimate, Budget Estimate, and the Project plan.

You may have done this already but your Plan should have due dates next to the tasks. Some dates are ‘hard’ dates.  You can’t miss them.  Like SDCC is 7/12 to 7/15.  That’s a hard date. You can’t show up on 7/16.  Some dates are soft dates. You have some flexibility.  Get the entire airline tickets paid for by 4/1.   If you pay by 4/2 your trip isn’t ruined.

Since you know the convention dates, you can work backwards. This works for something like SDCC with a hard date.

If you’re like me, you Project Plan was already chronological. So you start from SDCC and move upward.

Task 11.1 Attend SDCC 7/12

Task10.1 Check into Hotel 7/11 6:30PM

Task 9.5 Arrive to SD 7/11 5PM

Task 9.4 Depart from local airport 7/11 11AM

Task 9.3 Arrive at local Airport 7/11 9AM

Task9.2 meeting with group to carpool to Airport 7/11 8:15AM

Task9.1 get up and shower and eat morning of travel 7/11 7AM

Because you knew the duration/time of these activities you can figure out when you need to get up in the morning and when to meet and when to get to the airport.

As I mentioned before – if you are creating your cosplay outfits – you have an estimate of the effort needed to complete the task. You already know when you need to have it completed by. Then you know when you need to start.

Not everything you can answer at this time.  The SDCC schedule part of your Project Plan can’t be filled in yet. You have 5 days of blanks for SDCC.  Not a problem.  Since the tasks of the project are iterative, you were going to revisit your estimates anyway.  When SDCC announces their schedule (about 2 weeks before it starts) you can add a task to review your Plan and add the tasks/panels/parties for those 5 days.

Easy peasy.

AH

#SDCC – The project – Plan phase deliverables

The 5 phases – Initiate Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. Don’t over plan.

There really are 4, count them 4, deliverables from the Plan portion of the Project:

Scope, Time Estimate, Budget Estimate, and the Project plan.

Scope is the most notorious of them. We all think we know what we are doing and think we know the scope. Then before we know it, we are doing things we hadn’t thought about.

You created your Charter; in there you said you were going to collect autographs. Every autograph? Collect the ones from the dealers on the floor?  Will be you buying autographs or only getting the free ones?  Will you try to collect the autographs at the hotels or just in the convention center?  Will you get photos or collectables signed? Will it be actors or just artists? What about the authors and directors?

As you answer these questions you define your scope. Ideally your scope statement is the law. If it’s out of scope you won’t be doing it. In reality, we all have scope creep but it’s better to define and decide the scope away from the action. You’ll have less drama as exceptions arise.

As you change your scope, you change your Estimates, both budget and time, which end up changing you plan. You want to avoid that if possible.

As you define you scope you will be defining some of your project plan tasks and getting an idea of the cost and time required. This is a good and natural, just don’t get side tracked into one of those activities more than you need.

Your scope is done. Now what does it take to make it happen?

SDCC really is just a few steps: Get tickets, go, and enjoy.  That is a ‘plan’ it will work. You will have panic attacks and more stress than you need and a few unfriendly arguments with your friends.  Been there and done it.

To avoid the heartburn, break those steps down to smaller parts.  Those tasks and subtasks become the plan. Nothing should be added that isn’t in scope.

 As you start defining the tasks, you can define the cost and the time needed to accomplish the task.

If you are getting down to the details of how any slices of cheese to buy so you won’t have leftovers, you have gone too far. Step away from the desk and watch some TV.

Doesn’t ‘Get tickets’ really mean: Attendee badges, airfare, hotel rooms?

Doesn’t ‘go’ mean to and from the show, what to do when there, where to eat, and when to get some sleep?

Doesn’t ‘Have Fun’ mean have fun?  How do you do that?  Which panels, which parties, what vendors do you want to see?

You can use fancy software, MS Project is pretty good. So is Excel, and so is paper and pencil.

I use Excel as its better than erasing and crossing out stuff. And my typing, even with typos, is easier to read than my handwriting.

#SDCC – The project – Plan phase

The 5 phases – Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. Don’t over plan.

The Plan phase is the ‘Devil in the details’ part.

Ideally, there should be no ‘black boxes’. Meaning everything thing should be understood and broken down into manageable activities. You should never have something in the plan like ‘Then we show up and have fun’ or ‘create a new portfolio for review’.  That’s not manageable and implies something isn’t understood.  If that is the case, you need to go back to initiate and do more research.

This part of the project is reviewing the Charter and breaking down the parts into tasks to be divided among the team. From the tasks, you will start prioritizing them based on importance and order of completion and in the end you have your Project Schedule.

#SDCC – The project – Initiate phase deliverables

The 5 phases – Initiate Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. Don’t over plan.

Are you going to SDCC with a group of people? Are you pooling resources or sharing responsibilities?

You might want to look at selecting a Project Manager and creating a Project Charter for ComicCon trip.

The first deliverable is delegating someone from your group to act as Project Manager.

A Project Manager (PM) is the person that manages the project from start to end. They do that through coordinating, expediting, communicating, and managing the tasks, resources, and people.

Ultimately they are responsible for a successful or failed project. Whether they have excuses or extenuating circumstances, they are responsible.  If they research and plan and monitor well (or their delegates do those functions well) the project should succeed.

They need to be able to make decisions, manage resources, and manage the plan. The PM needs to be able to delegate and get open and frank feedback from the team. The PM should be a benevolent dictator.

There IS a difference between managing and bossing.

The PM will be using the information from the 5 phases of the project cycles and the information of his team to decide how to plan, delegate, and track the various tasks needed to have a successful trip San Diego and ComicCon.

The second deliverable from the Initiate Phase is the Project Charter.

The Project Charter explains what the goal is. Something like:  4 friends planning a trip to SDCC. They will collect x amount of money, they will arrange airfare, hotel, and transportation. They want to have a good time.

The Charter assigns the PM.

The Charter will explain why this project needs to be done: The project aims at correcting issues from past trips. Previous trips to SDCC, people canceled at the last minute or we could find a hotel or we didn’t have enough money to enjoy out trip. We want to be able experience more of the convention.

The Charter will list the Risks.

What is your definition of success? If you don’t define success, how did you know if you failed or succeeded?  What is a ‘good time’? Hangovers or emptied bank accounts do not mean success. Defining it now, also level sets expectations among the team; this is an important part of managing and prioritizing the scope.

Who holds the purse strings?  While the PM can spend the money, they don’t get to keep it in their back pocket.  Who does the PM report? 

Discussing this up front and at various points through the project help keep you on target and lets everyone know what is working and what can work better.

AH

#SDCC – The project – Initiate phase

The 5 phases – Initiate , Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down

If you haven’t gone to San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) before, you need to realize this is a big event.

Not only does it cover an incredible amount of floor space, it also has 25,000 people a day attending; hence the claims of 125,000 people over the weekend.  On top of that, add the fact that this is the industry’s big event of the year.  Every year, the TV and Movie studios spend a lot of money at SDCC to get the public to watch their movies and shows.  The publishing and gaming industries aren’t just sitting by either. They are presenting and wooing the SDCC attendees too.

Over the last 10 years SDCC has been mainstreamed.  While everyone hasn’t heard of it, more and more non geeks/nerds are aware it exists.  Entertainment news shows are present to interview the top actors as they promote their movies and programs. So as Grandmom sits at home and catches up on her celebrity gossip with E!, she is watching video from SDCC.

Many people just get their tickets and show up. They have an idea of the schedule and wing it. For some that method works for them. Others are very disappointed and end up not having a good time. At the end of the weekend they talk about the coulda’s and the shoulda’s.

#SDCC tips RACI Recap

We looked over some Risks, Assumptions, Constraints, and Issues.

Does it stop there?  No, you don’t want them collecting electronic dust.

You need to review them, and see if items need to be added or removed or modified.

Let’s take hotel rooms for example.

You have an assumption you will need a room AND that you will get a room.

Hotel rooms have a constraint on availability and price.

You hotel room Risks are getting a room, getting a room within your budget, getting a room that is convenient, and not being ‘lost’ in the system.

You try to mitigate your hotel Risk by booking a backup room or getting a roommate to split the cost, or you may rent a car to ensure you can travel to the convention center.  You may just accept the Risk that you will be lost in the system as you have no control over that and the likelihood is small.

#SDCC tips Assumptions – it’s NOT too early to plan

This isn’t a complete list of assumptions but it’s something to think about and help you prepare.

Over the course of these posts, I’ll be harping on some points endlessly.  That’s part of the methodology.  Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. You can be grossly underprepared and you can be over prepared.  Both will cause you to your waste time and money.

Assumptions are those things that should discussed to ensure everyone is on the same page. Level setting and sanity checks are part of it also.  False assumptions lead you down a dark path and if not caught soon enough you might not recover.

So you create your list and review them with your friends and fellow SDCC veterans.

Here are some easy ones to get your brain warmed up:

Tickets, Hotel, Travel Plans, and Budget – the first assumption is you will be able to obtain all of these.

The second assumption is they will not change.  The flight won’t be cancelled, or your budget won’t be cut or the hotel overbooked.  (Side bar – with American Airlines filing bankruptcy – what happens if they reduce flights or close up?  That is a new Risk – does your current handling plan cover that scenario?)

Language – English is the official language of the geek.

Monetary – all prices and sales are in US Dollars.

Large ticket items can be purchased with a Credit Card.

Dates – the convention will NOT arbitrarily change the date or duration of the convention.

You will NOT be dragging a Booth Babe back to the hotel.

Past SDCC has had free Wi-Fi - this year should too.

No matter how well you plan, you cannot see, do, or buy everything.

Some negative assumptions:

You can take your roller board bag into the convention center since you will be buying a lot of stuff. (You can’t. Every other convention allows this. In reality SDCC will not allow this.)

You cell phone will work to call friends and family. (In reality it’s spotty coverage.)

Everything on display at a booth is free to take home. (Many of the independent or small press tables do not have freebies or samples to hand out.)

The swag has value. (Remember, the swag that was handed out was free. They handed out tons of it. The swag has limited value and that value has a short shelf life.)

That should start you off on the right foot.

Good luck,

AH