The Staying Power of a Convention is in the Panels

​Written by Scott Murray

Denver Comic Con 2016 was my first ever convention. Never before had I been to a comic con, a gaming convention, an anime convention, or even seen cosplay in person. (Halloween doesn’t count, does it?) In fact, I’m pretty sure it was my first time inside a convention center. I spent most of my time upstairs on the main show floor, and although I explored the entire downstairs, I did not attend any panels. However, I’ve come to a conclusion: the real staying power of a con is in its panels, and, to a lesser extent, its guest appearances.

You see, I arrived on Friday at 9am to meet John and get my media pass. We entered and wandered around the floor a bit, and I began shooting at 10 when the doors opened. I spent most of the rest of the day on that floor, both shooting pictures and just enjoying the con. I even bought some things for my wall. When I left sometime between 6 and 7 that evening, my day had been long and fulfilling.

However, when I arrived on Saturday, this time when the doors opened at 10, and began to take more pictures, I found myself facing a bit of a conundrum. Whereas on Friday I had spent my time alternating between working and just enjoying the con, I found myself experiencing a little bit of déjà vu and well, the excitement faded for me just a little bit. Not that the con was boring, by any means, but simply because all the same shops, merchants, artists, and materials were on display. And I realized that they wouldn’t change during the entire con. No matter what time it was or which day, the only thing that would change were the people filling in the aisles.

For this con that wasn’t a problem; my chief goal was to take pictures of interesting, cool, or otherwise appealing cosplay, so the new dearth of people each day provided plenty of material. But for my own personal enjoyment as a con-goer, this was a bit troubling. Although I did make a few purchases on my second day, I could have bought those things on my first. I simply waited because I knew I’d be back. Really, nothing had changed. I could see no reason to do anything other than show up one day, see everything, and leave. It made me wonder: why would I want to spend money, at any con, on coming more than one day?

It took me an embarrassingly long time to find my answer: panels. Every day, every minute, there was another panel beginning in one of the many meeting rooms scattered amongst the labyrinthine halls of the lower floor. And what a range of topics they covered! Sound in film, gaming marketing, creative writing; anything you could think of for any kind of interest in any part of geek culture had at least one panel. I didn’t really want to attend any panels this time; I felt my time was better spent on the floor. But if I had been trying to attend panels, I might have had an existential crisis as I realized there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to attend everything that sounded interesting.

Even a cursory glance at the panel schedule revealed a multitude of tempting, tantalizing options. It was here, I realized, that the value in a multi-day pass was undeniable. And, on top of that, attending on multiple days also gave multiple opportunities to attend celebrity appearances. Meanwhile, the merchants and artists provided a sort of connective tissue, filling in the gaps between celebrity appearances and panel start times. But now I know for the future, in order to truly experience everything that Denver Comic Con has to offer, one has to spend time in panels because that is where our minds are fed with fresh ideas and discussions about the things we love and discovering this, and the wealth of programming that DCC has to offer made my first convention experience a fulfilling one.

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