"Don't be told what you want,
Don't be told what you need."

Just as any cook can combine flour, sugar, eggs, and butter to bake a cake, it seems any organization can combine a designated location, dealers, panelists, and attendees to form a convention. While following the basic recipe, how do you make you cake stand out among all the others? You add flavors your recipe differently and hope the people you serve your cake to like it or at the very least aren't allergic to it.

Anime cons are chocolate cakes. They're plentiful, easily recognizable, and fun to share with others. I like chocolate cake as much as the next guy, but occasionally I crave strawberry cake topped with kiwis. I haven't lost my taste for chocolate cake. but after eating so many, I want to try something else. This year's WonderCon was strawberry cake topped with kiwis.

The designated location is the base that houses the con together like flour is the base of the cake. The Moscone Center is a familiar location with access to BART and enough space to host the panels, attendees, and shopping. It was close to various restaurants for a bite away from the con. It's an idiot-proof location and I'm glad they used it.

I've attended business conventions lacking Dealer Rooms (strictly panels and promotions). Those business cons were bread. Sugar provides sweetness that can mean the difference between bread and cake. People use how much sugar to use based on their desired taste, just as people can choose how much they want to spend at the Dealers Room based on their wants and budgets. WonderCon's Dealer Room was a candy store of sci-fi goods, 80's nostalgia, and Hollywood memorabilia. I enjoyed swooping up the strawberries known as Starscream and Soundwave Transformers toys in addition to picking up the kiwis of Cinema Insomnia DVDs. Anime goods were present but kind of hard to locate. But if I want anime goods, I'll get it an anime con. But I've had enough chocolate to last me a bit.

Eggs hold the other ingredients together as panelists and guests hold the attention of the attendees while bringing more attendees into the convention. I didn't see the comic panelists, but spending time at the movie panels was a good time. The Hollywood talent, while being revered as Hollywood talent, display themselves as regular people who tell a good story and laugh along with the audience they are entertaining. And there is something about seeing actors in person Friday and Saturday and then seeing them walk the red carpet to present at the Oscars Sunday that leaves me bewildered. James McAvoy rambled just as unintelligibly on Oscar Sunday as he did WonderCon Friday. I like being able to see upcoming films at WonderCon. This con is perfect for previewing new Hollywood action films. No matter how many times I request it, I doubt that I am going to see previews of the next James Bond film at the next anime con.

Attendees are the bread and butter of any convention, but for the sake of the cake metaphor, I'll just consider them the butter. Attendees ranged from the young and old, in costume and not in costume, and nice and rude. I had a great time with friends like BART Boy, OniCourseMusha, and Claudine. It was nice to meet new acquaintances like Vince the Altaïr who I met during the panels. Then there were the group of people waiting at the BART transfer point I ran into Saturday night on the way home. We all just finished the con with memories still fresh in our heads. So we had something to talk about in the rain while waiting for the next BART. Oddly enough, the rudest that I encountered were some young ones in anime cosplay. At an anime con, they'd be a dime a dozen of idiots I'd conveniently forget about, but at a sci-fi/comic/pop culture con like WonderCon, that group stood out in my head better.

If WonderCon continues to increase in size, scope, and venue, it may grow to be the nor-Cal equivalent of its big brother Comic-Con. As a nor-Cal resident, that would make my con itinerary easier to plan.

There were a few blows that I regret taking during the con. On Sunday morning my feet were too blistered from wearing my boots for two days straight so I gave the final day of WonderCon a miss. I was not aware that James Kyson Lee was present to promote Shutter; it'd have been nice to see him again after PMX. I tried to enter the X-Files panel with Chris Carter, Gillian Anderson, and David Duchovny. I simply lost my chance to enter the crowded room. But the biggest blow for this convention experience was not having Victoria with me. I missed you, Victoria, and hope we can do this con together next year. I know now how difficult it is doing these conventions without her. Without her I have a lot of difficulty navigating, locating a temporary HQ during the con, and having someone to talk to during the slow times. And worst of all, I'd have to start remembering names. As someone who can't differentiate between Phillip Bunbury from a phillips screwdriver, some names may have slipped through my memory. So if I forgot to mention your name during the report, the best I can say in respose is... oops. Perhaps we will meet again and I'll be able to pull a name from my subconscious. With a little bit of luck, it'll be the right name.

Maybe conventions should consider requiring every attendee to wear some sort of prominent tag or badge that clearly tells fellow attendees his or her name while identifying this person as an attendee of the convention. Wouldn't that be a great way to break the ice?

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