Have you ever attended a Convention

[low-key]

If so what was it for and where was it at ?

I have not

 

[Gumbo4x4]

United Four Wheel Drive Association in Reno 1997 (IIRC) I was there as a representative of various 4WD clubs in MO, AR, KS, and OK.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Star Trek convention in Oakland CA. Around about 1970ish.

My husband and I attended the Consumer Electronics Show for a number of years.

EDIT: the CES was in Las Vegas

 

[ronandannette]

Yes (IHS - International Homebuilders' Show). It's a HUGE convention with 10's of 1,000's of delegates so there's only a few places big enough to hold it. I've been to Dallas a couple of times (1998 they had Margaret Thatcher as the keynote speaker - wow, mindblown!). I've also been to it in Vegas, which I loathe {{shudder}} but Michael Eisner was the keynote at that one; he was kind of cool. The show was in Orlando this year and wouldn't you know my company is in a discretionary-spending freeze so nobody was sent.

The thing I hate most is that although I am a geek and actually like things like lectures, plenary sessions and forums, most of my colleagues see the trip as a paid holiday. I end up being the only one actually attending the convention, and have to "take notes" so everybody else can cheat the executive summaries we inevitably have to give when we return. Now if we'd gone to Orlando this year I would have totally turned the tables...

 

[ronandannette]

Star Trek convention in Oakland CA. Around about 1970ish.

My husband and I attended the Consumer Electronics Show for a number of years.

Funny story - the homebuilder's convention (when held in Vegas) is the week right after the CES. I had a cab driver tell me how "boring" construction people were compared to the "sexy" tech people. Apparently we got up and went to bed too early, didn't party hard enough and were lousy tippers! Guilty as charged, I guess.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Funny story - the homebuilder's convention (when held in Vegas) is the week right after the CES. I had a cab driver tell me how "boring" construction people were compared to the "sexy" tech people. Apparently we got up and went to bed too early, didn't party hard enough and were lousy tippers! Guilty as charged, I guess.

The Jeopardy people said the same about the contestants in comparison to the Wheel of Fortune people LOL

 

[Micca]

I've attended some media conventions: New Orleans, NYC, Twin Cities, San Francisco, Orlando. The conventions in Orlando I put in an appearance and...off to see Mickey!

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have been to educational conferences... I don't think that really qualifies as a convention though.

 

[JaneBanks]

I've attended conventions for the youth group I was in but I'm sure you're not talking about that kind of convention. lol

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

A bunch: multiple anime/comic conventions, a dog show/expo that had booths dedicated to different breeds (super fun), a Harry Potter convention, and the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions main expo. All of these were in central Florida.

 

[powellrj]

I have been to grocery conventions before.

 

[bcla]

Depends. Is a trade show considered a convention? I've been to small comic book conventions and a few industry trade shows at large convention centers.

The biggest I've attended is now gone - a victim of its own success. It was COMDEX in Las Vegas, which used to be the biggest convention every year - even bigger than the Consumer Electronics Show back then. The major casino hotels had to be booked for the entire week at rack rate. I heard that the card dealers hated it because "geeks don't gamble as much and those who do are lousy tippers". It basically fell apart when the major computing and software companies opted out of the main floor. It didn't stop them from going anyways but piggybacking with unaffiliated invitation only events at hotel suites.

 

[DisneyDetective]

My brother and I went to a Comic-Con type event in Glasgow last year and going again in September.

 

[Domo]

Nothing yet, but I intend to attend my first political conference in March.

 

[DVC-Don]

Four. Two in Atlantic City and two in Las Vegas, all for work. Atlantic City was the pitts but Las Vegas was fun. I don't gamble but, the shows in Las Vegas were great.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I've attended many--the last one I attended was for our state bar association 2 years ago. As boring as you'd expect a gathering of lawyers to be.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I've been to numerous local comic conventions, the ISTE Convention in Philadelphia several years ago, and the San Diego Comic-Con in 2012.

 

[tvguy]

Mock political convention for 1,000 high school students at my University. University Political Science students put it together, it was help in the gym of the University.
Our mock convention happened before the real one in 1976
Our students nominated Jerry Brown as the Democratic Candidate and Elliott Richardson as the Republican.
The real conventions selected Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

 

[AlohaNow]

Beatlefest!

 

[Micca]

Beatlefest!

Oh if that counts (I was thinking of biz related conventions) I did that one for more than 25 years.