I know I’m one week late with this post, due to the fact that my internet connection down there during the con was minimal, as I believe almost EVERYONE in San Diego attending the Con were likely using the internet the same reason I was. Another reason was that there was so much happening around the Con that I became way too busy to post, that by the time I got back to my room, I was too tired to type, plus it was late at night, like past 1-2am, and I had to get up at 5am to lineup for panels as well.
I originally had planned to blog about my experience as it happens. Luckily, the memories are still resh in my mind. So, here’s how the next few posts will turn out:
There will be about 5-6 posts about my days at the Con, plus my “Final Thoughts” posts, followed by a post about the Markeitng/PR aspect about Comic-Con.
But to start, this blog will get a little personal as I’m blogging about my personal experience at the San Diego Comic-Con from planning stages to arriving at the Con. So, here it is…
These flags were everywhere across the streets of San Diego.
This is my third time attending the ever popular (and growing) San Diego Comic-Con in 4 years, the first was in July 2008, then July 2009. I missed it in 2010 due to the fact I was working a summer job, plus I had previously went to the Vancouver Winter Olympics 5 months earlier that year, where money didn’t allow me to attend SDCC 2010. Nevertheless, after seeing and hearing what happened at the 2010 Con through the newspapers, online, Twitter and even shows such as Access Hollywood and E-Talk, I vowed to attend in 2011. But I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, considering how popular the Con has become. And yes, I did mention Access Hollywood and E-Talk, SDCC is THAT big. For those who have never been or heard of it, SDCC has been around for 42 years, but has evolved in the last decade. It’s no longer your typical place for “nerds”, heck even many women are attending too (more on that later).
It took three attempts to purchase the passes, as the first two attempts were in Fall 2010, but their servers crashed. I just barely got mine when they reopened in February 2011. I originally bought 3 passes, one for myself and two for my dear best friends. And since then, the countdown to my return to the Con had begun…
I slept over at my friend Monika’s place, because she lived only less than 10 minutes away from the airport, where I lived an hour away, so it was more convenient for her to drive me. I could not sleep at all. I mean, I think the most I slept was 2 hours. I have had sleeping problems lately, but I knew this wasn’t the case this time: I was filled with excitement. She put on the movie Just Go With It for me, and that helped me sleep.
I got up at 4:30am, and was driven to the airport by 5am. As soon as I arrived, the first person I run into unexpectedly was my old classmate from my diploma years and friend Trista and her boyfriend Aaron. It was so awesome seeing her again, and despite us going in different destinations, our departure times were pretty close. So, we spent the time catching up and reminising the good old days of our college diploma years. I miss those days I tell her.
I arrived my stop in Calgary and since it was going to be a long wait, I surprisingly run into Rick Lee from Sonic Radio here in YEG. It was really cool. It was his first time going to Comic-Con, so I gave him some advice and helped guided him, by making his first experience a memorable one. So, we rode the plane together.
When I arrive at my place I was staying, I met up with my friends, checked into my room, and boy it was a tiny room. But that didn’t matter, we were only 10-15min walk to the Con, and we were barely going to be in our room anyways, as we’d be out and about a lot, as shown in the two previous Cons.
The San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con 2011
As I walking towards the Convention Center, the streets, the shops and the buildings surrounding me all started to come back to my memory again. It felt like I was here just yesterday. When we arrived at the Convention Center, a big smile appeared on my face. Even with three trips, I’m still amazed at how big of a place the Convention Center is.
We went inside to register and picked up our badges. Now, for those who have never been to SDCC, when you pick up your badge, you receive a goodie bag featuring a program guide, a souvenir book and other fine swag provided by sponsors. For us, we received the famous Comic-Con bags from Warner Bros. These bags are extremely popular, as they used to hand them out at their booth in the previous cons, but this time, they handed them out to all attendees, which I guess is to prevent their booth from being so crowded. Each bag has a show/movie/game on featured on it. The ones we got were from The Big Bang Theory, which is perfect, because they didn’t have a Chuck one like in previous years.
Now, tonight was Preview Night, meaning you get to go inside the main exhibit hall and check out the booths before the con opened on Thursday. There were also screenings of TV pilots of new shows set to air in the fall as well. For myself, I just checked out the booths for a couple hours, left, ate dinner and went to bed early, cause I know that I won’t be getting much sleep in the nights to come.
a free courtesy WB Comic-Con bag for all SDCC attendees