Convention tip: Clothes and shoes!

Celebration V: ThursdayWithout the armor this ensemble may be too chilly for indoors! Also, probably inappropriate.

Here’s some advice straight from the CJ list… Yes, con veterns, some of this may be familiar, some of it may not.

James: “Dress in layers! Outside in Orlando is hot and humid (and sometimes even wet), while inside the convention center, some of the panel rooms are super air conditioned (especially first thing in the morning!) If you get cold easily, have a second layer to avoid chills in over-AC’d rooms,especially if you were just sweaty outside.”

I’m one of those people who’s cold everywhere and the Orlando convention center is freezing. And given how few people wanted fans when I was passing them out at CV, it’s not just me. At least bring (or plan to buy) a light sweatshirt.

Nancy: “Two pairs of comfy shoes. Your feet will thank you if you switch shoes every day.”

Make sure they’re already broken in! Some advanced tips:

David: “A little Gold Bond powder in your shoes will help, as will a pair of good work or sport insoles. An old hiking trick is to wear nylon socks next to your foot, with cotton athletic socks over those. It creates a wicking effect that will keep your feet dry and cool.”

Yav: “Plus a few little pieces of pre-cut Moleskin. Just in case you get a blister. The stuff is magic.”

Celebration VI schedule to be revealed in app first

Actual news in an email update? Refreshing! According to an email sent to CVI attendees about an hour ago, the program schedule will be coming to the Celebration mobile app first. No word on when the reveal will happen – early next week, perhaps? – but consider yourselves warned.

One thing we do know about the schedule: It’s 9 feet long. And it looks like this.

Extra credit if you can figure out what this means:

Convention tip: Vacation-ize your Twitter

Some people take vacations where they can ditch all their tech, or at least keep it in the hotel room for after-hours perusal. I am not one of those people, at least at a Celebration. As a news-blogger, it’s my prerogative, nay, my duty, to keep at least an iPhone on me at all times. Because while yes, while there will be plenty of real-life socializing, I must tweet.

I have no idea how many people I was following during Celebration VI, my first Twitter-enabled convention, but right now I am following almost 300 people. That’s a LOT of tweets, so the first thing I want to do is see how I can – not to be heartless, ahh screw it – ditch some folks temporarily. (Temporarily.) Luckily, Twitter has a built-in feature that will serve me well in not only keeping all the unfollowed people together, but allow me to even backread – Lists.

I decided that my first target would be mostly professional entertainment sites and journalists that are unlikely to cover Celebration. For them, I created a list called Entertainment. Next, for the science fiction/fantasy and comics crowd I suspect won’t cover the con, I created the imaginatively named SFF-Comics. All together, that’s 60 accounts that will be safely out of the way while I’m frantically trying to keep up.

I haven’t actually unfollowed anyone yet, but the lists will make that easy. A day or so before the con, all I’ll have to do is go to the list members pages and unfollow. After the con is over, I can follow them all back. And best of all, I can still check up on them, via the list, whenever I have a spare moment. (Hello, airport.)

Granted, most of these accounts are people who don’t follow me back/barely know I exist, so I don’t think there’ll be many hurt feelings when I unfollow – but keep that in mind. A ‘If I unfollow you today, it’s only temporary’ tweet may be in order if your choices are otherwise. Or, you could always create a special list just for Celebration, and avoid the issue entirely! Lists are cool that way. For what it’s worth, here’s mine.

Stay tuned for more tips!

Convention tip: Keeping in touch

As nice as it would be to have your convention buddies at your side 24/7, we know it doesn’t always work that way.

Get as many phone numbers as you can before the fact. Add them to your phone at leisure and avoid typos.

Practice basic phone courtesy in panels. Turn your ringer to silent or vibrate, don’t be afraid to send people directly to voicemail. Make sure your alerts and rings are unobtrusive or set to silent/vibrate. No one is going to be impressed by your ‘awesome’ ringtone if it disturbs the panel.

Texting is generally better than actually phoning someone. It’s much less disruptive, and that way your pals have the info when they do check their phone, instead of having to call you back to get it. (And also, some of us may be live-tweeting panels!) Diane: “It’s much much easier to get a good-enough cell signal to text than to do phone calls or email.” (Be warned that if you don’t have unlimited texting, you might go over your limit. It might be worth it to call up your provider and see if they can switch you to unlimited texting for just one month. It’s also a good time to unsubscribe any text alert subscriptions you may get from local news and such.)

Group messaging. If you’ll be with a large group, and most of them have smartphones, have everyone sign up for a free app called GroupMe. Eliz: “Instead of calling 10 people, you send out one text to a defined group and have them respond to the text. The app is available for most systems.” Bonus: It uses a lot less memory (at least on iOS) than Facebook Messenger.

Celebration VI: The Bounty Hunt is back, and the Collectors get social

Clues! The Bounty Hunt is returning back to Celebration. You know the one. Hint: It’s run by Jaders.

Collectors. Star Wars Action News is sponsoring the Collector’s Social Area, which “gives Star Wars collectors the opportunity to network with other Star Wars collectors, learn more about the collecting hobby, and get autographs from authors of books on collecting.” Sounds like the Fan Club lounge… Remember that from CIV? Great for collectors, but I can’t help but wondering why no other areas of fandom ever get an official track, let alone a social area. (Do we have to – gulp – volunteer?)

Rancho Obi-Wan bringing mini-museum to Celebration VI

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough

Rancho Obi-Wan, the giant collection of all things Star Wars owned by Steve Sansweet, will be hitting the road for Celebration VI. The Rancho Obi-Wan Experience will have a mini-museum space on the main exhibit floor and will showcase all sorts of item, from props and prototypes to original art and fan-made wonders, all brought from the world’s largest private collection of Star Wars stuff.

Steve Sansweet will be on hand to chat with fans and answer questions. Steve and other managers and board members of Rancho Obi-Wan will be doing a panel on Rancho Obi-Wan as part of the Collectors’ Track. Additionally, there will be preview sales of the upcoming Star Wars: Ultimate Action Figure Collection book at the booth, with all four authors on hand to sign unique bookplates. Fans who sign up to be members of Rancho Obi-Wan at Celebration will receive an exclusive Celebration VI patch that matches the 2012 Rancho Obi-Wan membership patch, as well as a personalized membership kits.

Celebration VI roundup: Speed dating and Warwick Davis are back. (But not together.)

It’s baaack… Speed-dating returns to Celebration VI. There will be six sessions – one on Thursday, two on Friday, and three on Saturday. Apparently it resulted in 38 couples and at least one marriage at Celebration V, so who knows?

Guests. There hasn’t been an announcement yet, but Jedi News noticed a new name at the con’s autograph ticket site: Warwick Davis.

Contest. Getting ready for Celebration already? There’s a fan video contest. Protip: Blogging and photoshopping stuff is super boring.