Tales from the Con: Farpoint 2010

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend Farpoint 2010 in Timonium, MD, a little ways past Baltimore. Now I am no stranger to the Baltimore convention circuit, some of my favorite cons take place around the area: Balticon and Otakon for example; but I have never attended Farpoint until this year. While in years past Farpoint has been a more Star Trek-centric con, they’ve since branched out into other fandoms and genres that would interest the current sci-fi fan.

I honestly have to say I really decided to attend the con after hearing that Felicia Day of The Guild (I’m a huge fan) would be attending as a guest. Since Felicia is from the West Coast her East Coast con appearances are few and far between, I had to go. Also on the great guest roster were Lee Arenberg (Pirates of the Caribbean), Mira Furlan (Lost and Babylon 5) and Sam Witwer (Smallville and Star Wars the Force Unleashed).

The trip down to Timonium from Philly was approximately 2 hours, and was a straight shot down I-95. This was great because most of the main roads were clear and we didn’t run into any issues due to the snow, until we got off the freeway. Upon first arrival, the Crowne Plaza was still in the process of digging itself out of the snowstorm from earlier in the week. Parking in the hotel parking lot was free and plentiful, which is always a bonus in my book. Upon finding a parking space and entering the Convention Center you run straight into the registration table. It still puzzles me that most cons don’t seem to get this little detail right. But right as you walk in the door you are met with staff that was both helpful and attentive. I had some issues with my registration but they worked with me and quickly got me situated and on my way.

The Crowne Plaza is not a large hotel, but Farpoint isn’t a big con either, and I say that in the nicest possible way. While it is a smaller con I would have to say it’s slightly bigger than our Philcon and a little better attended. I do have to mention an effective use of the convention space, the very detailed map in the con-program, and the doors were clearly labeled with schedules posted.  Their dealer’s area was well stocked with vendors who had something to suit any sci-fi fan, and I was very pleased to see quite a few tables with some really rare and hard to find DVDs.

One thing I noticed, as well as other guests, was the large amount of families in attendance. You gotta train them while they are young! Farpoint is definitely a family friendly con and most families came in coordinated cosplay as well. Which will lead to some great embarrassing pictures that will plague many first dates to come. My favorite was the father who was dressed as an Imperial Officer, who brought his younger daughter in full Jedi garb. One of my highlights of Saturday night (pictured above) was watching the little Jedi fight with a remote controlled mouse droid…. priceless.

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For panels Farpoint had you covered as well. They utilized all their guests and had a great guest track, as well as your more traditional con tracks as well. The guest Q&A panels werd done proper in a large room equipped with widescreen plasmas, so even if you were in the back seats you still got a great view of your favorite celebs.  The guests also did double duty there was an auction to benefit The Julien Fleming Memorial Fund where each celebrity basically put themselves on the auction block. Lee Arenberg offered drinks with a fan Saturday night and Felica Day offered lunch on Valentines day, which fetched a whopping $5,000 for the charity! I do have to note they also had a great new media track as well with some of my friends Thomas Gideon from the Command Line Podcast, and Paul Fischer who runs the A.D.D Cast holding fun and informative panels on podcasting and various new media.

Now one thing that if you have read my previous Tales From the Cons reports will know as a big pet peeve of mine is celebrities, and their autograph policies at cons. This is where I think Farpoint has indeed found the happy medium to my conundrum; and a solution that benefits not only the fan, but the convention as well. They did this by having a pay day on Saturday and a free day on Sunday. This made a great deal of sense because Saturday is when most casual con-goers would attend, and they would probably have only done a single day admission. So to me it made sense that if they had a low admission they would still have to offset the cost of the guests by paying a nominal fee for an autograph. Sunday was the free autograph day, because Sundays are traditionally not the busiest days at cons. Besides, most of the people who were there Sunday paid a premium for a 3 day pass which helped with supporting the guests.  I really thought this was a great model and should be adopted at other cons, and could probably boost attendance for Sundays. Which are traditionally a slower day at cons, I would definitely take this option if given it at a convention.

While this was a smaller con is the tremendous amount of really great cosplay. It seemed to me like the Baltimore/DC area has a really active fandom community.  I have to say for a smaller con almost 40% of those in attendance were costumed at one point in the weekend, or another.  To me it seemed that this was almost more of a focus of the con, than the actual con it self at times. The main entry hall was always packed full of Storm Troopers, Space Marines, Predators or Trekkers communing in their various fandoms. It was great walking out of the building to get lunch and hearing some burly middle-aged security guards, obviously not with the con debate the pluses and minuses of some of the various Starfleet uniforms and their movie accuracy. I had to laugh at this.

Overall I had a great time at Farpoint and would highly recommend you checking it out next year – I know I will definitely be in attendance. It was nice to see such a great fandom community in action. It was a great start to the 2010 con season, which is slowly starting to get into gear. So if you’re a Trekker, or into most sci-fi and enjoy cosplay; this should definitely be on your list of cons for the year. The family friendly aspect is definitely a drawing point as well, now that most geeks getting older this is something I am noticing more and more at cons.  So mark March on your calendar and hopefully it wont snow as bad next year. See ya there!