Things I Learned at the New York Comic Con

The first day at the New York Comic Con was a great success. I had lots of fun and did learn several things at the same time. These lessons are listed below, in no particular order.

I am not as young as I was. I used to be able to spend all day on my feet and not think anything of it. This isn't really the case any more. My feet and knees are killing me.

Lines suck. I don't like waiting in them. I really don't like them when they go out the door, around the corner, down the side of the building, up a flight of stairs, back up the side of the building on another level, then continue down the street. This was only the outdoor portion of the line. I am not kidding on this one. Just ask if you want more pics of the line.

If you plan to carry around a laptop in your backpack, make sure that there is plenty of padding in the backpack. I spent the most of the day with the corners of the laptop poking me in the back.

When attending a convention in New York City in the winter, make sure to dress for the weather. Luckily it wasn't too cold during the day, but at night the wind was killing me. I thought my ears were going to fall off or have frostbite,

Stairs are a good idea. I am sure there were stairs hiding somewhere, but to get to one part of the show everyone was taking an escalator up. Due to too many people on the escalator, it kept breaking. Eventually security came over and would let people go up the escalator in small groups. Why not just leave it broken and make people walk. In the end, isn't a little more exercise good for us all?

Make sure that you have plenty of batteries for your camera and know how it works. I received an anniversary gift of a new digital camera the night before the show. I love it, but I am still trying to learn how it works. Maybe I should have brought the old one until I learned more about it. I lost a great pic due to low batteries making the flash not work. Also, if you borrow a video camera from someone, ask them how to rewind the tape. I was recording a pretty good panel for about 3 minutes. Then the tape ended. I spent the next 30 minutes pushing buttons until I figured out how to rewind the damn thing.

The ATM is your friend. At least if you go before getting to the convention center. I didn't have any issues with the ATM itself, it was more the long line to get near it. I think I that the guy in front of me was trying a hostile takeover of a large company all through the ATM, or maybe he was trying to play Worlds of Warcraft. At least it seemed something like this was the case based on how long it took him to get his money.

If you want to give out business cards, then have easy access to them. The first time I wanted to give one to someone, I had to go digging through 3 pockets to find where they were stored. This didn't make me feel like the most professional person in the world.

All things considered I do believe that this was a very successful day. I will have my laptop with me all day tomorrow (ugh) and I hope to be posting lots of pictures and smaller entries throughout the day. This was my first convention as a blogger, and I found a few things that just didn't work and new ways to do things that I need to get done. Now, I think it is time to go put my feet up and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow looks to be an even busier day and I can't wait for it to start.