Comic Book Conventions are Awesome

Yesterday, two of my friends and I attended the Wizard World Chicago Comic Convention. It was, probably, the single geekiest thing I've ever done. Simultaneously, however, it was one of the most fun things I've done and I would do it again in a second. Walking onto the convention floor was like entering an 800,000 square foot comic book store. Everybody there was geeking out with absolutely no shame. It was incredible. There were people dressed as Stormtroopers, the X-Men, there was even a guy dressed as "Pimp" Venom (as seen in the 5th picture below). Needless to say, it was a very entertaining Saturday.

So, why am I writing about this in my marketing blog? Well, conventions and trade shows are an important part of the marketing industry. There are the P.R. people who work non-stop to coordinate all of the special guests, panels, and events. There's the small business owner who trucks in all of their gear from hours away because they'll get more exposure at the one or two-day event than they could all year in purchased ad space. And, of course, there's the sales people out chasing leads and making contacts in their respective industry. Conventions and trade shows provide hundreds of people with jobs and, besides that, are usually a ton of fun. Hmm, seeing as my convention trip made for such a good post I wonder if Experience would reimburse me my $25 ticket fee? (wink, wink) Enjoy the pictures. By the way, the guy with glasses is my friend Rick and the other guy is my friend Mong. I hope they don't mind the public revelation of their geekiness.