May202013
leakyconportland:
Hey guys, sorry I’ve been a little absent for a bit. College is trying to eat me.
That said, I will be getting a What to Pack advice post up this evening at some point hopefully.
Tentative schedule for future posts:
Tonight – How to Pack
May 25th – Signing Etiquette
June 1st – Con Prep/Safety
June 8th – How to make friends/going alone
June 15th – Travel Tips
If anyone has other specific topics they’d like advice on, now would be the time to tell us.
So what do you want to know?
Reblogging the advice column again. Anything you guys want to know?
March192013
So I got an email from the programming staff, and I have good news and bad news. Bad news first to get it out of the way: the State of the Fandom panel is not happening, as far as I know. I got no email pertaining to it but I did get an email about my other panel, so I’m assuming that it didn’t get accepted. Don’t know why, but it is what it is.
On to the good news: I will be leading a “How do you Leakycon?” panel this year in Portland. I’m planning to run it a little like the advice blog Q&A and a little like a college orientation minus the creepy vibe. Basically, I and hopefully a few others who have gone in years past will be available to all of your firsties for a quick guide of what to expect followed by a Q&A and icebreakers of some sort to help everyone get to know each other. It’ll be awesome.
If you’re interested in helping with the Q&A bit and have attended in years past (especially if you’ve volunteered in the past), message me and let me know. I’m looking for like 2-3 people to help fill out the Q&A group for the more subjective questions and to cover all the bases.
February212013
leakyconportland:
So, you might know what some Leaky People do, you might know what they look like, but there’s a good chance that you might not too. Even those of us who have been in the community for years have been known to miss some things (Melissa Anelli is blonde now and Jim Povolo cut off all of his hair,…
More advice blogging, this time a who’s who of podcasters.
February52013
leakyconportland:
Hey guys, I’m back for more advice. Sorry for being a few days late, I try to shoot for Sundays, but here we are.
This week, I’ll be talking a little about some of the questions that come up regarding checking in at the con. We’ll be talking about the infamous badge ribbons, what exactly a badge…
More advice, this time with photo spam of registration materials for those interested.
January202013
leakyconportland:
It’s your first time at the Con, you probably aren’t too sure of what to expect and how things are going to go. Reading the info as it’s released helps some, but you might be wondering what it’s like to actually be there. One thing I’d suggest is to browse the leakycon tags, because we often get…
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’m doing official Q&A over at the Leaky Portland blog as of yet. If you’re going, feel free to check out the blog.
January92013
While most travel sites send spammy emails regarding airfares when you set up a low fare alert, AirfareWatchdog has actual people vetting the deals so you don’t get a bunch of junk but you do get told when the fares are actually good.
January62013
leakyconportland:
Hey guys, Dani here. If you’ve gone to Leaky in the past, you might know me. If you’ve been desperately seeking ino in the tags about things, you might know me. Basically, I try to help people out as much as possible in figuring things out for Leaky. I answer random questions at my personal blog a lot in my
I’ve started doing formal topic-based Q&A over at the Leaky Portland blog. Feel free to check it out. :)
November262012
Some things everyone should know about booking flights.
- flight prices will not start to drop until between 3 months and 6 weeks prior to the departure date. According to consumer reports, 42 days prior to departure is when the cheapest tickets are generally bought.
- It’s cheapest to fly on a Wednesday, and that’ll get you there a day before the con, which will give you some time to rest
- Fly very early, very late, or during or just after lunch and dinner for cheaper fares
- Try checking prices mid afternoon (3pm) Tuesday or early in the morning any day to get tickets at limited time reduced rates
- Southwest Airlines generally doesn’t show up on mega search sites like Kayak but is a budget airline, so check their website specifically. Alaska Airlines also flies the Portland route.
- Sign up for AirfareWatchdog.com to get relevant updates on prices, since travel sites like kayak can send a good bit of junk among the discount reports
- If you absolutely must book early, book with a site like Orbitz that offers a price guarantee so if your flight price does drop drastically, you can get the difference in price credited back.
Happy travels, kids, and I’ll see you all in Portland.
(Note that most of this should probably apply to flying to London as well)
November222012
theblack-raven-deactivated20130 asked: Hey! This is a question about LeakyCon, urm, what time of day does the programming usually start and how long does it go on until? Thanks!
I would like to very much emphasize that my response here will be an EDUCATED GUESS, and is in no way a guarantee that things will go down this way.
In the past two years, programming started around 9am, with some things in the 7-8am range. Most of this was pretty optional stuff like Yoga and such. In the past, mainstage events that were decent to large draws occurred between around 10am and 2pm. Additionaly programming went on until around 4 or 5, and then things thinned out quite a bit until around 7pm or so when the big nightly events started up (Wrock Shows, Ball, etc). Those events usually ran until the wee hours of the morning, something between 1-2am most nights.
As far as the conference overall, the opening festivities were generally early to mid evening (5-7pm) on the very first day of the conference. There were some meetups and things starting from early afternoon, but the big events fall mostly after Opening Festivities. The closing feast is usually midmorning to noonish (10am at the earliest?) on the very last day, and all Leaky official events should wrap up by around 2pm at the latest on the last day of the con.
I STRONGLY recommend planning to stay or travel the days immediately before and after the con and avoiding traveling on the actual dates of the con at all. If nothing else, this will allow you time to rest and recombobulate and prevent you from trying to jam everything into your suitcase in a frenzy when you leave (your suitcase will somehow magically shrink, and patience in packing home is key, as is making sure you didn’t leave anything).
If you absolutely must travel the days of the con, plan to get there as early in the morning as possible the day of the con (mostly so you can take a nap before, and if you fly overnight sleep on the plane) and to leave in the evening (I’d say no earlier than a 6 or 8pm departure, since you’ll need to be to the airport/trainstation/etc earlier than that time).
The conference will pretty much be your life while you’re there if you let it. You will gain a new appreciation for public naps. You will eat little and sleep less, but you will have an awesome time. That said, know your limits, and take a break if you need one (says the hypocrite who scheduled all but three hours of her day from 8am to 2am all four days of the con last year, but really, do as I say, not as I do). There will probably be lulls in the schedule where there’s nothing you particularly want to attend some days. You can also skip the Wrock shows if you need to rest or just don’t like Wrock, and that will give you considerably more sleeping time (or just nap on the floor in the ballroom like I did. Oops).
But the short answer is that stuff will be happening pretty much all day, and you can take part in as much or as little of it as you wish to.
All of that said, the conference will be held in a convention center this year, not a hotel attached to the con facilities, so this may change the scheduling somewhat.
