I am a active worker at cons. http://www.gamejunkie.com is a store where I help out at on a regular basis and I am part of the con team. Basically anime conventions outsource the video Game room to us. In return we ask to be able to sell food and drink in the game room and get a free vendors table. If its more than 50 miles away we ask for a hotel room or 2 for staff to sleep in.

Basically there is a differnce between a "Gaint convention" and a "hotel con".

Gaint conventions usually have 5000+ people and are held in convention centers. This is bad for us because they usually don't allow ANY food sales which suck. We cirumvent this policy by doing a delevery service to near by hotels.

Basically your bigger cons are more packed. More frantic of a pace and IMO less fun. The staff at the convention center NEVER deals with teenagers. So they are usually pretty nasty to ya. Secondly there is a hard closing time. Usually 12ish.

Now you get better guests due to the bigger size and the panels may be better.

Hotel cons are smaller but you seem to be able to get away with more.
Some stay open 24 hours.


Now some general gaming room rules of the road

Shower. Bathe We will spray you down with axe.

Be kind or we will kick you out.

Please stay infront of the table, no we will not watch your crap

Don't randomly hug/glomp people, ask first. I once had a really bad experience. Some girl liked my costume, so she ran at me and jumped on my back and wrapped her legs around me before I knew what hit me. o_O Well, that twisted my back and I spent the rest of the convention in pain. Not fun.

I've never been to a anime convention. Perhaps I should go some day? I don't have any friends to take with me though.