Convention Memories: In the year 2008 everyone thought “twittering” meant masturbation.

I’m a convention nerd.  I pretty much always have been.  My first convention was at a local Holiday Inn in Fort Myers Florida.  It featured “Q” from Star Trek the Next Generation and Buck Rogers star Erin Grey.  I remember loving it, even though by today’s convention standards it was pretty awful.  I’ve also managed to make it out to my fair share of Comic Cons in San Diego.  For those that have not been, it’s the nerd version of the Hajj.  Every once in a while you’ll luck out at a convention and capture a really amazing moment.

Below is a video I shot using my crappy Cannon Elph.  The quality isn’t all that great, but the content is.

In July 2008 the cast of Dr. Horrible had a panel at Comic Con.

Who was there?

• Joss Whedon (Creator of Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story, and the upcoming Avengers)
• Felicia Day (Creator of The Guild, actor in Buffy, Eureka, House.. etc..etc)
• Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle, Lost and a whole lot more)
• Neil Patrick Harris (How I met your Mother, Hosting everything on the planet, and Harold and Kumar)
• Simon Helberg  (Big Bang Theory)
• Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon (Writer of Spartacus, Dollhouse, Dr.Horrible and more)

So what happens when this talented group of people sit down in front of a crowded room full of nerds?

The crazy thing is over 68,000 people have watched that video since 2008. I still get positive comments on it on a regular basis. Rare for the web.

What Then?

That same day I ran into Felicia Day on the convention floor. In 2008 she could wander freely without being swarmed by people like myself. I told her how funny the video was, and she was clearly still flustered by the whole thing. I guess being accused of masturbating in front of a few thousand people is embarrassing? What I realize now is that nobody at the time, including myself, had any clue what Twitter was. Felicia then proceeded to take out her phone, open it up, and show me how Twitter worked. I clearly remember her saying “It’s a micro-blog. It’s so addicting. You need to get on there“. I have her to blame for my irrational addiction to Twitter.

When I got home from the convention in August of 2008 I signed up for a Twitter account. At that time Felicia only had a few thousand followers, she now has over 1.4 million. Conventions aren’t about the cool “loot” you get or procuring yet another colossal WB bag (does anyone actually like those things?). Conventions are all about the adventure and offbeat memories you forge while wandering.