Even a few months later, we’re still excited about our time at PAX Unplugged. We’d like to think that we’re getting better at attending conventions, and we made the mistakes so that you don’t have to! Here are some useful tips about attending board game conventions.
If we had to sum up this entire blog in one sentence, it would be: don’t underestimate the power of planning ahead. Read on for some more specific tips and tricks.
Getting to the Convention
We’re fortunate enough to live in a suburb of Philadelphia, so we didn’t have to worry about staying in a hotel. In an ideal world, we’d be able to stay in one of the hotels attached to the convention center, but we’re perfectly fine not having to pay that cost. But we did have to plan ahead to account for commute. Friday was the busiest day, and we allowed an hour to get into Philadelphia. This day also had the longest line of the weekend; it ended up taking about 40 minutes to get into the convention. The board game community is really good at queuing (forming spontaneous structure in lines). On Saturday and Sunday, it only took about 30 minutes to get into the city, and the lines were a lot shorter.
Parking
One of the best things that we planned ahead for at PAX Unplugged was parking. The first year we went, finding parking was a nightmare! This year, it was a dream. Thanks to SpotHero, we were able to pay ahead for convention center parking just a few blocks from the event. We highly recommend booking your parking ahead of time! It’s common for the parking garages in the area to fill up before 10 am!
It was also really nice to be able to run to the car and drop off supplies for our Unpub experience (read about that here) or pick them up when our shift was later in the day. Not having to lug around extra supplies made the rest of our attendee experience so much better.
Meals
Soooooo gooooood. Great, now we’re hungry.
We did some strategic planning around our meals at PAX this year. There’s a small food court inside the convention center, but we don’t recommend it. The food is expensive, and it really isn’t that great. There are tons of restaurant options right outside of the convention center doors such as Panera, McDonalds, Reading Terminal Market, etc. And all of Chinatown is just one block over! Each day, we planned to eat out at one of these options for dinner, and we brought packed food for lunch. Pro tip: Outside food is allowed in the convention center. Take advantage of this! We made homemade honey mustard chicken wraps (delicious) with snacks and fruits, and we brought our reusable water bottles; viola! Easy and inexpensive lunch. Plus, we were able to eat on our own schedule.
We ate out at Panera one night. Our suggestion? Order ahead online and then just run in and pick it up. It can get pretty busy in there, so we don’t recommend trying to stay in the restaurant. Another night we went to Reading Terminal Market. Maybe don’t try to go here with 4 people, a toddler and a stroller. We made this mistake, and to be honest, it was a bit stressful. So either skip the market or send a lonely ambassador to pick up your meal.
Schedule
PAX releases a schedule of all the panels and events that will be available for the weekend, as well as the general schedule. We used this to put together a schedule that we could reference throughout the weekend. If there was a factor that we weren’t sure about right away (lines, for example), we added in about an hour of wiggle room. Since we were there for three days, we were able to adjust our plans each day, according to what happened the day before.
Some panels may be far away from where you currently are in the convention center, so we recommend that you plan for 15 minutes to get to the room and get settled before the panel starts. Make sure your schedule is mobile-friendly and viewable in portrait orientation! That’s a change we’ll make for next year.