Lessons from Volunteering at Delta H Con

Before this past weekend, my only convention experience was the one time my dad and I went to Star Wars Celebration way back in 2015. Even with that experience, the more typical image of conventions that comes to mind never felt up my alley.

So, believe me when I say that I’m just as surprised as you are that just a couple days ago, I was attending one of those conventions—as a volunteer, no less.

Per the recommendation of a friend, and alongside another friend, I applied to volunteer for a local Houston-based, anime-themed convention called Delta H Con that featured cosplayers, artists, wholesalers, and even designers and devs who came to market their passion projects.

My role was to help out in the vendor’s section of the convention, but I also had plenty of time to do a little exploring of my own. Now that Delta H Con has officially wrapped up for the year, I felt inclined to share my takeaways and highlight some of the fun experiences that made this a unique-yet-important adventure for me.

Making Connections

More than anything else, I wanted to use my time at Delta H Con to meet new people, make connections, and spread the word about my work while learning about what other people were up to. Overall, I’d say I succeeded in this regard, but not without having to face down the demons in my nerves.

Although I can handle myself just fine when it comes to professional interactions, like discussing and negotiating with customers and co-workers as a product manager, helping out students, teachers, admins, etc. as an educational paraprofessional, or commissioning art from artists to complement my literary work, I’ll admit that I play it very safe when I don’t have those kinds of parameters to work with. If I meet someone who dabbles in game design and other professions who might be able to help me, I typically lock myself into “distantly polite” mode and focus on making sure that I’m not intruding or embarrassing myself, and while that has helped me avoid awkward situations, it’s also kept me from taking advantage of various opportunities that would have just been a conversation away.

Delta H Con marked my first attempt at shying away from shyness and engaging with game devs with the appropriate amount of self-confidence to present myself as a professional worth their time and consideration. After introducing myself and learning more about what they did, I would return the favor and tell them about my own creative writing and express my (genuine) interest in their work. Even when I occasionally fumbled with my words, everyone I met was kind and considerate, and some even expressed an active interest in my writing!

The only people I didn’t really interact with that I wish I could have were the voice actors. With game devs, artists, etc., I can cling to the fact that we do something relatively similar—after all, it’s our efforts, not us, that comprise the end result. Voice actors, though? They’re significantly, more… front-end, to put it in a business-like fashion. I could hardly fathom the thought of meeting them in an informal setting without immediately turning to stone. Definitely something I should work on for the future…

But with that said, I feel like this convention was a huge victory, both regarding overcoming my anxieties and letting my guard down enough to make meaningful progress with networking. Now, it’s up to me to make sure that I continue taking steps in the right direction so that I can keep making progress towards my goals.

And with that, we can move on to the fun parts!

Con Pros

I have to give it to the folks who come to these kinds of conventions: they put a LOT of effort into their work.

Across my time at Delta H Con, I got to see some amazing cosplays, most of which I couldn’t recognize without a little help from my friend but were still really cool. The ones I did recognize, though, were so much fun to behold. My personal favorites had to be the Fire Emblem ones—particularly the one group that included Ingrid and Felix decked out with full-size Heroes’ Relics.

Then there was the multitude of talented artists who spent the majority of the convention managing stalls full of quality products. Longtime readers of my blogs know that I have incredible respect for those who can transform ideas into imagery. Of course, I also want to highlight the wholesale vendors who specialized in more general merchandise like figurines, prints, and so on.

The smallest bunch of them all were the handful of indie game developers who came to present their projects, but they were probably the ones that stood out the most to me.

One particular game that was showcased was night Loops, a visual novel-esque psychological horror game. To be honest, I’m a bit of a coward and struggle to play anything particularly spooky, but the developer did pique my interest when he mentioned that Majora’s Mask was a key inspiration, and that much is clear from what I managed to gander.

The other game, Dragon Drop, was a really cute party game with a simple premise: duke it out with up to three other players by blasting the blocks beneath their feet to make them fall. The moment I first laid eyes on it, I was reminded of my days as a little Sean playing the Chekerboard Chase minigame on Kirby 64 for the Wii Virtual Console, and I was all too pleased to hear that was indeed the developers’ inspiration. After playing several rounds and winning a sticker, I made sure to pick up a few Steam keys for me and my friends. You can bet I’ll be supporting this game in the long run and wishing its devs the best of luck (and if anyone on the Dragon Drop dev team is reading this, I’d be more than happy to help with that story mode you’ve got planned).

(Author’s Note: And in case it wasn’t clear, both of these games are on Steam, so please check them out if they seem up your alley!)

I have to admit, seeing all these people with so much enthusiasm for their interests was quite inspiring. It reminded me that I’m not the only one out there with a big heart for these kinds of topics. And even if there were vast differences in what people enjoyed and how they enjoyed them, we were all still there having the times of our lives together.

It’s Nice to be Nice

Sometimes, when you work in public education, you can get so caught up in trying to keep everyone focused and on-task and dealing with kids who would rather walk out of a classroom than put their phones away that you forget that humanity is at its best when we’re all able to just be kind to each other.

As one of the volunteers in charge of the door to the vendor section of the con, most of my time was spent being able to smile and welcome people as they came in and out. If someone needed a badge, I’d give them directions and look forward to seeing them again with everything they needed. If a vendor needed to step away for a moment, I’d take position and make sure everything was accounted for until they came back.

It was very simple work, but I enjoyed it a whole lot. It really is refreshing just to be nice and helpful to others. In return, it was heartwarming just to be able to see people smile and hear them say hello back, their days made marginally better by your welcoming attitude.

Still, I certainly didn’t expect the outpouring of gratitude my friend and I received when we got complementary bags of goodies ranging from stickers and keychains to plushies and decorated dice. We both chuckled a bit, insisting that we didn’t do all that much worth the attention, but I guess that’s the beauty of it. Sometimes, just doing something simple for others can make an incredible difference.

Conclusion

When I first put in my volunteer application, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What was this convention going to be like? What kind of people was I going to meet? Was I going to be able to get everything I needed out of it?

Now that Delta H Con is a matter of past-tense, though, I’m glad to say all my concerns were put to rest pretty quickly. I got to meet and connect with cool and likeminded people while being able to see all kinds of stuff I wouldn’t have ever even caught wind of otherwise. If it’s in the cards, I’d certainly love to be able to come back as a volunteer again, hopeful to spot plenty of new faces among the familiar ones.

I know I’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to making progress on that dream of uplifting and inspiring others that I so proudly plastered in the “About Me” section of the website, but I feel closer to actually doing so than I ever have before now, and I know that I can go the distance as long as I continue to push myself and surround myself with those who are able and willing to lend me a hand.

If you attended the convention and/or were mentioned in some capacity here, one last thank you for stopping by and reading this blog post. I hope that my descriptions were able to do justice by all the awesome stuff you brought to the Delta H Con.