This past weekend I attended Farpoint, a fan-run science fiction and fantasy convention. It was held February 12th-14th, 2010 at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore North in Maryland (USA). I had a really great time at this con, and I'm already looking forward to 2011! This convention did so many things well, and I hope that by reading this con report that more people are inspired to attend it next year.

One of the best parts of Farpoint 2010, for me anyway, was the guest list. For a female geek gamer like myself, it really doesn't get any better than Felicia Day. Farpoint really scored big by getting her as a guest. For those who may not know, Felicia Day is the creator, star, and writer of the hit webseries The Guild (she was also in Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Buffy, and numerous other TV shows). What makes Felicia great, especially for a fan-centric con like Farpoint, is how gracious and appreciative she is of her fans. She's clearly not attending for the fame, or the money. In fact, she didn't even charge to take a photo with her, and she didn't charge for an autograph if you brought your own item. How many celebrity guests still do that these days? I can tell you from experience that it's not many.

Another part of what made Felicia's appearance at the con great, was that they made her available to the fans. In addition to having her do two Q&As (one on Saturday and Sunday), she was also available for autographs for a number of hours. If you couldn't make the Saturday session, then you had the option to do Sunday, and vice versa. She also appeared on stage at one of the Friday night events in a much talked about ferret bit (I'm sure it'll show up on YouTube, don't worry). During the Q&As, Felicia took the time to carefully and thoughtfully answer the fans' questions, even though I know she'd been asked some of them a hundred times before. Watching her answer though, you'd never know it.