A well sized photoshoot on the outside stairs


        Connecticon is Connecticut's largest nerd convention, and one of the largest in New England. Aparently it's also New England's largest Sci-fi/fantasy con. 2013 was it's 10th year, with attendance hovering around the 10,000 mark for the last few years. It's come a long way since it's humble beginings at the University of Hartford, but several problems still remain.

The staff of the con has never really been an issue, the sheer majority of the time, they are very professional and friendly. The only issue being the staff being a little overzealous about making sure cosplay is family friendly, although they seemed to have relaxed on that this year. The venue security, however, has been a serious problem for the past two years; with members of security being overly harsh, sometimes bordering on harrassment. This seems to have resolved itself this year; I haven't heard of any major incidents. 

The cosplay at connecticon is usually fairly diverse, with a decent number of relatively obscure characters mixed in with the usual popular fandoms from anime, videogames, comics, sci-fi, etc. The average quality was fairly high, although not quite the level of some of the larger conventions.
Teen Titans Go!

This, this is just perfect!


The photoshoots were somewhat lacking, pretty much just limited to the usual major fandoms- Hetalia, Marvel, DC, Resident Evil, and so on, with nothing really out of the ordinary. The heatwave putting the temperature in the upper nineties made many of the photoshoots less than enjoyable- made worse by the fact that many photoshoots were poorly organized. One particular issue I had was at the Resident Evil shoot on saturday, where the majority of the people who showed up were just wearing tactical gear with an Umbrella corp. patch, and it was clear they really didn't know much about the games, including the person leading the shoot, who kept calling only characters from Operation: Racoon City, excluding nearly all the characters from the real games. According to several friends who have attended many larger conventions in recent years, this is a problem pretty much exclusive to Connection.
Pony shoot...just look at that Pinky-Pool. 


The console gaming was surprisingly diverse, with the usual Rhythm game arcade machines and a decent variety of modern console game tournaments joined by a fair number of older consoles for open play.

The panel selection was somewhat...odd. There were certainly many things to do, with the usual selection of fandom-related panels, and panels on anime music, as well as tutorials on crafts and things like that, but the strange thing is the many panels that seemed completely unrelated to nerdom, such as panels on indoor kite flying, juggling, and a beginner's guide to the Vietnam war. And some others made me feel like I had accidentally gone to the summer session of a liberal arts college, such as the social politics of Cosplay, The female perspective in Joss Whedon's 'The Avengers', and a panel on the history of the Byzantine Empire.

One major problem with the con this year was the Artist Alley/Dealer's room. The layout this year was much more spread out this year, but as a result, the number of booths was somewhat limited. It felt much more sparse this year than in previous years, and the diversity of dealers seemed kinda lacking. One dealer in particular that I missed this year was the guy selling Hentai games; or as he called it, his 'Wall of Smut'. He was always entertaining with his sales pitches, a levity that was sorely missed this year.
The Cyanide and Happiness guys at their booth. 

One thing I did really like about Connecticon this year was their trying out new things. On thursday night, there was a formal dance they called their 'Nerd Prom' and on Saturday there was a pub crawl, called 'Connecticrawl'. I didn't attend either of these events, but from what I heard from those who did, both went over fairly well and it's nice to see the con moving out of their safezone.

All in all, Connecticon continues to be what it has been for the last several years: a good starter con, not quite as intimidating as the huge cons, but not as boring as most of the smaller cons. It's a mid-range convention in just about all areas, not terrible, but also not really excelling in any particular area. If you live near Connecticut, it's definitely a con you want to attend, but if you're more than a couple hours away and you only visit a few cons each year, there are definitely better choices.

My score is as follows:
Con Staff and Security: 8/10
Cosplay Variety 8/10
Convention Activity Level 6/10
Convention Panels Level: 7/10
Registration Line: 8/10
Guests: 7/10
Convention Uniqueness: 5/10
Convention Layout: 7/10
Convention Friendly Level: 8/10
Con Space Utilization: 6/10
total= 70 
Convention Overall Rating: C-

Review Written by John F. 
Photos by Jen M.