Convention reporting is like nothing else I do.

Sure, after the fact it’s utterly exhausting. I return home with pages of notes and crawl into bed, not yet able to face a week of turning my scribbles into cohesive stories. But during the process, it’s the most energizing experience a fandom reporter can possibly have. Since I’m an online community reporter, I work remotely most of the time. Actually being among the community I’m covering is invigorating.

So even though I was pretty optimistic in planning out four stories to write over the course of three days, I ended up completing them all. (Six if you count two bonus photo galleries!) I didn’t get them all published last week like I’d planned, but they’re all up now. Here’s the lineup:

Memes in Meatspace: Cosplay inspired by the Internet

Here’s a photo gallery of some of the more creative Web culture inspired cosplay I encountered at Otakon. I love Tumblr-chan’s barrette!

Cosplaying While Latino: Capturing a community in costume

I interviewed Jackie Delgado, the curator of Tumblr blog Cosplaying While Latino. We talked about the role race plays in a cosplayer’s presentation, and answered the question, “Where ARE all the Latino cosplayers?”

Bonus: Cosplaying While Latino photo gallery!

Inside the strange, brave new world of Homestuck

This one is definitely going to be the subject of a “The Inside Story” post this week. Usually when I write about a fandom, I have at least some familiarity with the source material. But due to Homestuck’s colossal size and complexity, I approached this fully as an outsider. Read to figure out why everyone at anime conventions has horns these days.

The changing face of brony fandom

This article took the longest. I chatted with dozens of bronies who were new to the fandom at Otakon. Then last week, I interviewed Dr. Patrick Edwards, a clinical psychologist and one of the nation’s premiere “bronyologists” to assess how the fandom has changed since its beginning.

Bonus: Otakon brony shoot photo gallery!

It’s a far cry from two years ago, when I used to go to conventions and write up a single article afterward. I think the more you practice this type of field reporting, the more you can accomplish.

Is anyone else a practicing convention reporter, or somebody interested in convention reporting? If there’s any interest, I’d be glad to publish some of my tips.