"The Party Room"

Factual Questions
1

I’m going to be cynical and assume there’s one of these at every big convention. The room in the hotel that has a more-or-less constant stream of people coming and going, with guys sometimes going around letting unaccompanied women know where the room is and inviting them to stop by.

We got back last night from 4 days at Dragon*Con in Atlanta and I’m sorry to say our room was not only on the same floor as the “party room” but was between the elevators and the “party room.” Eyewitness accounts state that there were in fact two rooms, side by side. Newcomers would arrive, usually be delayed slightly before being allowed to enter, and then occasionally, people who would leave the first room would go straight to the second room.

I’m not naive about what could be going on in there, but I’m curious as to just which of my sick notions are true.

Any experienced convention-goers willing to pull back the veil?

2

I have been to professional conventions/conferences but not a recreational convention like the one you mention. At those, vendors typically offer a “hospitality suite” with the door open to all for networking and refreshments. But nothing unseemly. Sounds like your situation was a little different.

3

I don’t know about at DragonCon specifically, but conventions I’ve gone to have always had at least one ‘party room’. Typically it’s been someone who hosts a room that people can come and party late into the night in. Hospitality rooms, official convention parties and such tend to end earlier than people want to drink and socialize and hanging around the lobby or main hotel areas until 4 or after tends to be frowned on.

There may be some more risque behavior than one would expect in public, but I’ve never seen anything too over the top. (at least not to the point where one would need to have ‘sick notions’ about them)

4

There was a separate convention suite, I heard, I think up on one of the top floors. This was clearly a you-had-to-hear-about-it-from-someone room.

I also forgot to mention that there was someone posted outside the door at all times from what I could tell.

5

Sounds fairly normal to me. Especially at a large convention they don’t want everybody just dropping by. There’s only room for so many people at a time. The party rooms that I’ve seen usually had a door person to be sure that everyone coming in was of legal drinking age, so that sounds normal as well.

6

The only conventions I’ve been to, the party room involves everyone crowding into a circle and doing the ‘Hokey Cokey’.

But then they were traditional English dancing conferences, mainly.

7

Wait, you were down the hall from the party room, and you didn’t go in? :confused: Or even better, turn your room into the pre-party room?

8

From my past experience at conventions (although I’ve never been to DragonCon) it’s not at all unusual for there to be public parties, which are open to anyone with a convention badge, and private, invitation-only parties. As to what goes on at them, all I can say is, “it depends”. Your assumptions about what might have been going on at the party may or may not have been correct; sometimes a party is private because it’s only for members of a club, or someone’s birthday.