How easy is it to get around Anthrocon?

Will I be walking miles to get from, say.. the dealers room to the main ballroom.. and then to my hotel room?

Yes. Especially if you're staying at the Omni. (If you're at the Westin, you'll be climbing stairs instead of walking )

AC is big, not only in attendance, but also in physical area. If you've got a Segway, you'll want to bring it. (Assuming it's cool with the Dorsai.) If you're out of shape... it's not too late to start training

(Seriously, however: From the Westin to the Dealer's Room is a ten-minute walk, easy. From the Omni to the Westin is about 10-15. I'm used to footing it, so it was fine with me, but I can see others grumbling at those routes.)

-- 
iSKUNK!

This is a very nice messageboard. Nobody wants to upset Uncle Kage by being less than
courteous.

If your room is in the Omni, it depends on how well you know the path between the
Omni and the convention center. The Omni's the overflow hotel. I can speak on
rooming in the Westin, which is the main hotel for the con.

The convention's scheduled events are in the Westin Hotel and in the convention center.
From the hotel room to the ground floor at the Westin is a few minutes, dependent
upon traffic and so on. The Dorsai Irregulars (security) post someone at the ground
floor once the convention has started, to speed the traffic flow (which they do.)
From the lobby, it' perhaps 2 minutes to the registration area, the Zoo, and the
function rooms at the Westin, on the third and second floors, by escalator or by
dedicated elevators, or by stairs.

From the lobby, the convention center is just out the front door, to your right and
down about 2 short blocks-and in plain sight the entire time. The convention center
is HUGE. Thus, there's several minutes from the Westin's lobby to the convention center
area where all our stuff is. Once you reach ONE event, the others aren't that far from
it, generally. The Dealer's Room will be the easiest thing to spot-there's traffic to
and from it for just about the entire time it's open.
I may be wrong, but I think the ballrooms we use as ballrooms are above the Dealer's
Room, on the convention center's 3rd floor. (There will be signs, of course.)

I don't think it will be an unmanageable amount of walking, unless you're running to
your hotel room every 2 hours.

As for a map of the convention center, look here:
http://www.anthrocon.org/schedule
Here's 2007's booklets in PDF form.
The City Guide will give you information about the neighborhood.
(That, obviously, won't be TOO out-of-date for this year.)
The Pocket Reader is the event grid with time/place/name of event from 2007.
(That, obviously, will be VERY different from this year, but gives you
an idea what the schedule might look like.)
The Program Guide is all the other information you may need, including
a description of each event, and maps of the areas we will use in the
convention center and hotel.

I don't know how long these links will stay up, so I would download the
PDFs as soon as was reasonable.
You really shouldn't get lost at the con itself, so long as you don't run,
and you TRY to keep track of locations.

It's pretty easy if you're already used to walk good walks often.

It can be a bit of a long walk between say the pannels going on in the Westin and the dealer's room .. but it's not too bad .. like a quarter of a mile ..

But considering there are escalators everywhere , you'd have to be in PRETTY BAD shape to be exhausted by the walking..

It looks a lot but it's not that bad

-------------------
I love you all ..

except for the people I don't like..

With such a large pair of buildings, getting lost is certainly possible. I know I had to be directed around a bit the first time I was at the Westin. You get used to it after a while. My biggest confusion was the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Westin Hotel, trying to remember which room was on what floor.

If you get lost, any AC Staff member or Dorsai member will be able to help guide you.