When does it end?
What time does the convention end on the 17th? Wanna know when to book flight back home or if I should stay the extra night or what not.
Got the same question for when does it start too, when will the doors be open? Wanna know if I should arrive on the 13th in the afternoon or the morning of.
There usually isn't a whole lot going on on Wednesday (the 13th). There will be some of prep work, bag stuffing and such, and some furs just hanging out. More things start on Thursday, including registration and some panels and get-togethers. Last year I believe opening ceremonies was at 11am on Friday morning, with most of the major events occuring sometime later in the weekend than that.
Things start to wrap up on Sunday afternoon, with closing ceremonies somewhere around 5:30 or 6pm.
Unless you're a staffer, the only reason to arrive Wednesday is if you need the whole
day to travel and want a full night's sleep in the hotel. (I prefer to arrive Wednesday
for that reason.) (Ok, vendors and Artists Alley people may show up early, too.)
If you can arrive in a few hours, I'd recommend arriving Thursday. The hotels begin
check-in at 3pm, so I recommend trying to arrive at that time or any time after that.
Once you check in, the only activities Thursday are: Registration and social
activities.
If you aren't meeting friends and have a short trip, you can arrive early Friday,
register, then go to the events that began Friday morning. All events are fully
underway Friday and Saturday.
Sunday, events begin winding down. Some people leave early Sunday (some may have
little choice), and some leave Sunday afternoon. The last "official" activity
is Closing Ceremonies, and those are completely optional. I've left Sunday afternoon
out of need, and mainly missed the Charity show. If you keep sticking around into
Sunday evening, there's various parties. Frankly, you're fine leaving Sunday evening
anytime. If you stay all Sunday, you might leave early Monday, and if not, there's
no reason to not leave ASAP on this side. (You may have your own reasons like
hanging out with friends or a late plane flight.)
If I was new to AC again, I'd arrive Thursday and leave Sunday afternoon or evening.
Staying all Sunday is fun, but it's really not the be-all and end-all of the convention.
(Next time I go, I will probably arrive late Wednesday night and get some sleep.)
I myself since I drive from New York and like the full night of sleep Arived Wednesday last year and Thursday in 2010 and 2008,. I always leave Monday.
I known people to leave Tuesday but for me, I like the idea that the con ends. The con has a start, middle and end and just a few days.
Now I drive 7 hours and get there around 1pm most years but I like the extra day before hand to talk to people. I never seem to have time while the con is going on.
So far my plans are to arrive at about 7:30pm on the wed, by bus from Santa Ana... And most likely see if there still anything that needs a paw or two before the con starts.
As for leaving, I haven't really sorted that out yet. I'm flying back, but I haven't booked it yet.
Incredibly brief timeline of a typical Anthrocon Wednesday and Thursday:
Wednesday: 4pm: Enough staff and materials have shown up that volunteer work starts becoming available.
7pm: Lots of volunteer work available.
11pm: Volunteer work wraps up.
Thursday: Noon: Pre-reg opens
2pm : On-Site Reg opens
6pm: Small amounts of panels, mostly artist-focused, and social activities begin.
10pm: Reg closes. DANCE IS ON
1am: Everything closes. go to sleep.
And for closing:
Sunday:
4pm: Dealer's Room closes. Art show has closed. Panels are all ending.
6pm: Closing Ceremonies, thelast official activity.
8pm: 'Dead Dog' parties which remain entirely unofficial. Volunteer work packing up stuff.
11pm: Most of the volunteer work done.
Monday:
8am: Everyone's heading out and jamming the lobby and clogging the elevators. (take the stairs down if you can.) Volunteer work available here and there.
Noon: 90% of the convention is out of there. A few stragglers linger for one last Lasagna Wrap at Fernando's.
Quote:
"8am: Everyone's heading out and jamming the lobby and clogging the elevators. (take the stairs down if you can.) "
If you call a bellman to get your stuff, you can ride the service elevator down with him.
Until the 4500 people who read this get the same idea, in which case the four bellmen will be so overtaxed that it will take them 90 minutes to get to you.
You call a bellman when you need help moving all your stuff. Please do not abuse the service.
dont worry about that. Theres too many of us too cheap to let anyone carry our bags and would rather carry one at a time by ourselfs 57 times then spend money for a tip.
yeah but youre con chair.It never ends for you (and the other head staffers )
I think around 70 years to life? I don't know, wasn't around for the sentencing, just giving a best guess for you, Kage!
are you attending any of the local events in Orlando? There are quite a few of them. 
I'm new to Orlando so I don't know what goes on really, I found one however that actually happens almost 15 minutes from my house.
Orlando is full of events all year round.
There is a weekly Tex-Mex gathering on Wednesday evenings usually. I don't have the specifics on this one but i'm sure kp could give details that i can't.
We also have the Elliot events https://elliottsliveevents.org/ which are quite fun. Megaplex in july and furloween in october.
I'm pretty sure it ends officially around 6PM (closing ceremonies) but there are all sorts of Dead Dog (post-convention) parties immediately following. So it depends on if you're more interested in just the panels/official events, or if you're more of a social creature.
And it semi-officially starts on Thursday with an evening mixer, and officially on Friday morning with the opening ceremonies.
Edit: Also, I'm jealous you're in Orlando, I'd love to attend Nerdapalooza again. I drove down to it from Maryland in 2010.