Two of science fiction’s biggest franchises are holding official conventions this weekend! Star Wars Celebration V, the official Star Wars convention hosted by ReedPOP, is happening in Florida. Meanwhile, Creation Entertainment is holding their Official East Coast Star Trek Convention in New Jersey. Both have some impressive guest lists and activities planned. We’ve already provided some coverage on them both, which we’ve re-linked below, along with some new information and what you can expect from our reporting team in terms of coverage during and after.

For three days every summer, the citizens of Baltimore share the streets with an army of costumed nerds who flock to the city for Otakon. A festival of anime and Japanese nerd-culture where even the strangest costume can find a home. Otakon is a great convention with an excellent atmosphere and enough fun to cure any situation that ails you.

I have a confession: I have never been to a science fiction convention before. For most of my life, I was a general and distant admirer of the genre. I appreciated all the different shows, books, comics, and movies, but I never really understood all the hoopla. But then I met my boyfriend, Joey. To say he likes Star Wars is a gross understatement. So when Kelly asked me if Joey and I would be interested in going to Shore Leave, we jumped at the chance.

Despite having attended fandom conventions for over a decade now, I’ve never actually been to an “official” after party. Sure, I’ve been to the unofficial ones, but never something like what I experienced this weekend. On Friday and Saturday nights, I headed over to The Trocadero, which is a really fun theater venue just a two minute walk from the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Even though I moved to Philadelphia from Orlando just over two years ago, I had never gotten around to attending the Philadelphia Comic Con (typically referred to as “Wizard World Philly”). I had heard from those who had attended the convention for many years that it was on a bit of a downward spiral, and that attendance was dwindling. Perhaps in an effort to jumpstart the convention, some really big name celebs were brought in for Wizard World Philly 2010 (namely Patrick Stewart, Bruce Campbell, and James Marsters, along with …