Hygiene. Please, for the love of god, shower before you attend the convention every day. Put on deodorant while you are at it.

Food safety. While you have to keep yourself fueled, be careful with what you consume. Seeing food that has food with fancy spices in them? Better avoid it, because your stomach may not be able to handle new spice. See table/side basket of condiments that’s exposed under the sun? Better avoid things like ranch, mayo, because they tend to go bad pretty fast under heat, and the last thing you want is a running stomach in a convention.

Have common decency, try not to block the flow of traffic even when you just saw some friends when randomly walking about. Try not to generate excessive noise, especially screaming or yelling when you are just walking about general convention space, reserve them for events or panels or special guest signatures, places where large screaming, yelling is expected.

Be polite, ask for permission before taking photos of/with cos players and avoid all unauthorized physical contact with cosplayers or their props. Also, remember, they are people too, there will be times that cosplayers wish to be left alone, has something to do or somewhere to go. If they denied the initial request of photograph, do not pasture them about it.

Use your best judgment when talking with staff. Remember that a lot of staffs are volunteers, so try to be patient with them, and most important of all, venting your own frustration on them generally doesn’t solve anything. However, there will also be times that that the instruction given by some clueless staff absolutely doesn’t make much common sense, against conventional wisdom, or against convention’s own guide book/guide line, when things like this happened, it’s best if you get a second opinion from some other staff, or frankly, some long term con going may give you better direction than first or second year volunteers.

Study the event schedule and map so you know where to go, if the convention has an app, or some sort of live event planner, download it, because schedules are subject to change. Do note that if the convention is large, it may take up to half an hour just to travel to the opposite side of the convention due to slow foot traffic caused by the crowd. So plan out all your events accordingly.

Check the Anime Expo App and major company/vendor twitter for changes. Last years, there has been some unannounced changes of schedule for vendor sponsored events that was never announced by AX website or app. So make sure you check major vendor/sponsor’s twitter’s to ensure nothing skipped the normal news feed cycle of AX.

Do you have a specific event/panel you wish to attend? First, find out if they are ticketed events, then make sure you line up for the said event a head of time. For most events/panel, you need to be there at least an hour early. For popular ones….. prepare to wait in line for a minimum of 2 hours just to have a chance of getting in.

Manage your money wisely, there will always be impulses to buy something at the con. But just make sure you are spending within reason.

Watch out for theft. It’s shitty I have to say this, since we are there to enjoy our self, but watch out for your wallet, bags, and purchases. Do not ever leave your belonging unattended. Do not leave things exposed in your car in the parking lot. Break in does happens at conventions.