They were only special to me when I was in my teens and could spend my time chasing pretty girls, other than that they were pure Hell ! bum numbingly boring talks, and simply waiting for the break times.
I was at every large and smaller Convention up until I woke up to a degree in the early 2000's, and realised if we gave those hellish things a miss, nobody noticed ! Even my close J.W family must have thought they just hadn't run in to us.
My wife and I never attended another one, we left a couple of years later, for good.
But PIMO's take note, it IS possible to give them a miss and not be found out, if your circumstances permit.