Doctor Who Conventions

My family have been at a Who convention all weekend and I’ve been so impressed by how cool and kind all the fans and actors are. I was particularly tickled by Annette Badland and how open she is to talking about her fan interactions as well as about the craft of acting and how she approaches the work, but every person who spoke, from big names in the tv show to voice actors to more ancillary people are so kind and so dedicated to doing the work they do well. And the fans are polite and gentle with one another, which is important as Who fandom has its share of people with extreme fixation on the topic and an occasional unawareness of social cues.

Other conventions I’ve attended (for other fandoms/professions) have not had such a consistently kind vibe. I’ve seen more impatient people and more anger elsewhere. So it made me wonder if this fan-run convention is different from other conventions entirely, or if it’s something about Doctor Who that made this one so joyful.

What do others think? What have your Who convention experiences been like, and why do you think they went the way they did?