Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Behold, the Hall of Education! Go forth and learn!
OK, that sounds corny. No, I wouldn't use that introduction for . . well anything . . . but that's what I've christened an professional-geek oriented Idea I want to suggest for your conventions.
The Hall of Education (come on work with me here).
I love Mythbusters. That's a tame statement actually, but human vocabulary is limited. Let's just say now and then when I fire up Netflix, the people I live with dread I'm going to watch some episode for the 3rd or 4th time. Seriously though, how can you not watch a hot water tank take off like a rocket again and again?
In fact, I love shows like Mythbusters, though they're my prime love. I love these oddball reality-esque shows that look at weird jobs, foods, areas, history, and more. You know the formula – get the right host with a good personality, a subject, turn them loose, and film the fascinating results. From blowing up toilets to eating tuna eyeballs, these shows are addictive to people like me.
I'm a big booster on the idea that you can use your hobbies to learn something – practice your accounting helping out a local con, practice your HTML making a website, practice your writing doing anime reviews. Hobbies are a great way to gain and improve skills.
However there's another thing hobbies do for our skill improvement that makes them even more valuable – they provide a kind of mental and emotional buffer to the stress of learning. This is very useful if you've got a lot of stress to deal with or had some negative experiences with training or education