Have you attended a game or media (i.e. comic book / SF) convention? If not, what's kept you from doing so? If so, how was your experience, and what can you share with others to nudge their decision one way or the other?
Years later, with the pleasant nudge of my Strange Bedfellows GM, Jvstin, I went to the Amber convention in Detroit in 1998. Since then, I have attended a SF writers convention and several more Ambercons.
Amber conventions rock. You meet very nice people there. They enjoy the same things I do. They introduce you to new ideas and media. And you learn something about your own stamina, limits, and bias in the great hobby of roleplaying games.
First of all, I don't think I'm good with strangers or making first impressions. I'm not exactly shy—but I'm extroverted in the sense that I'm more interested other people. So I don't talk a lot. Normally. I listen.
Conventions have helped me with this. I've learned to be more social. The cons have helped me balance a bit so that I can give feedback to people and not just nod and listen while other folks talk.
So folks don't walk away thinking I didn't enjoy meeting them.
(If it doesn't make sense to you that a RPG fella might be quiet, just take my word for it. When I'm in character: I'm not quiet unless the Character is and they often aren't.)
So I look at my convention experiences over the last six years (sometimes two cons a year) as helping me open my interaction with other people. It has paid off at work and in social situations. It has helped make friends in a world that often seems to be making it harder to keep friends.
Worth it by any measure.