invisible

I once - FurCon at San Jose.

Your turn.

ALittleSurreal

A convention of Mary Kay Cosmetics sales ladies. Every single one in perfect hair and a pink suit.

BSBD

A well-known religious denomination that is famous (infamous?) for its strong position on abstaining from alcohol held a regional convention in an Oakland hotel where I happened to be staying last year. The attendees were in the hotel bar every night, for hours. It was quite entertaining to watch

nachosdelux

I was at a Riverwalk hotel in San Antonio (Embassy Suites, maybe?) about 15 years ago and there was some sore of convention or family reunion of about 100 people, and every one was Hispanic and short in stature (midget or dwarf)

About 5 years later I was at a Las Vegas strip hotel (always forget the name but it was torn down not long after.) There was a convention of tall singles. I got on the elevator and 5 women that were taller than me got on (I am 6'3").

A few minutes later I saw the tallest guy I had ever seen. A person later told me that tall guy is Igor and he was the tallest American, and the 3rd tallest person in the world. I believe he was 7'6" or something. To be a member of the tall singles club you had to be over 5'10" (female) or 6'4" male, or something like that.

Paul56

Staying at a hotel and one evening just did not
feel like venturing out for a snack so I raided the
mini-bar...

When I check out the clerk announces in a loud voice:

"YOU HAVE MINI-BAR CHARGES!!!"

I am sure everyone in the lobby heard him. I'm wondering
what the fuss is about so I replied:

"Ok, and...?"

He replies:

"THOSE WILL NEED TO BE ADDED TO YOUR BILL!"

I reply:

"Ok then, just do it... is there a problem?"

<sigh> I wonder if this same clerk does the same thing
when the guest has viewed the pay for view adult movies?

"YOU HAVE ADULT MOVIE CHARGES!!!"

andreirublev

Child beauty pageant. The parents were the collective most awful group of people I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. I don't even like kids, but all I could do was feel sorry for them.

Efrem

Checking out of the Othon Palace in Rio de Janiero after a conference, just as a Hell's Angels motorcycle convention was checking in.

We chatted with a few of them as we all stood in the same line waiting for a desk clerk. The ones we spoke with, at least, were intelligent, mild-mannered people, the kind of people I can easily imagine being friends with. They just dressed funny.

gobluetwo

Convention center in the Chicago area and about 20 African-American women dressed in their literal Sunday best (very bright dresses in every shade of purple, pink, yellow, blue, etc with matching feathered/flowered/otherwise adorned hats) marched in. Apparently, it was a meeting of local African-American Pentecostal pastor's wives.

tkey75

The Royal Order of Jesters were having a huge conference in a Nashville hotel I stayed at. It looked more like Mardi Gras than a Freemason event!

DrMaturin

I was at a hotel for a professional conference that also hosted a Sweet Adelines convention. You'd go to the hotel bar or restaurant and suddenly groups of women would burst into loud singing. It was cute at first but got on my nerves after a while. It was basically impossible to carry on a conversation.

Wilbur

The Santa Clara Hyatt is connected to the Convention Center, so some interesting stays of mine there have coincided with:

- thousands of little girls in spangly outfits, leaping and jumping and tumbling in the hallways, the elevators, the escalators, the parking lot, etc. etc. Also featuring some of the most enthusiastic coaching-types on Earth, most of whom exhibited behaviors I associate with coked-up 80's yuppies. Oh, and the most harried-looking, exhausted moms this side of the Oregon Trail.

- some sort of East Indian convention, with powerful doses of incense, elderly guys in exotic outfits with massive bodyguards co-opting the elevators and preventing anyone else from boarding, and sporadic outbreaks of tabla drumming from various rooms into the wee hours of the morning.

- Shriners, Shriner groupies, Shriner go-karts on trailers, an innumerable quantity of red fezzes, and more laughter and back-slapping than you would imagine possible.

bertrob

Checked into the MGM in Vegas and there were thousands of 50+ women all wearing purple and red hats. I had never heard of the Red Hat club until then!

carole_d

Steamcon II at the Seattle Marriott (Airport).

A group of engineers and CAD designers from my office were there for corporate training and we kept seeing these costumed people running around. Once we got over the surprise, we found that they were very nice and willing to answer questions about what they were doing.

chgoeditor

Those who live in the Chicago area are probably familiar with the purple hotel in Lincolnwood, which was recently torn down. Years ago, I'd periodically go there for weekend brunch. Two odd ones:

* Some kind of furry-scifi-anime convention where every single person was dressed in a costume for breakfast. I'm still not sure if it was sexual in nature, but I overheard some pretty strange conversations.

* An S&M convention. I think they actually shut the hotel to non-convention guests, but I was already in the parking lot before I realized I wasn't eating brunch there that day.

gungadin

Years ago, I was part of a large Aveda meeting in Arizona. Our " dress code" was to wear black and the staff at the hotel were literally terrified of us. It was about 400 , mostly well groomed women, all wearing pretty fashionable black outfits for 3 days. The staff congregated in clumps, whispered, and pointed. We felt bad for them.