People can bring their family for the weekend for the cost of a couple of days at a hotel, a couple of 8" by 10" pics and action figures. I've seen whole families dressed up in superhero outfits, which is charming. Gone are the days when it was just the nerdy guys just getting together. There's still an element of that, but it's opened up and become a lot larger. I'm going to one, Dragoncon, and it will consist of 52,000 people in four hotels."
http://www.redorbit.com/news/entertainment/1520871/the_spoof_is_out_there/