The trade floor of the Time Traveller's Convention has much the look of any ordinary convention. To be more specific, it looks like virtually any geek convention. Considering the fact that the convention centers around time travel, this should not be surprising.

Dealer's Area

The back section of the trade floor is the Dealer's Area. Full of independent resellers -- often, those who are fascinated by time travel and have managed to stumble here by various means, and can't seem to leave at the moment -- trying to pick up a bit of a profit to pass the time. They are the fanboys of the time travel community. They sell t-shirts, figurines, and certain odd gadgets they've picked up who-knows-where, especially merchandise you would expect to find in the front section of the floor but can't (which will be explained in a moment). All of the booths' products overlap with those of their competitors, and really, if you look at a sampling of three booths or so, you've seen all there is to buy here. But it's fun watching the price wars and haggling, and even more fun to participate in such.

Showcase Area

The front section, on the other hand, is full of overlarge booths from overlarge corporations. These booths are extremely flashy, constantly trying to outdo each other in decor, strobe lights, music, and free giveaways. You can't actually buy any of the products that these companies sell, for some strange reason, and furthermore the free giveaways only rarely are anything even somewhat related to the products they sell.

In fact, the entire front half of the trade floor is a massive PR extravaganza, and is not intended to have any substance at all.

However, due to the kinds of things these corporations are known for, the nature of the constant one-upmanship is rather... dangerous, to say the least. Every booth involves at least one major space-time disturbance, and even though they seem to be kept somewhat in check, if one were to really stop and think about the hazards involved, they would likely leave the convention as soon as possible. However, since the PR people are there to put a great spin on it and keep everyone hyped up, no one seems to really ask questions, and instead simply stare at the booths in awe.

Back to the rest of the Time Traveller's Convention