That does sound quite boring.  I also don't understand comic conventions.  The two types of conventions I can understand are science conventions (people give talks about things that they've discovered, people demo new products, and it's a great networking opportunity) and gaming conventions (because people actually game).  Though, I guess road trip conventions are ones I understand, too, because they're actually using their whatever the convention is about (motorcycle, classic car, hearse, etc).  Road trip conventions sound much more interesting than comic conventions.