Why come to a gaming convention?

Every year I hear from folks that they have gamer friends who aren't interesting in going to a convention, and ask how do you relay the experience of a convention to a person to get them to try it? I put that very question to some of our attendees and this is what they said.

“If gaming is your religion, then attending a convention is kind of like a pilgrimage. You may think you understand your game well and have experienced it in depth, but when you play with new people, with different Game Masters and try new things, you find a whole new level. There is nothing quite like it and once you've been; you'll want to make that journey again.
"Phantasm's more intimate atmosphere, as a opposed to larger conventions, feels like a tightly knit community of fellow pilgrims, who's only desire is to experience something new and different within our chosen “faith”. No one is excluded, no genre undiscovered and no minute wasted."
"Bring your dice, push your boundaries and join the melee. Game on!”
"Think of our normal games… and add 100 times that much fun with 200+ more people. Great time, new games and awesome atmosphere.”
"An opportunity to make new friends and forging a sense of community with persons of similar interests. Find out you're not the strange one, you're just one of the Strange Ones.”
"To get away from the PC MMORPG's and this would give a chance to interact with REAL ppl, rather than ppl online.”
"Don't care for everyone you regularly play with, a little stale with the storyteller, only played one type of character? NOW‘S YOUR CHANCE TO BRANCH OUT BRO!”
"Gaming conventions offer the opportunity to try new games without needing to “buy first”, meet new people with similar interests and find others to form long term game groups with. It's a chance to see what games are out there, and experience a fresh approach with how they are played. Also, a chance to shop for a far more dedicated and specialized supply of vendor loot!”

All of the games at the convention can be played by a person who has never tried that game or RPG'ing before. There are commonly about 50+ types of games to try. And if you like something you've tried there are some great prices from the vendors. There is also just some really neat stuff from vendors that you won't find anywhere else, like chain-mail dice bags. The pool of creative energy at the convention is staggering, the GM's put in about 20 hours into a game, meaning there is about 2000+ hours put into weaving great stories for the convention. Now multiply that by the creative energy of players and it is just staggering, and you can't help but be inspired. Folks commonly say they come out to charge their “creative batteries” for the year, and it's easy to understand how. And once folks come out once they tend to come back again year after year.