I hear the term "Media Con" be used more and more lately to refer to those cons that are just, well . . . everything. You know a con may have started as SF, or fantasy, or anime but after awhile it's about many media in all but name. Comic cons are certainly evolving into "geek media", and there's cons dedicated to broad media interests, or broad but specific slices (such as pulp fiction, etc.).
So in my roundup of the way cons can go farther, of course I had to speculate on what the more general/media conventions can do for career events. This includes those cons that were always general media or evolving that way.
The first way these cons can go farther with career events? Actually make time – some of they may have made time, some haven't. Since these are either catchall cons or ones hyper-evolving, you may need to slow down and see if you can/want to tackle career subjects. You may not want to – or may be too busy.
If your media con does want to do career events, your next challenge is focus because chances are your convention's subject matter may be a bit broad. you'll need to identify what useful career events you can do that may fit:
- Your most career-minded population(s) – there may be several and they may not have the same interests.
- Your subject matter – or a notable subset of your subject matter.
- The interests of your population in general – if you have any general interests. If you focus too narrowly you may exclude the more casually interested.
That can get pretty challenging. I can only say "good luck" to that.
Finally, you'll want to make sure that you give any career events time to evolve and grow to fit your needs. Since finding the right events for a general media con are a challenge, you'll need to take time to figure out what works.
I think media cons are very fruitful areas to add career tracks and events – since there's so much opportunity. Figuring out the best way to do it – and keeping up with changes – that's the challenge.