They are fun, tons of fun. Escapade is this convention held on the beach in California, and I do mean on the beach. This is its 20th year. It's slash based, but there are gen and meta and tech panels, and everyone's cool with what each other is interested or not interested in.

Here's a link to hotel info. No lie, that's the view from every single room. They designed all the rooms to be facing the beach. : D

http://escapadecon.net/?page_id=5

I'll send you the link to the main page:

http://escapadecon.net/

And then to the panel cut, which lists those panels that were suggested and then voted on to show enough interest:

http://escapadecon.net/?p=892

And here's a link to all the panels that were suggested:
http://escapadecon.net/?page_id=792