It is great fun. The origins lie in the USA where the fanfic writers organised large and very professional conferences. A few people in the UK were so envious they thought they'd like to organise something similar and, at first, they aimed to reach something of the same size and saw the early get-together of 20+ people as a step on the way. But then it became clear that this was a good number and it might be difficult to attract 200+ anyway, so our event has stayed based in the LJ community (in the wider sense), and small and friendly.

The American version has not taken place for a few years now, either...

As for the little fishies - I'd have passed too.