Dress:
lots of business casual
some suits and heels
some jeans and hoodies
audience:
engaged
encouraging
not aggressive
topics:
varied
tons
music, film, literature, other
I enjoyed it again this year. Some of the sessions I attended were not what I was expecting, but they were still interesting and/or useful.
Apparently steampunk is a lot less popular at an academic conference than it is at a fan convention. The steampunk sessions at WorldCon in San Antonio this summer were swamped. The one I attended here was sparsely attended, though they were prepared for a big crowd.
I wonder if that size/involvement will change.
I went to mostly science fiction and fantasy sessions.