Quote from: StormfalconIn comparison to the other cons in the area (such as the late, lamented TimeCon), BayCon is seen as more of a literary con.It is, but only in comparison to those events. To people whose exclusive preference is for conventions like Potlatch or Readercon, things like BayCon might as well be Dragon*Con.
Quote from: StormfalconThere's a lot more focus on writing and authors than on media such as TV and movies. That's not to say that there is no focus on those media, but the perception is that the focus is more on literary sci-fi and fantasy, judging from the typical guest lists.It's all relative. BayCon is what I would call a general science fiction convention. ("Science Fiction" in this context includes fantasy, just as it does for the Hugo Awards.) This is opposed to specialist conventions like FanimeCon, the really literary cons like Potlatch, or even conrunning conventions like SMOFcon. To me, Worldcon is the ultimate general SF convention; it can be viewed as "the gathering of the tribes" with a little bit of everything. (For those who didn't know it, last year's Worldcon, ConJosé, was in downtown San José over Labor Day Weekend 2002, using the entire San José McEnery Convention Center and all the downtown hotels (except the Marriott, which was still under construction then).
If you're interested in one and only one thing and actively uninterested in everything else, a general convention isn't going to be your taste. It's sort of like if you were a fan of only one anime series and hated everything else anime and manga related, you wouldn't like FanimeCon because it would have too much stuff from other series.
Me, I'm a generalist and enjoy conventions where I can experience lots of different things. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying smaller specialist conventions.