Hmm! It's different for me because Western Australian science fiction fandom is this amorphous mass that intersects with almost every aspect of my life without me even trying. Even my highschool friends go to the local cons these days, and there's social events throughout the year like programming meetings and multiple local cons. On the other hand I am really shy about proactively keeping in touch with people. The two things that most regularly help me keep in touch with people are a regular movie night at my house and, weirdly enough, a monthly meetup for polyamorous people which ended up being WAY geekier than I expected! I don't know how local FogCon is for you, or if there's local meetups you're not aware of, you could check Meetup.com?

Other than that I've found a great way to get to know people and be remembered positively is to volunteer, especially at things like panels and manning the front desk. I also write up my panel notes and then link them on the dreamwidth community/mailing list etc. It's a passive way of putting my online contact details out there :) (That's not my main motivation, but it has that positive side effect)

I really need to read The Goblin Emporer, I keep hearing such good things. But the ebook is $11 so I end up reading something cheaper. Maybe I need to stop being such a skinflint and buy the damn thing.