INSANE Launch DragonSteel Nexus 2024

In this episode of Next Chapter, we dive into the frenzied launch of DragonSteel Nexus 2024, Brandon Sanderson's highly anticipated convention. Join us as we recount the chaos and excitement that unfolded as fans from around the world scrambled to secure their tickets.
We'll discuss the high demand, the website crashes, long wait times, and the community's reaction to one of the most hectic ticket launches in recent memory. Hear our firsthand experiences and those from other fans, and what this means for the future of large-scale fan conventions.
Subscribe to Next Chapter for more event coverage and discussions on all things related to the worlds of your favorite authors. Did you try to get tickets to DragonSteel Nexus 2024? Share your story in the comments below.
#DragonSteelNexus #BrandonSanderson #ConventionChaos

[@EllenSmyth]

At this rate, he should just crowd-fund the Mistborn movies himself. For real.

[@NextChapterYT]

That would be absolutely wild! A complete revolt against Hollywood 🤣

[@tomchisholm9467]

Could be miss remembering but I think Brandon said that Nexus was the perpendicularity for the city of Silverlight in the cognitive realm.

[@NextChapterYT]

Silverlight! That was the word I forgot in the podcast… yeah he mentioned that and there are LOTS of questions that come from it and I’m sure he knows that ;)

[@EllenSmyth]

We had two VIP tickets in our cart like the moment it went live. But. But. But. They had me log in, and then they disappeared. And then I couldn't add them back even though there were VIP tickets still available. And it was so insane. Even getting the regular tickets was the biggest pain I have ever experienced because the website kept forgetting who I was. I signed in 45 times. We finally made it through checkout 35 minutes in. Whew. If the site had worked properly, they'd have sold out of everything in under 15 minutes for sure.

[@NextChapterYT]

Wow that sounds like an insanely stressful 35 mins! Sorry to hear about the VIP tickets :/

[@exaggeratedhistory]

Ya it was broken I hope they get better servers next time

[@SimplyNerdy]

The process of buying a ticket was absolutely INSANE! I was the only one on our panel who was able to get a ticket! And there will be no additional tickets added. Geez! We’d be happy to collaborate with you both on this topic if you are interested.

[@NextChapterYT]

I’m BLOWN away that there aren’t going to be additional tickets… let’s chat about collaborating!! Send us an email or Twitter DM anytime!

[@Hawkuro]

If the VIP tickets were gone by 10:08, then they sold out in 3 minutes, because the ticket types page was bugged for the first 5 minutes. Most stressful purchase of my life

[@NextChapterYT]

Oh man they are setting all kinds of records!!

[@Ponderingbooks]

I’m so glad you guys are going! I’m going too. 😃 the VIP lounge is a room, usually on the top floor, away from all the noise, where you can sit and have a relaxing chat or decompress a little from all the people. They did some VIP panels in those rooms last year, but not many. There are normally some fun photo ops with backdrops and stuff too. I spent most of my time in that room working on the puzzles for the convention game since they had paper covering the tables where you could write or draw.

[@NextChapterYT]

Sounds super fun, and especially with ALL the people I can see how it would get crazy fast… But CONVENTION PUZZLES?!? That sounds amazing. I’m 100% in for that if they do it this year. Love puzzles.

[@s.r.9573]

I got VIP tickets. I put a "meeting" on my work schedule at 9:45am MT for 45 minutes to be sure I wouldn't be bothered. I logged into my account at 9:45am and just kept refreshing until the badges opened up. Put my VIP ticket in my cart right away but then experienced the same frustration of getting kicked out or unable to check out, etc. Eventually, about 10:10 am MT (which felt like forever), it let me finalize the check out. It was tense, I was so worried I wasn't going to get the ticket in my cart, but it finally went through.

[@NextChapterYT]

Brilliant! I wish I had done that and can’t believe I didn’t expect the sellout to happen as fast as it did…

[@parschamp]

To your point about getting “number 1” of the signed and numbered books: almost certainly every signed and numbered #1 is Brandon Sanderson’s personal copy that he keeps. I don’t know how many he keeps for himself/family/friends/crew members but he has said on a live stream before that he personally keeps #1.

[@NextChapterYT]

So then most definitely that will be the most valuable one! ;)

[@JinxyDragon]

I have an 18 hour drive to and from the convention!! The starting my read of Wind and Truth on the way home (assuming it’s gonna be on audible by then) lol wonder how far thru it I’ll get if I increase the speed to x1.6 🤩

[@NextChapterYT]

That’s the perfect way to do it! Especially to have something exciting to do after the convention is over :)

[@BartMasonQuest]

Hey guys, love your work! I wanted to debunk something that you said in the video. You mentioned that tickets weren't reserved and could be bought out from underneath you and that wasn't true. I bought a VIP ticket and I am lucky I got one. So the website was going awol asking you to sign in and reverify every 5 minutes but if you selected a ticket in those first 5 minutes of the launch you had that ticket for 2 hours before it went back to public purchase. I had the most irritating time trying to pay for it though but it remained in my cart and I was able to get the website to cooperate. It took about an hour to finally get my payment to go through but it went through eventually. If anyone thought that their ticket was bought out from under them I would question that. I won't speak into their situation but I got a clear notification that I had my ticket reserved for 2 hours before it would become available for others to purchase.

[@NextChapterYT]

Thank you for clarifying!! I think the case I was tying to convey is that you could see that there was availability on the main page, then go to that page, fill in in the short form (name / email / zip code / etc) and if you didn’t get that page, it wasn’t in your cart and ‘reserved’… but you’re totally right that once it was in your cart you were in good shape! Thanks for making that more clear :)

[@BartMasonQuest]

@@NextChapterYT Absolutely! I do appreciate you covering this though because it was crazy! I am glad you guys got tickets and will be able to attend. I think this is going to be an awesome Dragonsteel Convention!

[@macowwan6075]

Wish I could make it to Nexus 2024 but I don't want to risk having it overlap with other commitments. I'm hoping to make it sometime in the next decade lol

[@NextChapterYT]

Yep, unfortunately life happens at the same time as these events! Hopefully you can make one in the future! The book is what’s most exciting anyways 😆

[@Wordhopper1990]

I’m glad you guys ended up getting tickets! I wasn’t planning on going so I’ll just have to keep commenting on every video rather than chat with you guys in person, maybe some other time haha

[@NextChapterYT]

Hahah well maybe we can get away with a quick live-stream or vlog while we are there and then you can attend vicariously ;)

[@Wordhopper1990]

@@NextChapterYT That would be cool! Let’s get back on that haha

[@MistbornTaylor]

I went in wanting to get 2 VIP tickets and one GA ticket. While I am lucky that snagged 3 GA tickets it was such a stressful experience. I'm glad that Dragonsteel has been transparent about what happened and how they're going to improve going forward but man this was insane.

[@NextChapterYT]

They are definitely great on the transparency! Nobody it seems expected the sellout to happen this fast

[@thomasadjetey5029]

I VIBED with this commentary. Damn that was frustrating but I got VIP!! And I would defo come to a panel of you guys 👌

[@NextChapterYT]

A VIP in the House!!! 🫡 Would love to get that panel figured out but you can bet either way we will plan to have a meetup with everyone we can while we are there!

[@maleahvaughn9175]

The only thing that’ll get people coming to Salt Lake in December other than skiing. Glad you guys got tickets! Can’t wait to hear all about it!

[@NextChapterYT]

So true! Thanks! 😉 so excited to go!

[@Ponderingbooks]

The tickets (if you were able to get through the “login loop”) were saved in your cart for 2 hours. Even though they sold out in less than 10 minutes, I didn’t successfully check out until 37 minutes after launch (with VIP). Everyone was just ready to buy them IMMEDIATELY! I was feeling the stress of that experience all day. 😅

[@NextChapterYT]

SO stressful haha I think I’m still feeling it… there was a solid few hours when Marty and I both thought we weren’t going to get to go!

[@mayareads708]

I was almost in tears at work trying to get the 3 tickets for my friend group calling them to get on it too 🤣 we made it but it was 38min of heart attack ahhaha

[@NextChapterYT]

So glad you made it!! They better be super grateful you let them know, you saved them!

[@coxley_dev]

_Barely_ got a VIP ticket. Was refreshing the site at 12pm ET on the dot, couldn't get it to load until 12:03, added to my cart, and couldn't get an account registered until 12:30pm. Somehow, it kept the ticket in my cart and I was still able to checkout. 😅 So stressful.

[@NextChapterYT]

Wow the load of everyone at once must have been absolutely nuts!! Glad you got a ticket!!

[@VeryBeri1]

I saw that the pattern for the Chiri-Chiri will be available for free. I can't go to the convention, but I'll get the pattern when it's made available, and hopefully my crafty daughter will make it for me.

[@NextChapterYT]

That’s brilliant! I didn’t know they were sharing the design but a really cool thing for them to do :)

[@Wordhopper1990]

In case you weren’t aware, they shared patterns for free during last year’s Kickstarter for Doomslug and for a mistwraith!

[@Hawkuro]

I mean Nexus is just a word for a set of connections, or a central/focal point, so it's very appropriate as the ongoing name for a convention: where people gather at a central point to celebrate the thing that connects them.

[@NextChapterYT]

Totally makes sense! I just love the Dragonsteel name :)

[@connorslocum9327]

👑KINGS👑

[@jakobgoodwin9742]

1. My brother and I are going! I was able to get us both VIP tickets. 2. The experience was a mess. I got my tickets into my cart at 10:06, but wasn't able to checkout until 10:43. I was locked into log-in jail and had to login over and over again.

[@NextChapterYT]

Wow I can’t imagine the stress levels for those 40 mins!! 😳

[@jakobgoodwin9742]

@@NextChapterYT It was awful. This is a birthday present for my brother, who turns 18 on the Friday we’ll be there. I did want to correct something: There was a 2 hour reservation you got. It’s why so many of the tickets returned to the pool at about 2 EST. So many people had tickets in their cart, got discouraged, gave up, and lost the tickets they had.

[@samuelleask1132]

Getting tickets for GA was the most stressful 34 minutes of my life, especially because I had to book my accommodation and flights back in January because flying from Australia to Utah is so expensive 😅

[@NextChapterYT]

Oh man that is super high-risk!! A crazy long flight but I’m sure Dragonsteel will be worth it!

[@samuelleask1132]

@@NextChapterYT I agree, I’m super hyped for DSNX, can’t believe it’s close to 6 months away!

[@chelseafrazier1175]

Sanderson has said in a podcast that conventions count attendants by each days attendance. So for last years Dragonsteel they sold about 5000 tickets for 2 days so they had "10,000" attendants. If the Salt Palace had a record of 150,000 like you said for 3 days then it's likely that if Sanderson has enough programming to fill the entire convention center he could sell up to 50,000 passes then.

[@NextChapterYT]

That makes a lot of sense! So technically if he takes the whole center, he could maybe do up to 5x more? Which is so crazy! Also crazy last if last year was 5,000, they sold out of almost double in just an hour 🤯 the hype is real!

[@chelseafrazier1175]

And 5000 was AFTER they had added more tickets. If they captured how many ppl were in the que from the site data then they have a good idea of the demand for the convention and can encourage more ppl to do panels and volunteer

[@Ms.Pronounced_Name]

24:30 just a thought, but could leaving all of those unexpecteds have actually benefited fans because it would have made it harder for a large scale scalper to mass buy tickets?

[@NextChapterYT]

Valid point! But I feel like they could have done a little bit more education that there were hoops to jump through

[@Ms.Pronounced_Name]

@NextChapterYT agreed, and I didn't mean to imply that it was done for that purpose. Rather, as a happy accident the mistake had the benefit of causing large scalpers to lose out on the opportunity

[@Moonadept]

Not going to make it this year, but I think you guys would be awesome in a panel yourselves, or part of a Cosmere booktuber panel.

[@NextChapterYT]

Thanks!! We will try to get some content from the convention (maybe even vlog style if we can figure out how to do that haha) so everyone on the channel can participate too!!

[@some5794]

yooo how did you do the scraper??? I'm starting in SWE and that sounds super interesting. Something I should be looking into?

[@NextChapterYT]

It’s a blast! Love those tiny software projects… it’s a pretty basic Python script using things like requests and beautifulsoup, and ChatGPT can be a huge help if you’re just starting out with it!

[@2ToRamble]

The ticket sales were INSANE

[@NextChapterYT]

So crazy!! Were you guys able to get tickets??

[@2ToRamble]

@@NextChapterYT After producing 10 pounds of sweat, yes. Yes we did.

[@chelseafrazier1175]

Nexus is the name of the perpendicularity at Starlight accd to the most recent video he uploaded, either the weekly update or his podcast.

[@NextChapterYT]

Yeah! I had to go back and check the yt video and sure enough he explains it!! Thanks for the tip!

[@MistbornTaylor]

Haha I just to the numbered section and there are people who *really* care about the numbered thing. A year or two ago Brandon auctioned off some numbered editions of Yumi and SP2 for charity. The #3 Yumi sold the most at 13 THOUSAND dollars.

[@NextChapterYT]

Wow! That is amazing!! Honestly will definitely have to do an episode on valuable Sanderson books!

[@rebeccaroy3751]

I tried to buy GA tickets and couldn't. Extremely sad.

[@NextChapterYT]

Oh no!! We’re all hoping the release some more inventory soon!

[@benbrady8675]

What IF: create staffing jobs where they work 1 day, THEN day 2 and 3 they get to attend either 50% off to 75% off!

[@NextChapterYT]

Yeah!! Golf Tournaments and college football games do this too, you can get a free ticket for volunteering to prep or cleanup the event! Brilliant idea

[@johnsebastian5859]

Volunteers work two 4 hrs shifts and get a free pass

[@rjslingshot]

I was unable to get any tickets. I am frustrated.

[@NextChapterYT]

So sorry to hear this!! Hopefully they find a way to release more tickets for everyone🤞🏼

[@jakesteimle9850]

Do you still have that program running to ding you when tickets go live? If so, you should hit me up

[@NextChapterYT]

Not anymore, didn't see a single ticket go back into the pool after that first day, so I'm pretty sure people are holding onto them!

[@jakesteimle9850]

@@NextChapterYT Lol, I messaged you on Twitter as well, so you can ignore that. Thanks anyways! Your content is dope

[@sketchroomgmbh7838]

the land around it is already his. You can see it in the public cardaster

[@NextChapterYT]

Wow pro move! Thanks for sharing that is so exciting!