Our Dragon Con 2024 Recap and First Time Experience

[@Valencia112]

Hi. I didn’t watch your other video before y’all left but it came up in my feeds when it was new. I have been going to DCon since 2019 but I’ve always known about it. I always go by myself. It’s overwhelming and be too much but even after my first visit I still end up liking it more than I thought I would. There is no resting at DragonCon unless you can find somewhere to get away for awhile. My first time I went 3 days, after that I now go 5 days. I don’t do autographs or pictures but I go to alot of panels. Besides my birthday, it’s the only thing I seriously take off of work for.

[@Meepz717]

I jusy stumbled upon this video. Great talk! I agree with the issues you mentioned. This year was my wife and I 10th year. I just wanted to say some stuff to help in the organized chaos that is dragoncon. Best way to think of each track is its own convention. Its basically 30 cons in one. Oct 1st is the beginning of what we call the hunger games aka obtaining a hotel. Candler i believe is still open and Westins goes on the 28th. Everything else to my knowledge is sold out, try calling the hotels you may get lucky. Sat night (separate ticket) they have the GA aquarium open for attendees. If you can make an event they offer a $10.00 streaming pass for a lot (not all) event so you can watch them. Lasts till the next summer. Hope it helps!

[@KyklopesMajestic]

Can't believe I missed this year, thanks for the recap.

[@Valencia112]

I’m 48 years old and I don’t know where half my energy comes from because from either 10am or 11am-11pm I’m constantly moving with maybe time to eat something and somewhere to sit. I am always at multiple panels and they aren’t always celebrity panels. I notice in the dragon con fb pages people always tell newbies to pace themselves(true). After looking over my schedule from this year I actually went to atleast 2 celebrity panels a day. I think between Thursday & Friday it’s excited energy. Saturday gives me anxiety because it’s the biggest day. Sunday/Monday it’s a mix of exhaustion but sadness because I know it will end soon.

[@mrennick]

Great discussion. My wife and I were at the Well recording with Anson Mount and Danny Trejo too. I think it was the best thing I did all weekend. Danny was awesome and it was cool that Anson gave us some inside baseball at the beginning. We got one of the handshakes and a quick chat with Anson at the beginning. He was just happy that we were all there. So cool. It was also great to meet all of you. I was just in front of you in the line for the Lower Decks panel on Friday and we talked a bit. Adding some notes about how we attacked the con. We went with a family of 4. My wife and I did all 5 days and the kids (17 and 14) did Saturday and Sunday. - Hit the panels you really want to see Thursday, Friday or Monday. Way fewer people. Many of the panels repeat in one form or another. This year I ended up being Star Trek heavy. I wanted to get to some Star Wars stuff, but they are clever and schedule the big panels for each track at the same time to split the audience. - If you are able, hit the vendor building Monday afternoon. Yes, some things may be sold out and some artist may have left, but most everything else was there and the line to get in was much shorter - We dropped $50 for parking the first day, but found the Truist Center had $20 parking and used them the rest of the event. We commuted in from the burbs. We also took MARTA Friday and Saturday. We did the mistake of showing up on MARTA on Saturday right as the parade was starting. That made navigation super difficult. Get there early on Saturday - Somehow we managed to get into the Walk of Fame easily each time we wanted to check it out. We tended to pop in at the end of the day. We spent the money to get an autograph with Patrick Warburton for my daughter. Everyone in there looked happy. - Saturday was so nuts that we decided to skip a couple of panels. My wife and kids got in line to see the Hobbits and were there for 2 hours. I went and saw Walter Koenig (dude was awesome and not answering stupid questions) and walked around in that time. For John Cleese the line went all the way around the block and they were still loading in the room 15 min after he started. - Our 17 year old is into Warhammer and he went Saturday morning to play. He was supposed to meet us in the afternoon for a panel. He played a single game for 8 hours. Not sure if that was the best value for his time, but he enjoyed it. - We cosplayed two days, Thursday and Sunday as Henchmen from Venture Bros. It was huge fun. first time dressing up for us. If you are doing cosplay expect navigation to be slow. Lots of folks wanted pics. That's awesome, but takes time. Also our wings were a bit wide and it made the escalators a challenge.

[@joshuawinter4621]

It was great meeting you! I def think the podcast was my highlight as well!

[@mackenzie4976]

Wish I had found out about you all before DragonCon this year. I would have loved to help give you all some tips. Especially with navigating the best times for the vendor hall.

[@TheOriginalOmarr]

I am a former director of signage at Dragon Con. You are right that more signs can help, but the the signage department only makes signs requested. The tracks are responsible for asking for them, you should do reviews of the panels and events in the app and include that feedback. The hotels remove the chairs and tables from all of the common areas. The fire marshal is the one that sets the rules and with crowds of the size of Dragon Con, they are always watching for people stopping and standing.

[@Valencia112]

I have never experienced going into the parking garage anytime I’ve gone to AM. If I had gone this year it would have been a first for me.

[@Valencia112]

America’s mart is one place I usually visit and this year was the year I didn’t. Last year I waited in line during the time people were waiting on the parade to start cause I was kinda stuck outside and couldn’t get into one of the hotels like I wanted to so I headed on over there.

[@Valencia112]

I have NEVER worn a costume. I had on a different shirt everyday this time around. Superman/Spider-Man/Wonder Woman/Velma/Michael Myers

[@TheOriginalOmarr]

The app has the ability to share your schedule with others

[@hedkase1313]

I found you guys through your pre-Con show, I'm local to Atlanta, and have been going to DragonCon since early 00s, but didn't make it this year. I've been waiting to see what your reactions were going to be.

[@eatsleepnerd]

Overall a GREAT time! We wish Jason and Brit could have been with us, so that hurt our experience overall a little bit, but it was still a fantastic atmosphere and we will definitely be back!

[@hedkase1313]

RE: sitting- the hotels actually remove all the seating before Con, other than what is probably legally required for ADA. The hotels don't want people sitting, presumably they believe it adds to congestion. They are happy to put food booths in the areas that seating is normally though.

[@caleb25]

He's not wrong about the escalator...people listen up! Chairs are always nice too...

[@Valencia112]

When people come to DragonCon they are more relaxed. Because I’m more of a panel watcher I got to see Rikishi vincent d'onofrio/Mike colter Nathan fillion Giancarlo Esposito Seth green Jared padaleki Danny Trejo Walter Koenig/Babs Olusanmokun

[@DrOnCall212]

A lot of valid points but if you think traffic flow was bad without seating, how do you think it would be WITH seating? There’s seating hidden away on different floors, areas of the convention that you’ll come to learn about. Tbh you’re just noobs…

[@ravenwind1062]

Per the D Con officials attendance capped out around 75,000

[@eatsleepnerd]

There were at least 672,000 and I can't be convinced otherwise.

[@empooress]

Did you turn on schedule reminders in the app? There is massive amounts of security at con. There's a kid's track. Y'all are just newbies, adorkable but naive. Yes, there are fire Marshal rules that will not allow people to sit on the floor. The hotels take most of the furniture out. Adding that there was coloring for charity, in the Hyatt Learning Center. Places to sit and color.