I sure I have confused my friends more than I clarified.
Let’s start with the easy stuff:
Yes, I had a good time.
I got LOTS of autographs.
It was nice to have part of the convention in the hotel we were staying in.
Lots of places to eat near the hotel and didn’t need to wait long to get seated.
There was lots of cosplay.
It was fun doing a different convention and seeing a different city. We did see the aquarium and Cocoa-Cola World and a Braves' game.
Some not so easy answers:
The convention is spread across 4 hotels and 2 more buildings for the vendors. It makes navigation a little harder than it would seem as you need to factor in walking time AND possible time to get through badge check for vendor buildings. The one time I checked out the vendors, it was about a 10-minute walk plus 45 minutes to get into the building. The building wasn’t crowded but you had to go through security.
Of course at SDCC, if you try to walk across the expo floor, you are in 'stop and go' foot traffic and that isn’t an easy accomplishment either.
Hollywood is not promoting itself at DragonCon. No movies or TV shows trying to build an audience and having free signings. I purchased the autographs I picked up in Atlanta. The DragonCon attendees seem to find that part of the charm that makes them different.
A side effect of that, there was no need to sleep on the sidewalk to get autographs. I was getting close to 6 hours of sleep a night IN A BED. My body was actually recovering each night instead of breaking down more and more each day.
DragonCon reminds me more of WorldCon than a ComicCon. This is not a bad thing. I like the variety of panels and the gamut of topics. It’s not all comics or TV shows. I sat through panels on Chernobyl, nuclear wars, Farscape, Star Trek, and ghost hunting. Good stuff.
DragonCon empties rooms after each panel. I expect most panels are not at capacity. So emptying is not really needed but you don’t end up waiting hours to get into a room. I’m sure some panels are an endurance test but the ones I attended were walk up when the doors open and find a seat.
The DragonCon Parade is an annual affair. It’s hot for the fans and the participants but the streets are lined with people that want to watch. The locals love it.
Atlanta seems to have embraced DragonCon longer than San Diego has embraced ComicCon. The locals don’t consider this a bother. The only complaint is that the big football game is always the same weekend and downtown is doubly impacted.
DragonCon TV is in the hotel rooms. You can see past panels and current ones. The Wife and I watched part of the last year’s parade and the current one while we were there.
The Hard to answer:
DragonCon is bipolar. It seems it is part convention and part frat party. On Facebook you see constant posts about drinking and where to find cheap booze so you don’t have to buy it at the hotel or club. Based on what I read on Facebook, it really seemed that was more important than the panels or convention.
Again, reading though Facebook posts, people felt they couldn’t attend without cosplaying. Lots of posts from Newbies stating their cosplay wasn’t very good and they were worried about showing up. FYI - I did not have this fear.
Also, it seems people that attended panels did not cosplay and the cosplayers mostly came out at night. Mostly. That goes with the partying/drinking aspect.
The cosplay was more ‘adult’ in Atlanta. However, I don’t do SDCC parties so maybe that is true there too.
While at SDCC, being at one of the coveted hotels, is awesome as you can drop off goods or sneak in some time off your feet. In Atlanta, the hotels have massive atriums and those parties echo LOUDLY into your upper floor room until 1 AM.
At night, a lot of the older attendees seem creepy/prevy. Maybe this is colored by my dismay of the drinking posts.
DragonCon seems to have an inferiority complex with SDCC. There are often making snide comments about SDCC. DragonCon, you are your own con. Why do you care about SDCC? SDCC attendees don’t mention you when they talk about SDCC.
Some things that I really liked:
The DragonCon app. Real easy to load and use and it used my phone’s reminder function and I saw pop ups for panels.
The autograph room, while small, was packed with celebs. The autograph prices were good and the crowds were light. At local conventions I often wait 30 to 60 minutes for a guest. I think the longest I waited was 15 minutes.
The variety of guests was amazing. I mentioned it before, I got too many autographs.
What I would do different:
I would not stay at the Marriott. I think I would avoid the host hotels. I would only attend Friday through Sunday. The convention starts on Thursday. Thursday is a late start with limited panels. The autograph room wasn’t open on Thursday. Monday was a ghost town and the celebs were mostly gone by then. I could have saved a ton of money on the hotel if I knew that.
I would bring books to get signed. I assumed that a book seller would be in the author area selling books. The one time I ventured there, I didn’t see that. So I missed out on some authors I wanted as i did not bring a suitcase of books.
I rambled enough. I know I missed some things and probably didn’t represent it properly. I did have a good time and I was productive and I was able to sleep in a bed. All really good things.
AH
No comments:
Post a Comment