Dragon*Con 2008: Post Mortem

Okay, Dragon*Con isn’t in danger of dying, but there are things that I think need to change. This was only my fifth time in attendance, and I am going to keep going; however, it’s frustrating to see things that I think could be changed to make it even better. But let me first talk about what I think is right about the convention.

The passion of most of the people who run the different tracks and participate in the panels is evident.
The Main Track events are always full and entertaining.
The ability to pull in stars for the Walk of Fame amazes me.
Not making it hard for conarazzi (convention-paparazzi term coined by a fellow geek) to get shots of their favorite cosplay members.

Now, here is what I think is wrong and should be fixed:

There is no way that this convention should be held in 4 hotels. Imagine my displeasure when I had to walk all the way to the Sheraton for one panel, and then had to walk all the way back to they Hyatt for another. It’s bad for people who have broader interest than just the Trek Track. One of the more popular and well attended tracks was moved out to the boondocks. Its great if you are a straight Trek fan and you don’t have to go to the other hotels too often. Solution: THE GEORGIA WOLRD CONGRESS CENTER. They have enough room for the entire convention to be held in one place. The explanation I heard about the reason why they don’t go their anymore concerns something that happened so long ago that the people involved probably can’t tell you what actually happened or they don’t work at the convention center anymore. Either way, it makes sense to move it there.
There are tracks that should be absorbed into other tracks. For example, the X Track was popular when the X-Files was big and it was justified then. Now, its just the place where they put the Lost panels. I think that the American Sci-Fi Track should absorb what’s left of the X Track. Also, I understand why there is a Science Track and a Space Track, but do they really pull enough people to justify it being in separate tracks over a 3 or 4 day period?
Why can’t I buy Memberships from Ticket Master up until the event, or at least the week of the convention? I decided to go just one day this year, Saturday. Obviously, this is the busiest day for one day people and first timers, who probably never come back after waiting in line for 2 hours to get the one day pass and then miss 2 panels that they wanted to see, or don’t make it into that megapanel of their favorite tv show. I went online Friday night thinking I could avoid the crowd bu getting my ticket online and going to the Ticketmaster line in registration which never has anyone waiting. But to my dismay, I clicked on the Ticketmaster link and was directed to a page that could not be found. But luckily I was able to get into the registration line at 7:15AM and only had to wait an hour after registration began at 8AM before I got registered and my day pass.
Someone please save the Comic Track. The first time I went to Dragon*Con there was a DC megapanel, and a Marvel panel that was packed. DC announced some big events and had some big named artist and writers who brought with them first looks at cover and panel art. Marvel had some of the most popular artists and writers in several different panels over the weekend. That year the comic track was huge. But its been downhill since. Over the last few years we have had House of M, Hulk World, World War Hulk, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Civil War, the Sinestro Corps Wars, and Secret Invasion. And it seems like Marvel and DC has decided not to do any type of promotion or maybe those in charge of the Comic Track would rather just rest their laurels on getting artist to come do sketches and throwing Peter David on every panel they can. That just won’t do. Someone please save the Comic Track.

There are other things wrong, but these 4 main things would make the whole experience that much better for all of us. I spent about 15 mins looking for a suggestion box and couldn’t find it. Maybe the powers that be don’t won’t our input.

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Posted under Dragon*Con, Fanboy Rants