DragonCon 2018 AAR

DragonCon 2018 After Action Report

Prologue:

The week leading up to DragonCon was quite busy… scratch that.  The *month* leading up to DragonCon was quite busy.  For those of you not familiar, DragonCon is a 5-day (well, 4, officially) science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture convention held in downtown Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.  It is the best convention I have ever attended.  It is 85,000 of your closest friends partying 24hours a day, for 5 days over 5 hotels. It is my Superbowl, my Mardi Gras, and my New Year’s Eve all in one. It is my favorite week of the year.  Yes, I said week. 

See, the thing of it is that DragonCon has grown from a standard weekend convention into an entity all of its own.  It is entirely fan-run and fan-organized, and so it focuses entirely on the fan experience.  And the same fans come back, year after year to see their favorite stars and their chosen family members. 

Several years ago, people started showing up early on Friday to see their friends and hang out before programming officially got started on Saturday.  When I first started going, DragonCon was officially a Saturday-Monday convention.  But more and more people showed up on Friday, and started the costuming and the party early.  But then as the con got more and more popular, the tracks started scheduling programming on Friday as well.  Until finally, con-goers started showing up on Thursday to hang out, etc.  This prompted the phrase “Thursday is the new Friday”. 

Well, fast forward to now.  This year, we showed up on Wednesday to a party already in full swing.  Tuesday, it seems, is the new Friday, and if that’s the case, then DragonCon runs from the Tuesday before Labor Day, through the Monday holiday itself. 

Thus, DragonCon Week: my favorite week of the year. 

Here’s how it went down in 2018:

 

“Y’all… this is WEDNESDAY!!”

One of the benefits of living close to a major metropolitan area is that it’s really easy to find a direct nonstop flight to Atlanta.  My husband EZ and I boarded a plane early on Wednesday morning, and arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson just before noon.  From there, it was an easy Marta trip to downtown, and a walk through pleasantly cooling rain to our hotel: The Westin Peachtree Plaza. 

Every year I sing the praises of the Westin, and this year will be no different.  The staff is always incredibly professional and helpful, the rooms are lovely and comfortable, and you really can’t beat the views.  Though this year we stayed on a lower floor than in years past, but it’s still a good vista over the city of Atlanta. 

We checked in with no problems and quickly decided to go find some food.  We knew we would probably get the luscious truffled mac&cheese from Meehan’s once our friends the Wolfpack arrived, so we opted to walk over to Peachtree Center mall and check out the food court. 

This year, the food court was under construction, which severely limited the available floor space for seating.  HOWEVER, mad kudos to the Peachtree Center staff and to their liaison with the con, because honestly, it *felt* less full than it has in years past.  They did a really great job of delineating traffic areas that were not to be blocked, and it was truly not any harder to find a seat than it was in years past… though we did opt to get take out quite a bit, due to the construction. 

In any case, EZ and I had lunch, and then I asked him if he wanted to walk a 5K with me while we waited for our friends to arrive. 

See, I had signed up for the RunDisney Virtual Shorts series, which is a series of 3 virtual 5K races to be done in the months of June, July, and August respectively.  But August was super busy, and I hadn’t gotten my race done yet.  The races can be run or walked, and while I ran the first two, I knew that walking was going to be my best bet if I wanted to get it done that day.

So, my beloved, amazing husband agreed, and we proceeded to tour all the DragonCon host hotels and refamiliarize ourselves with the ins and outs and secret (not really) passageways that lead from one hotel to the other.  We also took the time to locate where badge pickup and most of my programming would be, as I was participating in four tracks this year, plus the Dragon Awards.  As he said, he never would have expected that the first thing I wanted to do when I got to DragonCon was a 5K, but there you have it.

I’m full of surprises. 

In the course of the 5K, we stopped by and picked up some beverages from the traditionally overpriced liquor store next to the Sheraton, as well as some room snacks from the CVS in Peachtree Center mall. 

By the way, Mad Props to the staff of that CVS.  As the main entrance to the food court was closed for construction, they had a steady stream of people using their store as a thoroughfare.  And yet they were always pleasant and helpful, and restocked nightly to provide con goers with necessary drinks, snacks, and whatnot.  Since their inception, that CVS has definitely had a positive impact on DragonCon, in my opinion. 

Shortly after we finished our epic 5K, our friends the Wolfpack arrived.  The Wolfpack consists of my coauthor, Marisa Wolf, and her entourage.  In this case, her entourage consisted of her husband, Jeremy (whose last name isn’t Wolf, but he isn’t a writer or con pro of any kind, so I’m not going to tell you what it is).   They got all checked in, and we decided to head down to Meehan’s for the aforementioned mac&cheese.

It was delicious as always, as were the beverages my party consumed.  I rather think we might have been “that table” as we got louder and louder, especially after two of my other dearest friends arrived.  Cassie&Casey hadn’t attended DragonCon in 5 years, due to real life military commitments, but this was their triumphal return.  They met us at Meehan’s, and the party just kept going. 

Eventually, someone (it may have been EZ, I’m not sure) kicked out the idea of a hotel bar crawl, and the rest of the group enthusiastically agreed.  We paid our bill at Meehan’s, and headed down to the Hyatt bar for round 1. 

At the Hyatt, we found Kevin Ikenberry and Quincy Adams, as well as our friends Danielle and Charlotte and some other folks.  I think EZ’s buddy Seth joined us there as well.  He joined us at some point, at any rate.  We enjoyed hanging out with them for a bit, and then headed onward to the Marriott via the sky bridge. 

And the Marriott was already lit.  I mean, the floor wasn’t as crowded as it would become on Friday and Saturday nights, but there were legit costumes to be seen, and people to see and hang out with.  Around this time, Marisa coined the phrase that would be our rallying cry for the rest of the evening:  “Y’all… this is WEDNESDAY!”

Indeed.  Which meant that there were many, many more days of con goodness to enjoy.  We continued on from the Marriott bar to the Hilton bar, where we learned about the price of tapwater and the importance of speaking to the manager when things aren’t quite right. 

By then I was done, so we headed back, and I crashed out, excited about the prospect of the 5 days ahead.

 

“Thursday = Recovery Day?”

One of the benefits of not drinking alcohol is that I require significantly less recovery than those who do.