Sunday, September 9, 2007

Dragon*Con!

As I said before, I'd never been to such an event & was really looking forward to it, though I didn't know what to expect. First, let me just say that the event is HUGE - somewhere close to 60,000 attendees and would you believe it took up most of 3 giant hotels: the Hyatt, the Mariott, AND the Hilton?!!! It made the Yahoo! News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_en_ot/dragon_con

I didn't get to order my ticket before the deadline, so I had to register on-site - that consisted of almost 3 hours of standing in a winding line. Standing that long in line should have been way more boring than it was, but there were SO many folks already decked out in costumes that it was entertaining - though I still wish it hadn't taken so long!

After finally making it through registration & getting my badge, I had a bit of trouble finding the Dresden fan table that was already set up thanks to Shiska Bob. It was listed on the D*C website & in the schedule & info book that it would be in the Mariott, but as the Mariott was still undergoing renovation, some of the tables had been moved. I finally tracked the table down in the Hilton, which was great because it was right in front of the huge rooms housing the Merchants!!

Shiska Bob had an EXCELLENT table banner/swag and totally awesome stickers and bookmarks beautifully printed by themselves and some tiny, little Bob's Skull keychains which everyone LOVED - a total HIT!!! THANKS SHISKA BOB!!!
I'd printed the Raffle & Dresden fliers out in large format & mounted them on foamcore for display, I also had 150 b/w DVD fliers & 150 color DVD filers for handouts, boxes of Harry's 'business card', and also some little hard foam Bob Skulls.

Hundreds, seriously HUNDREDS of fans came by the table!! So many didn't know the show hadn't been renewed & were upset when they found out, and others knew & were PO'd at Sci-Fi for not renewing it, while nearly ALL of them promised to sign the New Home 4 Dresden Petition!! I believe many of them already have as the number of signatures jumped enormously since Friday morning, August 31!! THANK YOU D*C attendees/TDF FANS!!!

I had so much fun talking to everyone that my voice was scratchy at the end of Friday! Friday night at 7 there was a pannel discussion for the Dresden Files over in the Hyatt & after finally finding the room, found a couple of the remaining seats. It was standing-room only - & Sci-Fi was worried about ratings!! HA!!! Unfortunately, for some reason the pannel members were fans of the books & the discussion was more about the series 'failing' because of the differences between the books & the TV version. Naturally I couldn't keep quiet on that & stood up & commented more than once and there were plenty of other TV series-lovers there as well!

There was also a man who commented that said according to 'industry insiders' demographics were the reason that TDF wasn't renewed, at which point this amazing woman stood up & said she was a 40 something single woman with a ton of disposable income that the Sci-Fi should be trying to attract!! She was GREAT!!!

Saturday was just as busy, if not more so, than Friday with folks at the table non-stop! Everyone was VERY supportive and really wanted the show to come back! Many had their laptops in their rooms & said they'd sign the petition while they were at D*C, while others said they'd do it as soon as they got home & asked that Initiative #2 be postponed until they could get home & contribute. So, since the planning hadn't been completed, we rescheduled MAGIC MONDAY!! for Mon, Sept. 10th!!

Unfortunately, I had to leave unexpectedly early - family issues I had to come home to deal with - so I didn't get to attend Sun. or Monday. But, for my first ever Con of ANY type, it was incredible!!! I didn't get to see any of the other happenings (& I was REALLY wanting to see what James Marsters really looked like) but for the TDF Campaign efforts - it was fantastic!!!

And, though I've said it on several other threads & forums, to all the D*C fans: THANK YOU - you are MAGNIFICENT!!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

*waves* hi, I'm a new Dresden Fan and I was wondering, is it too late to get any of the con goodies? I'd love some of the Harry business cards and anything else you might still have :O

I live in NZ so I couldn't get to the con itself :(

You can email me at zahnadu @ gmail.com if you like :)