Dragon Con 2014 Retrospective

Dragon Con 2014 was a whirlwind unlike anything else I had experienced in a long time.

To a purveyor of Canadian conventions, the idea that a convention not only needed multiple buildings but filled those buildings for the entirety of four days is just staggering.

What makes Dragon Con such a massive event apart from its numbers is not the dealers’ room. Located in the mall of America the Dragon Con dealer’s room took up an entire two floors and was a virtual labyrinth of merchandise. I do not call it a labyrinth lightly as I did get lost…twice.

Nor is it the panels and autographs which make it special. To be fair, the guest list was quite impressive with the likes of Patrick Stewart, James Gunn, Grant Imahara, Adam Baldwin, Gates McFadden, Mark Meer… the list is plentiful with a well-structured set of panels and walk of fame for fans to get autographs. That said, the lines for panels as well as autographs for major guests is just staggering. So much that I found it daunting to spend such time waiting for anything in a line when there was always an event or photo shoot to take part in.

That isn’t to say that one cannot just run around and meet guests walking the floor. Heck I was running around in the tabletop gaming area and Jason Bulmahn (lead designer of Pathfinder) invited me to a game. That just happened!

And the tabletop gaming area was amazing itself! The tabletop area took up a massive basement floor with all manner of board and card games being played continuously. At the same time there was a giant robot fighting simulator in the corner for ten player brawls. It was just there!

But no, if Dragon Con has a thing to which it must claim fame it is the parties. Oh sweet balls of sanity the parties.

When they tell you Dragon Con is a party con, they mean that every night at least five to six separate parties are happening at the same time. There are multiple websites (http://www.dconparties.com/ and http://dailydragon.dragoncon.org/2014-2/parties-shout-outs-lost-found/parties/ for example) to showcase the parties.

And everyone is welcoming, inviting and nice.

This is clearly a convention for which the night life is king. The day is just a prelude to wild nights of fun where adult geeks can play with abandon and not worry that they are ten years older than everyone else at the dance. When you can leave the Last Night on Alderaan party and walk outside to high five a grammaton cleric who tells you about this amazing party two blocks down themed around the Avengers then you know you’re there to have fun.

Everyone is friendly and everyone is there to have a good time. But if anyone asks you why it was so much fun you can only have one answer:

It was Dragon Con.