Tererune's convention meetup plans

I was thinking about my future convention plans, and since I am having a sort of trek resugence I was figuring I would try a big sci fi con. I am going to look to go to dragoncon at the end of the summer in 2025. I do not think the date has been announced yet.

Hotels book fast and the rooms can be expensive. Also the pass can be expensive but reduced price if purchased early. Dragoncon would be in Atlanta. It is a huge fan run sci fi convention that attracts a lot of trek and sci fi people. The dealer room is a multistory building. They have an arcade and gaming building. The conventions stretches across multiple hotels in the downtown atlanta area from the Hyatt to the Westin, and even the Cobb center with the CNN building is on the fringe of being sold out for this thing.

I will check and update things over the next few days as this years dragoncon has not happened yet. It normally happens on labor day weekend (the end of august beginning of september for non-us residents).

Dragoncon may be the biggest sci fi event in the world, and if it isn't it is in competition. It is not industry run like comicon, so it is less of an advertisment and more of a fan event convention.

Dragoncon link for this year

https://www.dragoncon.org/

I figure Trek BBS probably has some sort of meetup or something. I do not have an account over there, but if no one wants to liason I would do so for the sake of perhaps joining in with whatever festivities they do, or drumming up some if there is none.

Booking of the rooms would have to be around when they announce the next date for the best opportunity because shit gets sold out fast. I am going to try to book two rooms so I might be able to help people out with a share.

For wordforge people I would like to set up a couple of our own meetup dinners at the local establishments. and we could probably use wordforge as a communication hub for any attending the event.

If you have ever had any interest in a convention this one is amazingballs. They have been doing it for decades, and there will be opportunities to meet so many people in the industry along with awesomely run panels and even film sceenings and fan events. If you ever wanted to go to a RHPS event with all the debauchery of fan participation this is the place. There is Star Wars, BSG, Game of thrones, a zombie Parade. They have MCU, a bit of anime, and all the fucking fans you can spit at.

Plus, for the past few years they have killed that fucking registration line.

Let me know if you have any questions about attending and I will help anyone out as best as I can with attending and getting the most out of their experience. I am an experienced con attendee with some contacts with staff and regulars at this convention. Not big contacts, but I can help you out in preparation for the sci fi con of sci fi cons.

@Diacanu @Crosis36 @Shirogayne @steve2^4 @Spaceturkey @matthunter @shootER @Tuckerfan @The Original Faceman @Ancalagon @Order2Chaos @Bailey @Will Power @Lanzman @T'Bonz @Steal Your Face @Uncle Albert @DEI Hire @Jenee @AlphaMan @ed629 @We Are Borg @Rincewiend

Sending out personal tags for active users. If I have missed you I am high and I hope the others will spread the word. We have a year to prepare for the dragoncon.

I'm not allowed in Atlanta anymore.

I thought your “Sherman’s March to the Sea” performance art piece was as brave as it was provocative.

I'm not allowed into America.
Seems smoking a joint while in art school during the 90s has me considered a threat to national security blankees...

This is going about normal. You guys keep discussing how you can't come. I am still a couple of weeks away from trying to book for a con that is probably going to be sold out as fast as a taylor swift concert, so this may all be for nothing if my timing is off anyway.

This is just pipe dreaming until I can actually make some reservations anyway. I am just getting ready for the chance to perhaps make some reservations that I can cancel easy enough later on.

Ditto i have section 3 affray conviction against a armed response officer.

I live in Atlanta and I'm not allowed in Atlanta.

That sounds like it might be rather tricksy my precious.

It's just a matter of setting boundaries.

I'm not a dragon con kinda guy. But I'm up for sushi if you want to meet up.

If anyone ever wants to meet up in Maine, why are you in Maine to begin with?

Hey, if you're ever on this side of the great lakes...

I think we need to invade Canada again. T, will they let you in? Less important, will the States let you back?

I can't plan that far ahead right now, due to my life often being a chaotic mess. Best I can do is "if I'm able, I might show up."

That's something that I could probably do. I can be in Windsor in 20 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic and how annoying the border checkpoint wants to be. Toronto is like a four hour drive.

It is canadia and my record is in a state notorious for not updating others regarding their records. What are the mounties on the border going to do? Besides, I have my hello kitty military status and no one says no to her embassadors.

As for getting back in, I am pretty sure if they gave up the merchant of death for brittany Griner I can get back in. A couple of conversations with me and the rest of the world will make the US take me back. I am pretty sure if I can get back to the border after hanging out in @Spaceturkey land they are going to push me onto the US side and threaten everyone with another justin bieber world tour if they don't take me.

If not, I know a little spanish so I am sure i can get someone to help coyote me across the border.

Toronto is a much nicer place to visit than Atlanta, but the CNE doesn't do it for me either. What's the appropriate venue worthy of invasion? I have fond memories of the maple syrup festivals.

I'd love to, but most of my expendable income right now is going towards the Star Trek cruise (Which my wife insists is the last one due to cost.)

This sure doesn't say much about US cities...

https://www.travelandleisure.com/atlanta-georgia-best-city-to-live-in-us-east-coast-8686500

It would be at least a year before I could cover the cost of a cruise. The other trouble with a cruise is it misses the big events of a huge con like DC. DC also draws a lot of the living sci fi actors out to it. Plus the Atlanta area does have a decent amount of potential stuff to do. There is also the benefit for anyone who does get motion sick that Atlanta is not on the ocean. I am not like that, but many people are. I also think Atlanta ends up being a little more middle to the US than southern florida.

If you ever wanted to buy some shit, a 7 story dealer building is fucking insane. You could get furniture and see it displayed. There were models the size of my bedroom the last time I was there. Even if you were just window shopping it was OMG window shopping. That is not including the gaming building that was open 24-7 with a library of games you never see to take out and play for a few hours. A cruise is it's own awesome thing, but this brings sights you cannot see even at other cons.

Meeting people is awkward and I dislike it.

Agreed. I'd love to do DragonCon.
Maybe when my next book comes out, I can do a both there and write it off as a business expense. That's what I did last year at NYCC.

If you are interested in doind that sort of thing in the distant future I am up for making the plan. Dragoncon is so huge that it is best to do as an event with multiple people because you are talking from wednesday through the next monday being the legth of the con, and things like the dealer room cannot be explored in just one day. There are multiple autograph signings and guest panels to plan on attending.

I have a friend who goes every year and there is a group she goes with who all meet up every year. They actually have a planned room party where I guess the guy brings a full bar into the room and it is a private gathering where a bunch of geeks who are professionals in multiple industries get together and talk for hours. This is an event where there are multiple sub events going on that people plan around and the city plans around.

This thing is a sight to see for anyone in the Sci fi gaming or entertainment industry. It is also fan run so it isn't like a comicon where the industry has to take up a certain amount of the con space for their promotions. At dragoncon the promotions have to compete with events for the congoers. There are multiyear running events which are running with dragoncon.

For instance there will be a huge theater booked to do a Rocky horror picture show screening. It is an organized one where people are going to go for that particular event and that is their thing. Multiple theaters in the area put on DC events for watching movies. Bars will host dragoncon parties of multiple themes. They rent out a whole building which they put a huge arcade with all sorts of different arcade games you can play for free, and there is a library maintained with tabletop gaming materials where people organize their own events for the weekend.

It is like they took out the area of Atlanta that is made for conventions and tourism and made the entire thing full of all sorts of events for the week. Having been on cruises, it is like that. The hotels have multiple feeds for the con which run media and event advertisement. IIRC there are multiple con run channels that will run things like cartoon network, and sci fi channel shows. I would imagine by this point the CNN building gets hijacked because they have CN and Toonami under their corporation.

It is a truly insane show that is not going away. This is also one of the conventions that has made Atlanta the east coast hollywood. There are so many industry people in the area who come out for these things.

The only hard thing is it needs to be planned for if you want to be within the area it occurs. If you know how to commute into the con area and can grab hotels outside the area there is a lot of that, but I have come to a point where physically I cannot do that anymore.

I am going to look to book next week if I can and then I will know what is what and where is where. All I can say now is it will be the long weekend a year from now in Atlanta.

Did you do the con, T?

I'd be trying to blame Spain.

FanExpo just passed.
It's held downtown , so close to a lot of other stuff including the Ex.

Maybe we should meet in Stratford for the Bieber Fan Festival

a little difficult by transit from Toronto :/
too bad, as there's some good theatre and more than a few trek connections to justify going. Thing is there's more when you stay in the city.

I'm not sure where I'd take most of ya at the end of August, to be perfectly honest. The Science Centre used to be pretty cool, but the current corrupt provincial gov't shut it down. Art Gallery is pretty cool if you're into such things. Baseball or Soccer match?

A lot of good places to drink and still a decent live music scene... Might be one of the many food festivals going on...

They shut down the Ontario Science Centre? Goddamn. That was one of my favorite places as a kid.

Ontario Place, not so much.

Well, I have run into trouble. They want the first night paid for with the hotel for the con rate, and I simply do not have that sort of money at the moment to put down on the room and also make another convention. By the time I will have the money they will probably be gone so I am saying fuck it.

But, that does mean I have made arrangements to go to Anime Weekend Atlanta yet again. It has been my favorite con, and their Video Art Track is amazing. They have shifted their location to the Convention area by the CNN center and Olympic park. So I will be there dec 12-15th. @steve2^4 I would love to get together and have a meal or whatever.

for @Spaceturkey I have always wanted to do AnimeNorth which is in Toronto. It will be next summer May 23-25th. I have tried to discuss it with my normal con partner but he seems unwilling to go to Toronto. I am not sure what the bug is up his ass on that one. So I would have to make plans on my own. I would be up for joining someone for a road trip if they wanted to organize and I could make some time for myself to see the convention events I want to see while also visiting. With the way I am with health now I am not up for all the running around the convention halls like I used to. I get what I want out of a couple of visits to the site, but if I was visiting with people who were not interested in the fun of the convention I would probably want more to visit the city of spaceturkey land. I would be doing my own hotel room unless someone else wanted to share.

It just looks like I don't have the money to reserve this far in advance since they are now requiring a deposit/first night paid for some reason.

Or maybe a road trip up to toronto where people could join in?

Like I said I have traveled for these things and they are fun. I do not know why the people of wordforge have not done something like this yet.