2023 Dragon Con Pre-Game Show Part 1: Dan Carroll

Director of Media Engagement Dan Carroll talks with us about what to expect for Dragon Con 2023 Labor Day weekend

Episode Transcript

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This is the dragon Con Pregame Show, powered by Columbus State University's Coca Cola
Space Science Center, where you canlearn the science behind the fiction. And
now here's your host, West Carrol. Welcome to the twenty twenty three edition
of the dragon Con Pregame Show,where we'll discuss everything you need to know

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about this year's dragon Con Labor Dayweekend in downtown Atlanta. We'll talk about
the guests we will be attending.We'll talk with some of those guests on
this show, including MythBuster Adam Savage. We'll also talk with voice actor and
well he's an actor as well TVfilm and voice work in animation including video

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games, Phil Lamar. We'll alsotalk with one of the Atlanta area CAUs
players who'll be attending this year.We'll get her thoughts on what the causplay
will be this year. I suspectwe might see a lot of pink this
year. That's just my thoughts.We'll find out if she agrees when we
talk to her. Coming up alittle bit later when we talk with Angie

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Starr. But we begin the showtalking with the director of Media Engagement for
dragon Con. We share a lastname, but no known relatives. Perhaps
somewhere back on the Emerald Isle avery very long time ago, but we
haven't found that common relative just yet. My good friend Dan Carroll, welcome
West, thanks for having me today. All right, So dragon Con back

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in full force, one hundred percentback to normal, as normal as dragon
Con can be. It's a uniqueconvention. It's different than other conventions.
We'll talk more about ways it's differentthan other conventions coming up, but we
always like to start things by askingyou, in your words, as the
director of media engagement, what isdragon Con. Dragon Con is the internet

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nationally known pop culture festival that takesplace every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta.
We cover comics, music, games, film, television, literature so much
more. It's it would take meall day just to be able to list
everything we have at dragon Coon inany one day. So the thing I

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want everybody know is dragon Con isjust a lot of fun for everybody.
It is a convention geared at thefans, run by fans, focused on
fans. It's fan centric, Iguess is the word to use for it,
and that makes it a little bitdifferent than other conventions. Well,
that is absolutely true. Dragon Conis different from other conventions because we focus

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on the fan experience with the guests, with the other fans, with the
convention and fandom community overall. There'sother conventions that go twenty four hours a
day. Dragon Con goes twenty fourhours a day five days, beginning in
the Thursday before Labor Day and wrappingup on Labor Day morning. We have

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the largest parade in Atlanta. Wehave the most costuming of any event in
North America as far as I've everbeen able to see. We have thirty
five hundred hours of programming discussing someof the favorite fantasy and science fiction properties

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out there. We discussed literature,we discuss how to make things and west.
I think you're well aware that wealso have an amazing program of wrestling
going on during Dragon Con. Iam very aware of that and a little
sad to know that my good friendthe Iron Chic will not be there this

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year, who we lost just veryrecently. Always great to stumble into him
as you walk through the Walk ofFame, and it was always great to
catch up with him even out justwalking around out on the floor. So
Dragon Con back at one hundred percentthis year. Obviously, the trajectory for
dragon Con going into twenty nineteen changedwhen twenty twenty came along and the convention

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went virtual. So now that therehave been a few years that have passed,
we kind of get back to normal. But you guys have changed things
just a little bit on the waythe memberships work and dragon Con different than
other conventions. And it's not tickets. People will start talking about tickets,
dragon Con speaks in terms of memberships. So how will memberships be different for
twenty twenty three. Well, thefour day memberships are on sale right now

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and they are available at www.DragCon dot org. We also have available
now one day memberships while they last. One day memberships are in very limited
availability, So if you're thinking aboutcoming to dragon Con for one day,
you might be driving in from outof town, go ahead of make that

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decision, go ahead and get thoseone day memberships now. And the other
thing is that for multi day memberships, sometimes people like to get a Saturday
and a Sunday pass or a Fridayand a Saturday pass. Those passes will
be available the day of the show, So if you want to buy a
Friday and Saturday pass, you haveto buy on Friday. If you want
to get a Saturday Sunday you'd haveto buy it on Saturday. But those

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West, those will only be availableif there are if dragon kind access hold
out for that day. If dragonCon sells out for Saturday, we won't
be able to sell multi day passesthat involve Saturday. And part of that
is about making sure that everyone involvedenjoys their experience at the convention. That's
correct West. After dragon Con twentytwenty one came back after the pandemic,

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we came back strong with a greatshow, just a great lineup and and
everybody was excited to be back togetheror as a family. But we also
found that having a smaller attendance madeit more enjoyable for so many people.
So this year we are capping attendance. We anticipate sixty five thousand people coming

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to dragon Con this year, andwe have there are people who do better
accounting than I do, who havedetermined how many people for each day would
be appropriate, healthy and still givethat sense of community. So if you're
looking to come to Drag, makeyour decision earily. Go ahead and make

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that investment. Get your passest wwwdragon Coon dot org. People often talk
about hotels. Anybody who has anyexperience with Dragon con knows that the five
core hotels sell out very quickly.There are occasionally rooms that open up,
blocks of rooms that open up.There are some folks who will cancel,

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So we'll run through the hotel's quicklyso that anybody that wants to check on
those, and the availability changes reallyalmost daily as we get closer and closer
to the convention. But there area lot of satellite hotels as well.
But people often ask about the fiveCourt hotels. One of them has a
new name this year, that's correct. We'll start with the ones that I've

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already memorized. The Highatt Regency inAtlanta, which you may know west was
the first atrim hotel in the worldand one of the largest hotels in Metro
Atlanta. Second is the Marriott Marquis, Third is the Hilton Atlanta. Fourth

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is the Atlanta Weston Peach Tree,the big Peach Tree hotel with the circular
tower. And the other hotel whichwe love so dearly, the Sheratan,
which is what it was called,is now called the Courtland Grand. That's
court Land Grand. That will beone of the changes for this year.

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As far as something just a littlebit different. As people start talking about
people will probably still refer to itas the Sheraton. There's still people who
really badly miss the old carpet fromthe Marriott, but that's one of those
sort of inside things. If youhaven't done Dragon Con, you may not
know about the infamous carpet. Allright, let's talk about the parade.
Because you mentioned the single day memberships. Often people will come and you think,

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well, I'm just gonna get upthere on Saturday because that's parade day.
That is a very popular day forthe single day memberships. So you
probably want to get those early ifSaturday is going to be your single day
that you want to come up.But let's talk about the parade, and
it's I'm sure going to be biggerand better than ever. Well, the
parade, it the Dragon com Paradeis the biggest parade in Atlanta. It

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goes one mile down Peachtree Street infront of our hotels and then loops around
and I've got to tell you there'snothing more exciting than seeing those thirty two
hundred volunteers marching down the street wearingcostumes from everything from Marvel Comics to Hobbits
to Star Trek, Star Wars,and they're in groups, so you'll be

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able to find it easily, andyou'll see monsters, you'll see. One
of my favorite areas, especially whenit comes to craftsmanship, are the gaming
the gaming costumers dressed up as peoplefrom Halo and other video games out there.
I think one of the great thingsabout the parade is just seeing the

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faces of kids as they get towatch some of their favorite characters walk down
the street. And when we starttalking about Dragon Con and cosplay, we're
talking about elite level cosplay and thecostuming for the whole convention, especially for
the parade. That's one of thebest days to see the cosplay in the
costuming, because that's the one peoplereally want to show off. So as

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you're there for the parade and youget to see the various characters from all
different genres walk down the street,even some you know, classic movie monsters
or monsters from video games, thekids just love to interact with them,
see them come down the street.It may be Captain America on an old
forties motorcycle. It may be youknow, the Ecto one from Ghostbusters going

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down the street. All those sortsof things that you're able to kind of
see come to life, and thenas soon as it's over, that's when
people make their way in and participatein the rest of everything that is dragon
Con. Well West, The paradeis obviously a whole lot of fun,
but a lot of people don't realizethat most parade attendees are not Dragon Con
attendees, and that makes sense becausethe parade is dragon CON's gift to the

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city of Atlanta. It's our wayof giving back to the community, and
it's our way to share just howmuch fun Dragon Con is. There's no
doubt that many people see the paradeand then want to see the convention.
Unfortunately, unless we are not soldout for that Saturday, it might be

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difficult to get a pass. Soif you're thinking of coming to the parade,
and it's definitely worth the drive nomatter how long you're coming, but
make that decision early to go aheadand secure a pass so that you can
enjoy the rest of the convention afterthe parade. So you talk about giving
back, We're gonna talk a littlebit more about giving back in just a

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minute, because there's a couple ofthings that dragon Con does every year that
helps to give back. But beforewe do that, I want to address
something that is certainly having an impacton conventions really all around the country.
Dragon Con is no different. It'shaving a huge impact in a lot of
different ways, and that is thestrike, the sag After strike, And
we can talk a little bit aboutthat because you may have noticed when the

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announcements are coming in now for someof the guests who will be attending that
will be part of the Walk ofFame, and this relates to people obviously
that sag after effects. You're notnecessarily seeing the name of the projects that
they've worked on, and there's aspecific reason for that because that's part of
what the strike is all about.Now there's other guests who will be there,

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we can talk a little bit aboutthem and their works because they're not
affected by this. But if yousee guests, you see their pictures and
you see their faces and you recognizethem and think, oh my gosh,
I'm really excited about Freddie Prince Junioris going to be there. You probably
know why. You know Freddie PrinceJunior. There may be a few actors
that you think, oh my gosh, I need to actually look this person

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up and see exactly how I knowthem, and that may be the case
as well. But the guests willbe there as always. We will not,
as we're talking about any guests willbe there now going to be talking
necessarily about the projects that they're inbecause of this particular strike that's going on.
To put it in context, WesSAG requires that member not discussed past

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or current work they're doing that ispart of a struck production. And even
if somebody worked on the show thirtyyears ago, but the company that made
that is still in existence, thatcounts as a struct company. So we
will not be mentioning that, orthe guests will not be able to mention
that during their time at dragon Con. We're going to do everything we can

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to protect them and make sure thatthey do what they need to do and
their responsibilities to the union are respected. So we will not be mentioning in
our advertising properties that people were partof TV shows or movies that people were
part of that are part of thatstruct world. Not everybody who's coming though,

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is a member of SAG. Wetalked in previous years about how dragon
Con has a four hundred guest limit. We have four hundred guests each year.
Of those, only out one hundredare those Walk of Fame as you
mentioned earlier, Walk of Fame autographsigning celebrities that you know from mass media.

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The rest of them are the writers, the artists, the creators.
In other ways, we have alot more social media guests than we've had
in the past, and we alsohave that amazing comic and pop art alley.
It is just so huge, filledwith comic book, cartoon and pop

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art creators. They're going to beable to talk about anything, any part
of their life, as long asit doesn't involve property that has been turned
into a film or a TV orthat aspect of it. So we're going
to respect that. We're going tomake as much available for the fans as
possible, but we are coming upwith creative, creative ways to be able

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to present panels that are interesting andinsightful and entertain and just playing fun while
still protecting the integrity of our guests. You're still going to be able to
get autographs if you if you cometo drag Con and you want them to
sign a DVD of a TV showthat's counts as one of those stuck properties.

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They're going to be able to signwhatever you bring. But overall,
if you're used to getting and it'sso much fun to do getting a couple
of minutes with the celebrity and gettingthat autograph and making the investment, they're
still going to be able to signheadshots. So don't expect them to be

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in costume in the photographs they signedfor you this year. That's just out
of respect for the process. Thatanswers two questions that I was about to
ask, and one more thing onthe subject of panels, because obviously people
are very used to attending a panel. It might be a collection of actors
all from the same TV show orsame movie or same project. Those kinds

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of things are all still being sortedout exactly the way that's going to work.
Obviously, it won't be promoted assomething with the name of the project
being part of it. And Iknow that there's some questions and each panel
maybe a little bit different when itcomes to this. But if you do
get an opportunity, though, aspeople are used to to ask a question

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during a panel, if that issomething that is offered to you, start
thinking of ways to ask questions thatdon't involve the title of the project that
they're in, because that is somethingthat's not going to be happening during those
panels. Right, I would expectless stronger moderation than we've had in the
past. We want to make surethat the actors are enjoying themselves at dragon

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Con too. We want to makesure that they're not stressed out. So
we will be screening questions and ifa question is asked that the actor cannot
answer, the actor will not answerit. And that's plain and simple.
So if you get an opportunity toask Adrian Pilecki something, for instance,

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you're not going to be able toask her about any of the struct properties,
So make sure you use your timewisely. Ask her about the comic
books she helped me write with herbrother. That's something that you can do.
Sorry, I've already I've already researchedquestions for her. All right.
Now, let's talk about giving back, because you mentioned the parade being a

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gift to the state of Georgia intothe city of Atlanta. Giving back is
a big part of what Dragon CON'soverall mission is. The annual Blood Drive
is part of that, and thenthe annual charity which this year is Cure
Childhood Cancer. That is correct.Cure Childhood Cancer is something that is obviously

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working to make a difference. Wefirst heard about this charity from somebody whose
family was a beneficiary. And I'mgoing to say that if you have given
money in the past to organizations andfound that the money was going to administration
or going so firmly to research thatit wasn't helping any individuals, pure childhood

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cancer is not that organization. Theydo an incredible job of balancing between donating
to research that makes a difference.But they are hands on organization that makes
sure that families who are going throughthe pain, the aggravation and the helplessness

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that one feels when a child isstruck with cancer and struggling with it.
They take care of the families too. They take care of the families in
very material ways, and they getinvolved in the families, and they get
involved with support for the families.And this was all something that struck the
drag Con leadership as as something wecould wholeheartedly get behind. The Other thing

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about dragon Con that I don't thinkit's enough credit is how many of our
volunteers and just how many of ourcommunity is involved with the dragon Cons Superhero
program. Every year, we takethree outings throughout the year and we work
with charities that had been maybe ourdragon Con Charity of the Year the year

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before, or other charities, andwe make sure that children going back to
school have books and papers and pensand everything's bagged up for them, and
then we work with some charity.One year we just sent out Valentine's Day
cards to people who may not havethe mobility or the social contacts. That

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was a great one. And oneof our past organizations that we love so
much is Open Hand Atlanta, andone year before the pandemic, we all
went down there and took care ofthings and help get food out to people
who needed food. Other years we'vecleaned park. So I just want to

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give a shout out to those people, maybe not necessarily as a drag Con
spokesman, but as a human being, just how much good work all of
those dragon Con superheroes do well.And also giving a shout out as a
human being and someone who very regularlygives blood and actually gives platelets and plasma.
The blood drive that happens at dragonCon every year is a huge source

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of fulfilling a need that is alwaysthere. And if you could talk just
a little bit about the blood drive. The Robert A. Heineland Blood Drive
run by Blood South has just beenyear after year after year, growing and
successful and setting records. We areevery year that I have asked, we

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were the previous year's largest convention blooddrive for any type of convention that involved
non nerd conventions. We are growingmore and more. Our numbers just go
out the door. The enthusiasm ofthe people given blood, it goes up.

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And this year Pat Henry, thepresident of drag Coon, will be
receiving a special word from the AmericanAssociation of Blood Banks for the overall contribution
for the years and years that theblood Drive has continued to provide blood for
people in need year after year.All Right, dragon Con weekend, Labor
Day weekend. It's for me it'sdragon Con weekend, but it's Labor Day

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weekend for everyone else. That meansthere'll be other things going on in Atlanta.
It's not just the convention going on. So there will be a lot
going on, as there always is. So for folks maybe coming for the
first time, or maybe they haven'tbeen in a little while and Atlanta is
a little busier that weekend than they'reused to. How do you recommend they
navigate their way into dragon Con?Well, the first thing I always tell

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people if you're coming to dragon Con, have a plan, and some of
the things that you're going to includein your plan is where do I park?
How do I actually get to thehotels. We have a partnership with
spot hero to take care of parking, and you can purchase your parking as
early as today for the dragon Contime frame, and that will give you

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the best spots in all of themidtown and downtown area of dragon Con.
So you can go ahead or ranchyour parking, pay for your parking ahead
of time, and just pull up. It's all taken care of. That's
easy peasy. Also, if you'recloser to Atlanta, or if you're just

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willing to try something different, wealways recommend taking Marta. If you're coming
from the South side, you canpark at the airport, get on the
Marta at the airport, come onup. If you're coming from the north
side, Sandy Springs or similar stationand just come on down. The Marta
trains drop you off at Peachtree Center, which is part of dragon Con.

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Really, we surround the Peach TreeCenter Marta station and you depending on what
time you're on the Marta, it'svery likely if you're going to be in
a cosplayer costume, there might beothers also on there, so you won't
be the only one, not atall. In fact, I know a
lot of people who do not cometo drag Coon who when I mentioned dragon
Coon the first thing they say wasI was taking Marta to work and the

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train was filled with the Avengers.Dan looking forward to seeing you dragon Con
weekend as always, and again foranyone who needs any more information about the
convention they want to look through theguest list of who will be there,
there's a great who to See tabat the top of the dragon Con website,

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and that website one more time iswww dragon conduct org. This is
the dragon Con pregame show powered byColumbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center,
where you can learn the science behindthe fiction.