Dragon*Con 2014 Retrospective: Raul Garza

by Raul Garza      

  I was in Atlanta, Georgia this year for Dragon Con 2014 my first time attending.  I meet-up with my friends from the Geek I/O Network: CJ, his wife Rachel, Jared his wife Elisha and Jarred Azevedo appeared to hang out.  I had a amazing time at Dragon Con with taking in all the tracks that I was able to attend to all the cosplay and other activities going on around me.

Day 1

        First day was a bit rough just trying to get myself situated to being a new city.  First thing I can tell you about my first experience at Dragon Con is there is a lot of walking in high humidly and standing in line for tracks.  

    I could not turn my head anywhere at con and not see some in in some sort of cosplay it was amazing.  There was a great mix of cosplay from all different types of media like comics, movies, video games, tv shows, cartoons and much more.  Walking around the I noticed that everyone was very friendly.  I felt that we all shared a common interest that we all love our own bit of the whole nerd/geek culture to be able to talk about it openly with the over 60,000 attendees at Dragon Con.

    This being my first Dragon Con I mostly stay with my friends who knew the layout a bit better than myself.  I was able to meet a lot of host of the podcast I listen to at home like Tom Merritt, Justin Robert Young, Brain Brushwood, and Veronica Belmont.  Most of my time was spent in the Hilton where there were podcasting tracks on building, making money from podcast and coming to terms with low numbers or that no one is listening to your podcast.  Which what I got from that was if you enjoy doing your podcast and your are having fun it doesn't matter what your numbers are just keep on doing it.  Next we all went our separate ways for a few hours.  Next up it the FSL Tonight Championship track with Tom Merritt and Justin Robert Young.  This was my first time listen to FSL and I really enjoyed it.  It was sports talk radio with real fantasy teams like the San Francisco Federation and the Gallifrey Time Lords.  The rest of the night I spent down stairs in the table top gaming room.  I was able to join a game Zombie Dice with some people I meet there and watch a game of Lords of Waterdeep.


Day 2

  On Saturday it was spent mostly just roamed around the Hyatt, Marriott and the Hilton.  We were able to take in both Dragon Con and the city of Atlanta. Spent some time at the mall eating and just watch all the great cosplayers that walked by.  We moved away from the con for dinner a nice steak house.  The highlight of the night came at the Night Attack Live Show.  Had a blast with Justin and Brian Brushwood.  There was Turquoise Jeep,  a rap session with MC Allergy, Don’t Get Brodied and the Cosplay Contest.  This show could of easily gone late into to night, but at last it had to come to an end and then came the after party.  The after party was a concert put on my Power Hour Ali Spagnola and Professor Shyguy.  And we rocked to Shyguy’s chiptunes and then Ali’s 60 second covers.  There was much fun had on that night.

 

Day 3

          Sunday we went to vendor’s hall which there was much selling and buying going on.  There was a bit from everything replica swords, cosplay outfits,  shirts, toys, anime, comics, cards, posters.  It was like you could name anything nerdy/geeky and there was someone selling it.  Sunday was also the day we had planned to spend together away from the con and enjoy the city and catch a movie with our friend Jarred Azevedo.  Found a theater in this very hipster outdoor mall which only had two hour max parking.  Had dinner filled the parking meter and went to the movies to watch Guardians of the Galaxy.  The movie theater kinda caught us all off guard.  The box office on ground floor ok normal, but then you had to behind it to a single glass door to an escalator to what you say a second escalator which took us to the front of the snake bar and screen rooms.

      That was my last night there because of an early flight the next morning.  I had a great time just not at Dragon Con, but with meeting and hang out with my friends for the first time since being asked to be a guest on their podcast back in 2011