Thoughts on MegaCon 2004
What really struck me about Orlando's Megacon is that it's much more of a trade show for sci-fi fans than other conventions. Held at the Orange County Convention Center, the con focuses on vendor booths and autograph sessions, adding discussion panels and other programming events as an afterthought. If you've been to other conventions like Dragon*Con, imagine the gaming rooms, dealers' room, artist's alley, and walk of fame combined and spread out across one large showroom floor (though, considering the congestion in the aisles, perhaps not large enough). A convention center is of course more conducive to this sort of raucous expo atmosphere, but it is distinctly different from a convention hotel, where the attendees settle in for a few days and have rooms to which they may escape (or use to change costumes).
There were a few events taking place in seminar rooms, like the standard Arne Starr trailer show. (More on this in a bit.) Some of the higher-profile guests were also in themed panels, but the rest of the programming tracks seemed too generic or technical. In any case, there was little to interest us and we spent most of our time on the showroom floor. This was a good thing, as we needed most of that time to see all of the booths and make decisions on what we were going to go back and purchase.
When we approached the MegaCon programming folks about attending the convention as speakers, we were informed that panels were staffed by the people who had paid for showroom floor booths. This may account for the scattershot nature of the programming -- there were panels on CGI animation next to talks by comic book creators -- but I think the convention could benefit from the wealth of creative talent in the area who would be only too happy to offer their expertise in exchange for the exposure and admission to the convention. Naturally, I say this as one of those people looking for exposure, but if there had been a better variety of panels I might have stayed as a paying attendee for an extra day.
The one programming event I did attend was Arne Starr's traveling show of movie trailers, which is a mainstay of sci-fi conventions. For years Starr, a comics illustrator with some friends in Hollywood, has set up his projection equipment in ballrooms and showed movie fans the upcoming slate of movies for the next year, commenting on projects in development as he goes. Unfortunately Starr's gig has been supplanted by the wealth of trailers on the Internet -- indeed, most of his stock seemed to come from Apple's Quicktime trailers site and there were few trailers which Scott or I hadn't seen. (A notable exception: American Scary.) In this particular instance there was a lot of fiddling with the projector and sound equipment, which was a major distraction until he got it fixed. (Perhaps he should have been given more prep time?) Still, the house was packed and there were enough people who apparently don't troll the movie rumors sites to keep the appreciative (and surprised) murmurs coming.
I would probably return to MegaCon given the opportunity and the time, but it's not high on my list of "must-attend" events.
There were a few events taking place in seminar rooms, like the standard Arne Starr trailer show. (More on this in a bit.) Some of the higher-profile guests were also in themed panels, but the rest of the programming tracks seemed too generic or technical. In any case, there was little to interest us and we spent most of our time on the showroom floor. This was a good thing, as we needed most of that time to see all of the booths and make decisions on what we were going to go back and purchase.
When we approached the MegaCon programming folks about attending the convention as speakers, we were informed that panels were staffed by the people who had paid for showroom floor booths. This may account for the scattershot nature of the programming -- there were panels on CGI animation next to talks by comic book creators -- but I think the convention could benefit from the wealth of creative talent in the area who would be only too happy to offer their expertise in exchange for the exposure and admission to the convention. Naturally, I say this as one of those people looking for exposure, but if there had been a better variety of panels I might have stayed as a paying attendee for an extra day.
The one programming event I did attend was Arne Starr's traveling show of movie trailers, which is a mainstay of sci-fi conventions. For years Starr, a comics illustrator with some friends in Hollywood, has set up his projection equipment in ballrooms and showed movie fans the upcoming slate of movies for the next year, commenting on projects in development as he goes. Unfortunately Starr's gig has been supplanted by the wealth of trailers on the Internet -- indeed, most of his stock seemed to come from Apple's Quicktime trailers site and there were few trailers which Scott or I hadn't seen. (A notable exception: American Scary.) In this particular instance there was a lot of fiddling with the projector and sound equipment, which was a major distraction until he got it fixed. (Perhaps he should have been given more prep time?) Still, the house was packed and there were enough people who apparently don't troll the movie rumors sites to keep the appreciative (and surprised) murmurs coming.
I would probably return to MegaCon given the opportunity and the time, but it's not high on my list of "must-attend" events.
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