On the day before Dragon Con, there’s a line for the elevator that takes convention goers from the underground Hilton Atlanta parking deck to the lobby. The people standing in this line have suitcases packed for the long weekend, but they’re also manning wagons filled to the brim with snacks: chips, crackers, bottles of water, and more. Because God forbid one gets hungry while standing in line to meet Katee Sackhoff or John Boyega.
When you finally make it to the lobby, the crowds that will fill the convention all weekend long – around 75,000 people – have already started to appear. People are carrying around stray pieces of cosplay, handmade masks, and small dragons made to perch on the shoulders of their owner. But most importantly, volunteers are still running around the entirety of the Dragon Con complex, making sure everything is prepared for the main event.
Dragon Con is one of the biggest pop culture and gaming conventions in the country. But here in Atlanta, it can feel a bit old hat. If it’s Labor Day weekend, it’s Dragon Con. That’s the way it’s been for 40 years.
Because us Atlantans are so used to Dragon Con and its presence, it can be easy to forget how much work goes into putting on a convention of this size. So, ahead of this year’s event, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1, Rough Draft Atlanta spoke with Renee Cooper, director of the Animation Track at Dragon Con, about how the sausage gets made.
Cooper started volunteering with Dragon Con roughly 8 years ago, but before that had been attending the convention since 2009. Cooper runs the Animation Track – think everything from “X-Men ‘97” to “Steven Universe.” There are more than 30 “tracks” at Dragon Con, covering everything from “Star Trek,” to anime/manga, to all things British for all you “Dr. Who” heads out there.
Like everyone at Dragon Con, Cooper started out as a fan, and she and all of the other track directors at Dragon Con are volunteers. As the director of the animation track, Cooper is in charge of helping to build out the schedule – panels, parties, sing-alongs, etc. – for all things animation. She normally starts building out her schedule in February, about six or seven months before the main event, and spends her time watching as much animation as she can, keeping up with what’s popular and the conversations that are happening online.
“I’m a fan of animation, so I’m always watching as much as I can,” Cooper said. “I can’t get to everything. But if something is much newer, if it’s very topical, if the fan community is very vocal, then it is almost a no brainer.”
Dragon Con usually hosts somewhere around 100 guests each year. This year, Cooper is excited to have voice actors like Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), and other voices from the popular shows “X-Men: The Animated Series” and “X-Men ‘97.”
Cooper said the main programming department is in charge of reviewing applications for guests. Once those guests – whether that be a huge celebrity or a professional comic book writer – are booked, she comes into the picture.
“They review those and pass them to us to see one, do we think we can get a lot of programming from this person,” Cooper said. “Or two, to let us know this person is definitely coming, and we need you to put something together.”
Dragon Con takes place across hundreds of rooms throughout five hotels – the Hilton, Marriott Marquis, and Hyatt Regency (all connected by indoor sky bridges), as well as the Courtland Grand and Westin Peachtree Plaza. And those hundreds of rooms don’t even include AmericasMart Atlanta, a wholesale marketplace a quick walk away from the main hotels that serves as the hub for shopping, vendors, comic book artists, and more. Fans might catch a glimpse of their favorite Dragon Con guests anywhere, whether that be at a panel, at the Walk of Fame photo and autograph center in the Marriott, or (if you’re lucky) on the convention floor. Six to 10 different events could take place in any given room during a singular day, adding up to thousands of hours of programming.
“The hotels themselves have evolved and have changed,” Cooper said. “They’ve changed their layouts, and they’ve built up over the past decade or so to be a little bit more optimized for these larger events.”
While the hotels have changed, the good vibes have not. The best, most unique aspects of Dragon Con come straight from fans and volunteers – for example, the legend of Fed-Ex Jon.
Several years ago, a cardboard cutout of a Fed-Ex worker (AKA, Jon) stood in the corner of one of the sky bridges. Fed-Ex Jon became something of a celebrity, and mischievous convention-goers started drawing faces on him, putting stickers on him, leaving little notes on him – a little light-hearted, harmless vandalism, if you will. Ultimately, the cardboard cutout was removed, but the cult of Fed-Ex Jon has lived on. This year, somebody set up a stack of Fed-Ex boxes topped with a googly-eyed Eye of Sauron. The day before the convention, it already has a few mementos on it.
Although the 75,000 people who will descend on Atlanta for Dragon Con this weekend is a little less than the festival pre COVID-19 numbers (the convention would sometimes play host to nearly 100,000 people), Cooper said the smaller crowd has its benefits.
“It’s the best way for us to meter to make sure everyone is having an enjoyable experience,” she said. “75,000 allows it to be more comfortable.”
Of those 75,000, about 3,000 will walk in the famous Dragon Con Parade, which will take place on the Saturday of the convention. One of the perks of Dragon Con being such a long-standing tradition is that everyone involved knows exactly what to expect – from the city, to the volunteers, to the walkers.
“They keep the route going,” Cooper said about the team who runs the parade. “The way that they get everyone off the route once the parade ends – the logistics that have gone into that have been fantastic.”
While she may be on the job, that won’t stop Cooper from having fun this weekend. She’s already got her cosplay planned and ready to go – the Marvel superhero Ironheart and the character Hawthorne from the movie “Lightyear.”
