Dragon Con Atlanta 2020
Conference Recap Dragon Con Atlanta 2020
Introduction
They held Dragon Con Atlanta 2020 from September 3 to 7, 2020. This year with Covid-19, it was a virtual conference. I viewed 5 panels, 1 interview, and 2 Dragon Con updates. Three tracks could be viewed at the same time for 24 hours a day from 6:30 PM Thursday to 3:30 PM Monday. The tracks were the main track, a fan track, and a classic track (replays of taped panels from 2008 to 2019). It was a great opportunity for me because Atlanta is far away from me, and I am not likely to attend this con in person.
The Logo for Dragon Con Atlanta 2020.
This is a link to Dragon Con’s website.
Summary
Friday, September 4th, at 11 PM
Games of Thrones panel from 2015 on the Classic Track:
The panel’s moderator was Marc Lee. The panelists were actors from the Game of Thrones show Kristian Nairn (Hodor), Finn Jones (Loras Tyrell), and Julian Glover (Grand Maester Pycelle).
Kristian talked about filming in Iceland, Finn talked about performing a gay scene on his first day of shooting, and Julian talked about always playing the villain in movies, so he was never in the sequels.
I thought it was a fun panel and the panelists were engaging.
Saturday, September 5th, at 1 PM
John Scalzi: Tour of an Author’s Life (and Kitchen), an interview with John Scalzi on the Main Track:
This was a taped interview by Brian Robertson of author John Scalzi. He interviewed Scalzi by remote from each of their homes. The interview was done in three parts.
First, John Scalzi talked about his career in his office. He started as a journalist and posted his work in progress on his blog. That novel was Old Man’s War and the success of that book launched his career as a novelist. He considers it an accidental career.
The second part of the interview was from John Scalzi’s basement. He keeps his musical instruments down there. Playing music is a release for him between writing.
The last part of the interview was from John Scalzi’s kitchen. He enjoys making burritos with anything goes. The burrito he made here featured two-day-old lasagna and parmesan dip. He finished the interview mentioning that his latest novel was nominated for the Dragon Award for Science Fiction Novel.
John Scalzi’s latest novel is The Last Emperox. It is the third and final book of the Interdependency Trilogy and was released on April 14, 2020. This is the link to the Goodreads page.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38322550-the-last-emperox
The panel started with 298 attendees, increased to 335 attendees at 1:10 PM, and ended with 361 attendees at the end of the interview.
I thought it was a great interview. I’ve seen John Scalzi many times and he is always interesting and engaging.
Saturday, September 5th, at 5 PM
Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey panel from 2008 on the Classic Track:
The beginning of the panel was Todd interviewing his mother Anne and the rest of the panel was questions from the audience. She said she got inspired to write because she needed money for her three small kids at home. Anne wrote the Dragonriders of Pern series which became more popular with the success of Harry Potter.
She said that sometimes it is the names that inspire the story other times it is the characters. Geology fascinated her and cartography was important to her novels. She moved to Ireland and horses were important to her. At one point he owned 23 horses.
It was interesting to see this panel from 2008. Anne McCaffrey is one of my favorite authors.
The panel started with 208 attendees.
Sunday, September 6th, at 3 PM
Perseverance – Mars 2020 panel with Dr. Sarah Milkovich and Kim Steadman on the Fan Track:
This was a slideshow presentation with two engineers of the surface operation for the Perseverance rover that launched to Mars on July 30, 2020. The presentation was filmed on July 31, 2020. They plan to land the probe at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. It was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. The mission is to seek signs of ancient life at an ancient river delta.
The engineers discussed the instruments on the rover. The rover will take readings and collect 30 samples at various locations. A second mission will collect the samples and launch them to orbit. A third mission will collect the samples and return them to earth.
These are links to the mission briefing on the JPL website and the NASA website.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance-rover/
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
This is a projected photo of the rover on Mars.
I thought it was a great presentation. I hope the rover has a safe landing next year.
Sunday, September 6th, at 6 PM
The 2020 Dragon Awards announced by Cooper Andrews on the Main Track:
The 2020 Dragon Awards were announced. There are 15 categories including gaming, literature, and visual medium. There were nominees in each category and the winners were announced in this half-hour presentation. The last award was for the Science Fiction novel. John Scalzi, the writing Guest of Honor, won for his novel The Last Emperox.
Sunday, September 6th, at 6:30 PM
The Dragon Con Update with Will and Bee:
Will and Bee interviewed Leigh and Jon. Leigh and Jon conduct interviews of the leaders of different tracks at the conference. They want to bring attention to the behind the scenes people at the con. They post the interviews at the unique geek.
The Dragon Con update finished with a heck with Beth about the Fan Interactions Report. She showed pictures from four hashtags that they used.
Monday, September 6th, at 9 AM
Award-Winning and Best-selling Authors panel on the Fan Track:
Bill Fawcett was the Moderator of the panel. The panel was Tasmin Silver (writes urban fantasy and historical fantasy), Robert Sawyer (his most recent novel is the alternate history, The Oppenheimer Alternative), Jody Lynn Nye (wrote in the Myth Adventures series and co-wrote with Anne McCaffery), and John Scalzi (Dragon Con Writing Guest of Honor and winner of the Dragon Award for Science Fiction Novel, for the Last Emperox).
Bill asked the panel a series of questions. The main point was what makes a novel an award winner versus a best-seller. Robert’s answer was a best seller needs a likable protagonist while an award winner might have an unlikeable protagonist. John answered that best-sellers are marketable books with the goal to entertain, while award winners have a bold view and are written for writers.
Other questions included are best sellers a product of the time they are read, social media advice, and advice for new writers.
I thought that all four writers gave insightful answers to the moderator’s questions. I wish the had more time to talk.
Monday, September 6th, at 1 PM
Let’s Build a World panel on the Fan Track:
Michael G. Williams was the Moderator of the panel. The panel was Cecilia Dominic (writes urban fantasy and steampunk), Charles E. Gannon (writes hard SF and Alternate history), and Chris Kennedy (SF author, publisher, and editor).
The panel was about how writers build their worlds. The first question was about how the authors created their setting. The second question was about the most important decision to make in world-building. What do you most hate about world-building? Is it characters first or later when you are designing a setting? Is believability important to you?
They played an exercise on world-building picking four answers to important questions. They picked religion (ancestor worship that is not based on reality), family (with gender fluidity), social conformity (the worst thing to them is to be shunned), and tech (low tech).
I thought the plan was interesting especially how the writers completed the world-building exercise.
Recommendation – Conclusion
Virtual Dragon Con Atlanta 2020 was a great experience. Viewing the virtual con was nice since I would not have made it to Atlanta this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I checked out a few presentations Friday evening to see how it was. Before the Game of Thrones panel, I looked at the end of Improvised Dungeons and Dragons. The panelists took a humorous take on a random D & D game. What I saw was funny. I wish I had seen the whole panel. My star of the con was John Scalzi. Other highlights were the Let’s Build a World panel and the Mars 2020 presentation. I hope to attend Dragon Con sometime in the future.
Links
This is my post for a similar conference that I attended in person in January 2020.
I attended the SF conference ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 16 to 19, 2020. I attended four panels, two readings, and one interview. The theme of the con was How to Train Your ConFusion, based on the movie, How to Train Your Dragon. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading of Chapter Two of his upcoming book named The Last Emperox. My other highlights were Kameron Hurley’s interview and the lecture on Edible Insects and Human Evolution. I’ll be back next year.