Jump into the way back machine with me. It was last summer, I believe. A lovely weekday afternoon at the Salt Lake City Public library and I was in a debate of sorts with Bigshinyrobot.com ‘s own Swank-mo-tron. We were talking about conventions. More specifically, WHY a convention in our hometown would be a ‘difficult’ thing to pull off.
Actually, he didn’t think it would be…of course I was playing devil’s advocate and told him it would be YEARS before Salt Lake could rival the behemoth that San Diego has become. Let alone Denver’s, Baltimore’s or the Seattle’s. I even wrote about such an endeavor back in my column ‘This Is How You Do It’ back in June. It was my call to arms, throwing down the gauntlet to the Salt Lake Comic Con organizers on what I think they could learn from the DCC and what they would need to do to pull off the unthinkable. An actual, legitimate Comic Convention here in the Beehive state. I really had my doubts, stating that 10,000 attendees would be a success and thirty out of the gate would be incredible.
I’m happy to say that you ALL proved me wrong.
70-80,000 people attended just on the Saturday alone according the statement provided from the SLCC and the fire marshals.
You made history and shut it down! Kudos. Really, I mean it. We have turned a corner, or at least I’d like to think so.
We all have ‘something’ that we do. That we are. Some choose to sit on their couch and watch people exercise for millions of dollars. Some people like to work on old run-down cars. Myself, I like to write words and sometimes say them over music- sometimes not. I dig being around creative people. I was partially raised by Run DMC and funny books. The people that I see at these conventions seem like good, hard-working people with lives and families. We ALL like to blow off steam, party and have a good time. The whole ‘All work and no play thing’. To the naysayers, nitpickers and critics of this event I say, GEEK culture is not what you think it is. And by these numbers, There are ALOT of us in the 801/435.
This means we can begin speculation on who the ‘big gets’ will be in 2014. Wil Wheaton? Neil Gaiman? Robert Kirkman? Sound off in the comments below. Let us know what/who you would like to see. Personally, I would LOVE a LOST panel. We can chat about the mythos, theorize on alternate endings, talk about our favorite moments, etc. And hey…you wouldn’t even have to twist my arm to moderate the thing. Hint hint.
I can’t thank the organizers enough. It was SO much fun and the energy was contagious! I’ve been to SDCC, Denver Comic Con and PAX Prime three times – for a first-time event, this one was amazing. In 2014, I’m assuming that more guests, vendors, and attendees will put this on their calendar AND the other half of the convention center should be opened up. Also…add the Sunday. Trust me, there will still be 40,000 peeps there.
My time at SLCC was filled with moments I’ll never forget and you can’t put a price on that.
-Dagobot
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