MegaCon: A Great Weekend and a Continuation of Firsts

Hard to believe another MegaCon weekend has come and gone. I know I’m a little late in writing this blog. The week after MegaCon, I moved out of the rental I was in and into a shiny new home with a mortgage. Add to that not being able to get my internet provider out as quickly as I would have liked to get the home connected, here we are today. Although this post a bit delayed the memories are still there and boy was MegaCon a great one.

It really is a thing to behold as the anticipation of MegaCon never leaves me. MegaCon was my first convention back in 2005 and I have not missed one since. 2019 marked my 15th appearance at the annual convention. I was certainly ready for an awesome weekend.

MegaCon has provided me a lot of firsts in conventions and life in general. It was mt first convention ever. It was the first convention I attended the whole weekend (2007) and gave me such experiences as renting a hotel for the first time and using the internet to have pizza delivered to me. The tradition of firsts continued that weekend. While not my first convention as press (that honor falls to Star Wars Celebration), I did get a first for me in regard to press media: I conducted my first celebrity interview. On that Friday, I conducted an interview with author Sherrilyn Kenyon. I had tried some interview opportunities before but had fallen through last minute. Mrs. Kenyon is an absolutely sweet woman and conducting the interview was a blast.

As conventions go, MegaCon is easily the largest in Florida and becoming one of the largest in the country. Attendance for the event has been going over 100,000 attendees since 2016. As big as the convention gets, it still always fun to make the little discoveries. One of the highlights of Friday for me was finding a figure I had as a kid and being able to get it again. The figure in question is web cannon Spider-Man, a fine example of the wild gimmicks of the 90s. But that is the fun of pop culture conventions. it’s getting to have these moments of fun and nostalgia.

The weekend would continue on like this. The bulk of my time was spent with great friends and having a great time. Over the last few years, I had seen a number of groups I was in take different paths and many have stopped going to conventions like MegaCon or severely cut back for a multitude of reasons. All absolutely valid. This year, I felt like I was beginning to forge some new paths and felt welcome into some new circles and the ensuing shenanigans. While crowds give me issues, events like MegaCon are somehow the opposite for me. Perhaps it’s knowing there are so many people who like the same things as me and want to spend hours discussing the finer details of Star Trek. A convention is a great place to make new friends.

Another great aspect of MegaCon is the costumes. Cosplayers bring their A-Game to MegaCon and many of my friends always find that new costume to debut. So many great crafters out there with amazing costumes and props. I did get to do my first super hero costume, as I made a Gambit costume mostly from thrift store pieces. I did get to meet an amazing Gambit cosplayer and really got inspired to get this costume great by next year.

As exhausting as walking a convention is in the Florida heat (although next year’s April dates are a welcome relief as the weather will be much better and I have always preferred the earlier MegaCon dates) and even more so getting media coverage, it is always a welcome feeling to go to an event like MegaCon that gets bigger and bigger every year and know that I feel like I belong there. My trip to MegaCon has definitely inspired me and renewed me to keep working to improve the site and learn new skills to create new content. I can still say after 15 MegaCons that it is my favorite convention and likely will continue to be for a long time.