Convention Recap: Dragon Con 2025 - Attending Pro

This will likely be the last year I do a post specifically talking about the experience of being an Attending Pro, because there is really only so much you can say about it. Also, I pretty well topped out at what they allow you to do as an Attending Pro, so it's not like there is more growth to be documented in the future. At least until I one day rate Guest Status (goals!).

For those unaware Dragon Con has Attending Pros and Guests. Guests are the big names, like William Shatner and the Hobbits from LoTR. They limit those to between 3 and 4 hundred. Besides getting a badge, I believe they also get a room comped, and most of them do paid signings and the like. It's a trade off: they cost the con a lot of money, but they bring in a lot of money in return. Attending Pros however make up the bulk of panelists you see. They are professionals in their area of expertise, and in return for being on panels they get their weekend badge for free. This is what I was this year.

This year I am a bit better known, a bit more of an established personality I guess you could say, so when it came time for the track heads to add me to panels, there were more who felt confident in adding me. So I ended up on 11 panels! Plus the Fantasy Gather, and the Urban Fantasy Track put me on a signing! How cool is that? I did no weaseling, nothing like that. I was just a name on a list, and folks picked it. 

What made the difference? Well the Fantasy Literature Track added me to their panels for the first time was one thing (they had me on the Gather last year, but that's not a panel). That accounted for two. The writing track had me on three, which is two more than usual. Digital Media made up the bulk of the rest as per the norm (love them so much), but used me for like five panels instead of the usual 2-3. I also got to be on one item of Main Programming! First time that's ever happened at Dragon!

So to quickly summarize:

• Two years ago I was an Attending Faux, and weaseled onto six panels.

• Last year I was an Attending Pro and was put on five panels and the Gather, and then weaseled onto one more.

• This year I was an Attending Pro and was put on eleven panels, a signing, and the Gather.

Now to sell a few million copies so I can be an official Guest!