THE PINT INVADES – AWESOME CON 2019
Recently I had the great fortune to attend Awesome Con 2019, having been told how fantastic a show it was for the past few years by my good friend and Destiny clan mate, I packed up the camera gear, and headed down to our Nations Capitol to scope it out. Housed in the Walter E. Washington Convention center, Awesome Con is truly one of the premier shows on the East Coast (if not the entire country), and I can firmly say that if you haven’t ever attended, you most certainly owe it to yourself to make the trip. I have rarely experienced a show of this size that was as well run. From the ease of picking up my press badge, to the flawless execution of the Con staff, this show should serve as a template of how a Con SHOULD run. So scroll through, and check out some of my pics and thoughts from the day.
Allow me to present: The Walter E. Washington Convention Center, I wanted to put these here to hopefully illustrate how enormous (and beautiful) a building it is, and it is the sheer size of the building that allows for the ridiculously large amount of attendees to move around comfortably.
Now you may be asking yourself “Lou, what’s with the pictures of people queueing?” And here is your answer: There are things that separate good shows from GREAT shows, and one of the MAIN factors is how well the staff deals with the crowd, especially when the doors first open. These pictures were taken at around 10:10 AM, and by about 10:17 A.M. ALL the people you see here had made it through the security checkpoint and into the show floor!!!! THAT is how you handle a crowd!!! And proves how well the folks at Awesome Con kept everything moving. Nothing frustrates excited con goers more than having to wait in line for hours.
Now if you look below you will see a couple of photos of the main concourse and stairs, this is after the folks had made it through security and were officially heading to the show floor. Believe me when I tell you I was IMPRESSED
Here’s a look at the main show floor from the program, and if you look on the right you can see all the different “Con’s Within a Con” that they had going on, along with show mainstays such as the Celebrity Meet and Greet’s, and Artist Alley, they also had sections dedicated to “Awesome Con Jr” full of stuff for the little ones to see and do, a full “Pride Alley” for the LGBTQ attendees, Future Con, The Backlot Sponsored by the Smithsonian which housed some awesome movie props (I have a TON of pics below of that). All in all there was something for everyone, and with the way they laid it all out, everything you were interested in was grouped together, so no having to crisscross the show floor to see everything.
It was physically impossible for me to accurately convey how MASSIVE the main show floor was, and hopefully these photos do the trick. The amount of people easily rivaled New York, but at no point did I ever feel cramped or uncomfortable, I wasn’t getting bumped into every 2 seconds, I could easily stop to look at vendors wares, and chat with folks, and I had absolutely no problem moving around!!! Which is a testament to not only the size of the area, but how well they had it laid out. It also bears mentioning that they had tons of tables and chairs to sit down and rest, and a bunch of different food vendors there!!! It’s so important for promoters to offer ample seating for multiple reasons, not the least of which keeping the walking aisles clear.
Now without further ado, lets get to what you are all here for, the fun stuff!!!
“The Backlot” was most certainly the highlight for me, not only did they have an impressive collection of Bat related memorabilia (due to the fact that it is Batman’s 80th Birthday) from all the various movies starring the Caped Crusader but as you can see they also had a nice collection of classic Batman comics. It was also a treat to see Maxwell Jenkins’ suit, and of course The Robot from the Netflix reboot of “Lost In Space” (which is a great show if you haven’t seen season 1). Both Dark Horse, and DC had a nice presence at the con. Along with the 501st, Droidbuilders, and Local Ghostbusters chapter. Tons of stuff to see and do. And these pics represent just a small cross section of everything there was going on. They also had quite a loaded meet and greet area chock full of celebrities such as Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Mary McDonnell, Martin Kove, Mike Colter, Michael Biehn, and a nice group of The Next Gen cast such as Wil Wheaton, Marina Sirtis, and Jonathan Frakes. This was the only place on the floor that photography was not allowed (for obvious reasons), but trust me when I tell you that area was LOADED all day long.
Also it wouldn’t be a show without The Pint getting to chat with our longtime Con bud, Tom Ryan of Tom Ryan’s studio. You see, he has this habit of stalking us wherever we go. If we showed up at a con in Duluth, he would be there, but that’s OK because he’s the man. An extremely hard working dude, and certified ROAD WARRIOR. If you haven’t checked out his stuff you owe it to yourself to do so.
And just because we were in our Nations Capitol, I took a couple of hours to head to the National Mall, and see the sights. So I want to leave you all with a couple pictures I took. I’ve never been this close to any of these before, and the power and majesty of what I saw was not lost on me. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do, and I hope you enjoyed this peek at a tremendous show. I for one am definitely attending next year, and hope to have a larger contingent of the crew with me. I could only cover so much by myself, and I feel that next year we could do even MORE.
Until Next Time Everyone,
Be Good To Your Fellow Nerd
Lou
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