Dragon*Con Monday

We were able to sleep in a bit today, since we weren't expecting our 10am event to be crowded. Unfortunately it was raining pretty heavily so we had to huddle under our small umbrella for the walk to the convention area but we managed to stay pretty dry. As expected, the corridors and event rooms were pretty empty at 10am, partially because some attendees skip the Monday sessions to get home, and partially because 10am is pretty early for those who were up all night at the parties.

Our first panel was "Drones: Privacy and Local Enforcement", part of the Electronic Frontier Forum track, and was in a small room in the Hilton.  The panel explained what modern law enforcement drones and personal hobbyist drones are capable of, and then delved into the laws (or lack thereof) that may come into play.

At 11am we wandered to the Marriott and did some people watching, although there were decidely fewer costumes out and about. We actually had nothing planned until the "Battlestar Galactica: What Do You Hear?" panel at 1pm in the giant Marriott Atrium Ballroom. When we scoped out the room, we saw that the 11:30 panel for that room, "Smallville: Metropolis and Beyond", was about to start and the room was still mostly empty. The volunteer at the door said they would NOT be clearing the room before events (since Monday is pretty lightly attended) so we could find seats now and then stay for the BSG panel.

James Marsters looking particularly menacing

The Smallville panel included James Marsters, John Glover, Allison Mack, and Laura Vandervoort. Although Smallville wasn't something we cared much about, some of the stories were entertaining, and James Marsters spoke a bit about his voice acting for the Dresden audio books. When the Smallville panel ended, some attendees left so we upgraded to slightly better seats for BSG.

We both really enjoyed the BSG panel

The BSG panel included Edward James Olmos, Richard Hatch, Tahmoh Penikett, and Kandyse McClure. It was a great panel, and many of the audience questions led the actors back to talking about how amazing it was to work on BSG and how it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was clear they were passionate about the show, and Olmos ended the panel with a short speech followed by a packed room of over a thousand attendees shouting "So say we all!".



Although DragonCon had a few hours to go, it was over for us. We make it quickly back to our hotel, swapped out some supplies, and got in the car to meet our old friends Eric and Sundee for an early dinner.

Tomorrow we hit the road early!