DreamCon 2024 was highly anticipated and under a scrutinizing eye this year - from the notorious unorganized adventure that was last year, I think many people were watching to see how they’d bounce back. They grew quickly from their start in 2018 - in just seven years, DreamCon has grown roughly 3X in size, the biggest jump being from 8,000 con attendees in 2022 to 20,000+ attendees in 2023. 

This year’s convention was held at the Hilton Austin Convention Center, and the security presence felt more improved than last year from the moment we walked in. Each door seemed to have better security available while it made the lines RIDICULOUSLY long, things felt smoother as we entered the convention center. The first event of the day and weekend was the Opening Ceremony, and they were not on CP time this year! It started promptly at noon and was quickly over for an event meant to set the weekend off. They mostly spoke about their convention sponsors and sent us off after fifteen minutes to start crafting our dream weekend (pun intended!).  

On day one, the general vibe of Dreamcon was there. The buzzing energy of a cookout where your uncle has finally put the chicken on the grill, or your niece’s fifth birthday party and everybody is FINALLY starting to show up. The excitement and anticipation were palpable.

 Phoenix, host of The Anime Tea podcast and YouTube, hosting her “Why Women in Shonen Matter” Panel at Dreamcon 2024

A few panels caught our eye - we started at the “How Women Have Changed Shonen” panel hosted by Phoenix, host of The Anime Tea podcast and YouTube. Despite the direct translation, Shonen anime has crossed gender boundaries from its original intended young male audience. Shonen has always appealed to women just as much as its intended audience. Phoenix spoke about little things brought into shonen through recent years: chibi’s, male maid cafes, and “pretty boy” aesthetics. They’ve all been seen more often in this genre to attract women’s attention. The panel attendees’ participation was also alive - a few ideas alternated between the host and attendees on how Shonen intentionally appeals to women. This is the first - and not the last - time I’d notice how jam-packed the panels were! Most of the seats were claimed, and crowds spilled out into the convention hallways. 

Speaking about the female audience, the controversial “How to Pick Up Baddies at an Anime Convention” panel was the next big stop. The title already turned people off before they came to the convention, but it ended up being a self-help panel rather than a pick-up artist's tips for people with weird intentions. The host advised on avoiding manipulating people, gaining self-confidence, and to specifically “...tell people don’t do it”. He seemed passionate about his message, though… he just chose a funny way to present it! Attending this panel was a much-needed uno-reverse card for anyone serious about pick-up artistry. 

Members of Inside the Mind of A Blerd hosting their “Cartoons and Cereal” Panel at Dreamcon 2024

Friday came and went like this - aside from a couple of lighthearted panels like “Cozy Anime’s” to watch on a home day (also hosted by Pheonix from The Anime Tea), or the obligatory hot-take panel “Cartoon and Cereal” (hosted by the Inside The Mind of a Blerd Podcast) where all your favorite Saturday-morning cartoons were given a pass-fail score, people were mostly riding that first-day high. “Tax Education for Content Creation” (hosted by Rony Fogain a licensed CPA) was a surprisingly essential panel for any burgeoning content creators. Where our knowledge was put to the test! The Kahoot game was where it was at - and the following openness in answering questions in detail helped us walk away with a bit more knowledge than we came with. It was also noteworthy that each panel room had a drinking station for attendees. We all know how bad these cons can get - and hydration was super important throughout the whole weekend.

For day two, the biggest day of any convention, we had a few panels in mind to catch. Saturday did reveal more of the struggle and success of this year - the convention truly had grown! Even in this venue, from the small panels to the main stage panels, the rooms weren’t fitting everyone. Not one panel we attended was half empty. Every panel was either full to the brim or had nearly every seat filled.

From left to right: Michael Allen, Miss Jourdy, Greg Burnham, CC The Geek, and Vince Taylor photographed at Dreamcon 2024 after their "A Different World: HBCU Geeks" panel

 The first panel of the morning was “A Different World: HBCU Geeks”. Moderated by CC the Geek (CEO of The HBCU Convention), the panel featured Miss Jourdy, Vince Taylor, Michael Allen, and Greg Burnham, the panel was full of Black HBCU grads and students discussing their love, struggles, and acceptance for geekdom within HBCUs. One panelist who went to Bowie State was able to share just how easy it was to build their nerd community as she found people who shared common interests. “Suite 200 was like our own little mini-con…somebody’s playing Guitar Hero over here…anime over here…you could talk about family and anything…it was our own little safe space.” This fueled her to want to bring that kind of feeling to the community away from school. 

 The panel even had D9 Greek life members speaking on their experiences - “People didn’t think that Greeks [members of D9 fraternities and sororities] did this.” They were surprised at how intertwined geek and Greek life were when they saw people involved in both spaces. “Your HBCU experience is a foundation…your fruits will flourish with the right fruit.” There were so many words of encouragement for recent HBCU grads. All the panelists were ready to share ways for recent graduates (especially those who've moved to majority-white areas) to stay uplifted and find community. The panelists expounded on how sometimes you may have to start things yourself, to grow the community you want to see. Many people in the room also came from other HBCUs across the country - seeing other HBCU graduates reminded us how even if you were from rival schools, in different conferences, or were on different sides of the country, there’s still a family environment when you’re around other HBCU graduates. There was a lot of good energy and smiles throughout the room. 

From left to right: Vince Taylor, Miss Jourdy, CC The Geek, Greg Burnham, and Michael Allen hosting their “A Different World: HBCU Geeks” at Dreamcon 2024

 After “A Different World: HBCU Geeks” we headed over to “Behind the Scenes of Content Creation”, hosted by  Briana Williams aka StoryModeBae. The panel starred Kalani Rodgers, Krysta aka Krystalogoy, and Tony Statovci, who all shared their experiences with being an influencer, despite experiencing it on different platforms. A sentiment that resonated was how each panelist spoke about staying motivated in your craft - Krysta talked about disconnecting from the content you make and enjoying your hobbies outside of monetization. This felt like a big one - in a day and age where everyone wants to do what they love, finding an occupation that doesn’t turn a passion into a chore is pertinent. It lessens the chance of burning out you do it because you love it. Rodgers spoke about locking into your chosen craft then doubled down on being intentional with the content you make. When asked how he stays so creative Statovci remarked “Creativity is a muscle, and you have to flex that muscle similar to a bodybuilder with their muscles.” Rodgers and he agreed on persevering through burnout. Even if you lack motivation, you must train your “creativity muscles” so you can continue to be creative. 

From Left to Right: Tony Statovci, Kalani Rodgers, Krysta, and Briana Williams at their “Behind The Scenes of Content Creation” during Dreamcon 2024

Williams continued to probe the guests by asking their opinions on topics like chasing trends versus authenticity and taking advantage of the algorithm. Through all the tried-and-true tactics, they widely agreed that you should be true to yourself, rather than chasing any trend to stay relevant. When dealing with hate, some use it to their advantage - like Rodgers using negative commenters as bait to garner likes and trolls, then uno-reversing them (as she should!) - and others sift through it to find real criticism in the commentary. Statovci advised paying attention to what he feels are the “real” critiques of his content whether positive or negative. Along with ignoring trolls, he keeps the more positive comments at bay. Ultimately, he cares more about how his homies feel about his content versus people online. 

Before entering the Q&A portion of the panel, Williams asked them about how they dealt with parasocial relationships and how that potentially affects their everyday lives. Statovci shared how people will try to dig into his personal life and find more about the people closest to him. Williams, Rodgers, and Krysta all spoke on how as women, there’s an additional experience when fans speculate a relationship between them and any men they feature in their content. Each of them remarked how they could talk about different instances where their Twitch chat or social media comments were filled with relationship speculations because of a male friend being featured in their content. They acknowledged how some fans (usually male) could be personally offended by these suspected relationships. However, their personal lives aren’t their audiences' business, and they need to learn to enjoy the content they are presenting without speculation. 

Next, we moved on to, another hot-take panel with its own unique twist named, “Anime Academic Probation: Pass-Mid-Fail” by Black Girls Anime. Anime fans gathered in the spacious panel room to decide if an anime was a pass/mid/fail. This was Black Girls Anime’s second year doing the panel, and the crowd grew as the panel progressed. The panel was super fun, and the amazing ladies of BGA were very effective hosts. The day concluded with the “KevOnStage Comedy Show”, one of the more anticipated events of the weekend. Kev took the stage first warming up the crowd for the lineup of comics that would come after. Brandon Daniel (second time at DreamCon), Tutweezy, Roxxy Haze, and Mo Lowery took the stage shortly after with jokes that kept the crowd laughing. Our personal favorites were Daniel and Kev, especially after Kev’s open on the condition of the aroma at Dreamcon - “Y’all told me this con was going to stink but Black people, I’m proud of you!”

KevonStage photographed during his press room at Dreamcon 2024

Earlier that day, during KevOnStage’s press room we asked him a question about getting animation to the forefront of media and how black people can get more involved in the medium. Coming from someone in the industry, it was easy for him to talk about how capitalism and greed play a HUGE role in stopping the production of animated series. “When Flavor Flav, Flavor of Love, like these shows [reality TY shows] started getting more popular, production companies realized, oh, I can make 26 episodes of ‘Love Island” … it's going to cost one episode of Game of Thrones.” He compared the popularity of quickly made, lower-cost shows to animated ones, which often take more time. “But if there's a way that animation was cheaper, it probably would get made more…They want to make the most money while spending the least amount.”

His thoughts on how do we get more Black people involved in this medium? “Just by sharing.” In the past, there was a taboo nature to Black people liking things like anime, but Kev says that the “tide is turning a bit”. “It’s been around forever, but more people are talking about it.” As a relatively new anime fan, Kev is seeing the anime community (specifically the black anime community) from a different perspective than those who have been around it their entire lives. “Over the last six months, I can't speak to a lot because I wasn't a part of the community until December, basically. But people like me, who weren't anime fans [in the past], I think even I'm introducing new people to anime who haven't watched it before.” He ends his answer to the question by empowering everyday anime fans to encourage others to check out their favorite anime. If we want to be more involved in this industry we have to keep pushing for our community to participate in its discussion and its making. “So I think as that happens, and you don't have to be a big creator, I think more people just telling you, “Yo, check this out. I think you'll like it.” That's how things grow.”

From Left to Right: Chase Conley, Chris Miles, Odunze Oguguo, and Clarke Jacobs photographed at Dreamcon 2024 after their "Animation in Hollywood" panel

Sunday was the last day of the convention and had an early end compared to the previous days. We were looking forward to the “Animation in Hollywood” panel and it didn’t disappoint!  Hosted by Briana Williams aka StoryModeBae, the panel featured Odunze Oguguo aka Whyt Manga, Chris Miles, Chase Conley, and Clarke Jacobs. So many conversations are starting in the future of animation, and this panel jumped right into discussing the representation, process of, and their love for animation. Clarke Jacobs, who worked in Animation Development at Nickelodeon, remarked she didn’t see many black faces working in her position. The realization of the lack of Black visibility in producing drew her to the network side. On the inside of the process, she worked on getting more black stories animated.

The conversation led to the current hottest animation topic, the usage of AI - and what that means for the future. Chase Conley, an animator involved in X-Men 97, Boondocks S4, and Black Dynamite, spoke on AI in animation and how it’s currently used in the West and Japanese anime. He mentioned how AI will evolve and possibly take over jobs in animation but that legal matters need to be sorted out before the technology is widely used. He finished his remarks on the AI controversy by warning of the possible coming change in the next few years but that currently, AI can’t replicate the talented artists/animators who work in the industry.  

Oguguo, co-creator of SaturdayAM and creator of Apple Black, laments that AI’s progression is the ultimate determining factor of how things will go for the future of animation. “If it [AI] gets better, it [culture surrounding animation] is definitely going to get worse first”. He pointed out that the advancements in AI will spell bad news for animators and storytellers. He believes that AI will advance faster than we think and that the common (non-artist/animation/super fan) will not know the difference between AI and human work. To fight back, he believes animators and artists must continue creating indie work. During the Q&A, we heard firsthand how important it is for black people to continue showing face in this space.

As the conversation turned towards uplifting other black-owned animation projects in Hollywood, Chris Miles, PR/Social Media Management for black-owned animation company Martian Blueberry, encouraged the audience to go out and do things their way rather than waiting on a big company to greenlight a project.  “Hollywood uses the success of one project to uplift other projects, but then it goes down” He remarked on Hollywood’s practice of what feels like only momentary support of black people and black projects. Each answer during the Q&A was filled with both nuance and truth. They never hesitated to expound on a question and their insightful answers gave the audience realistic expectations when entering the animation field, Hollywood business, or doing indie work. The panel ended with Miles showing us an animation reel exhibiting Martian Blueberry’s work and with words from the founder Carl Jones (who wasn’t able to make it to Dreamcon this year).

All the guests invited to Dreamcon 2024 on the stage at the Closing Ceremony

 At the closing ceremony, the energy and excitement from the crowd and presenters were electric. Khleo Thomas and Supreme Sensai were great hosts who asked crowd-pleasing questions that pushed the people on stage to open up and give their opinions on how the weekend went. The con has absolutely grown - people from across the globe came around to participate in the convention, and to send it off with a blast (shoutout to you, Dr. Strange durag-cape cosplayer from London)!

Overall, since we attended this convention as press, there are two different ways to look at the experience; from a press perspective, and a general attendee one. As press, there were a lot of improvements that showed how much the staff at Dreamcon were listening. Aside from some priority access to main stage panels, we also were set up pretty well with snacks and curated meals throughout the day in the press room. This year we even scored our first Dreamcon interview featuring Supreme Sensai! (which you can read here) However, we did run into a few issues, namely with the communication for our interview. We showed up early only to find out that the interviewee was never informed of the interview. The interview ended up proceeding almost 20 minutes after the scheduled time, pushing back other appointments we had made for the day. Although this was only a small hiccup, there were other hiccups we experienced throughout the weekend.

As an attendee, time was a big obstacle this year. Aside from the convention starting on time Friday, the con “opened” at 10 AM but panels didn’t start until noon for the remainder of the weekend. We haven’t been to a convention where both day one and day two didn’t start until the day was almost half over. Before and around noon, the con felt empty - lifeless almost. After noon on Day Two, though, the Con filled up instantly. People were at every panel, filling up the Exhibit Hall, and in all the hallways. There were a lot of amazing cosplays and a general good vibe that reverberated throughout the crowd. 

Cosplay photograph of @bigpapitati cosplaying Kikoru Shinomiya from Kaiju No. 8 at Dreamcon 2024

Continuing the theme of time, one thing we weren’t a fan of with the scheduling was how clumped together all the panels were. At one point around eighteen panels were going on in a one-hour time frame! Panels ranged from approximately one to two hours, so for a con that only had around twelve hours of programming and the last panels started at 8 PM, you could realistically go to about four to six panels a day. That is if you didn't stop to eat, go to the Exhibit Hall, or go to a meet and greet. We witnessed multiple people leaving panels halfway to go try and make other panels that were going on at the same time. Now we know we all love to have more time in the morning, but an adjustment we’d suggest for next year is earlier start times for panels (especially on Saturday and Sunday).

DreamCon listened to the feedback and added more drinking stations everywhere. This was a MUCH-needed change, and we were glad to see DreamCon take this matter seriously. The food options were not necessarily to our tastes this year (and there were only three options) but the prices weren’t as unreasonable. A vendor was selling collectible mugs that came with unlimited refills at their restaurant which was nice.  

Throughout the weekend, there was a myriad of evidence that DreamCon took the feedback from 2023 seriously and made good, positive changes that left a mark. As an attendee, there were a bunch of pros that made the three-day convention special. DreamCon grew this year, to about 22-23k attendees, and with better security, better processing, and better space, it helped the con shine. I’m hoping this trend of listening continues into 2025 in Houston. There are still a lot of changes that need to be made but hopefully, RDCWorld is prepared to handle their popularity this time. That ends another visit to DreamCon - the only thing you owe us is an even better 2025!