MegaCon

MegaCon, short for Mega Convention, is a large speculative fiction convention that caters to the comic book, sci-fi, anime, fantasy, RPG, and gaming communities, often occurring in spring at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The convention is the largest fan convention event in the Southern United States and second largest in North America with an attendance of 190,000 recorded in 2024.

Founding
The first comic book convention held in the Orlando area was OrlandoCon, held annually from 1974 to c. 1994. Regular guests included C. C. Beck, Floyd Gottfredson, and Hal Foster. MegaCon was founded by James Breitbiel and first held in 1993 at the Orlando Expo Center (Now the UCF Center for Emerging Media). The convention was acquired by the Tampa-based publisher CrossGen in 1999, with Elizabeth Widera brought on to run the show in 2000 and Breitbiel moving on to become CrossGen's Marketing and Distribution Director. During this period, from 2000 to 2003, MegaCon heavily promoted CrossGen products as the show continued to grow. After being the venue once in 1997, the Orange County Convention Center has since 2001, been the host of the convention. The new location allowed MegaCon to be the home of the long-running "Paranoia LIVE!" from 2001 to 2019. LARP, based on Mongoose Publishing's Paranoia. In 2002, the logo was changed to one with rounded rectangular letters with a capital "G" in lowercase size.

2003 introduced after hours entertainment at the convention. This expanded to offsite locations in 2006. In late 2003, Widera purchased the convention from the failing CrossGen, which was restructuring (the publisher went bankrupt in 2004). Widera, who is a board member of the comics charity The Hero Initiative, ran the show along with her daughter Christine Alger until 2016.

In 2007, MegaCon hosted the first live presentation of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards. This was followed in August 2008 with the convention hosting the first inaugural Project Fanboy Awards ceremony, awarding authors, writers and publishers with honors voted on by Internet users on the Project Fanboy website. Following 2009, the Project Fanboy Awards event was discontinued.

In September 2008, MegaCon headquarters moved from Safety Harbor to Live Oak, Florida, although the actual convention remains in Orlando. In 2009, in addition to the main show, held February 27–March 1, convention organizers produced a "mini-MegaCon" held August 22–23 featuring a number of actors from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show.

Fan Expo
On April 7, 2015, it was announced that MegaCon had been sold to Informa. The con now operates under the auspices of Informa's Fan Expo group, although it has maintained the MegaCon branding. Following MegaCon 2015 it was announced that for the first time MegaCon will be extended to 4 days in 2016. as well as another mini-MegaCon event, "MegaCon Fan Days" in November 21–22, 2015. Shortly after MegaCon 2016, MegaCon Tampa Bay was announced for October 28–30. MegaCon Tampa last happened in 2018 and has not returned since due to the increasing sizes of convention rivals Tampa Bay Comic Con and Metrocon as well as the size limitations of the Tampa Convention Center. Stan Lee made a surprise appearance at MegaCon Tampa Bay 2017, his last at MegaCon, to raise funds for those affected by Hurricane Irma weeks prior.

Pandemic era
The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially planned to be held April 16–19 and June 4–7, it was replaced by a smaller "limited edition" "mini-MegaCon" restricted to 25,000 in attendance with the next main event to be held on March 18–21, 2021. These dates were also cancelled with the next date, August 12–15 being a return to operations, though masks were mandated. During Covid, the show's website was redesigned with a new logo introduced as part of a larger rebranding of FanExpo with the text forming an arch. The 2021 event was plagued with many guest cancellations due to pandemic-caused filming conflicts affecting many including Elijah Wood, Brendan Fraser, and James Marsters who were to be among the headline celebrities of the event.

2022 featured a return to normal operations with Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd, the Hobbits of the Lord of the Rings, reuniting on stage as well as Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes of the Jay and Silent Bob show, Brendan Fraser, and Gina Carano being other highlight guest appearances. MegaCon inaugurated FanExpo's partnership with virtual auction site WhatNot, featuring a Virtual MegaCon with virtual celebrity signings, comic artist sketch streams, and streams of cosplay contests, as well as a WhatNot booth. Numerous traffic issues in the surrounding areas due to record attendance reached local news headlines. Several tiers of tickets including family packages and youth tickets were sold out on Saturday. Surpassing Comic Con International's attendance cap of 130,000, MegaCon became the second most attended fan convention in the United States after New York Comic Con. The last day of the 2022 convention hosted a memorial service for the late comic artist George Perez, who was a frequent guest at the convention.

2023 introduced advanced paid parking from several parking lots as well as shuttles to the convention as a way to alleviate traffic issues. A Wednesday pre-launch party was added to the afterhours party line up at ICON Park. Tickets for the 2024 event went on sale the day after the 2023 event ended, a change in tradition from tickets going on sale 5–6 months prior to the event.

Notability guidelines for listing guests

 * Actors and voice actors are to be listed.
 * Comic guests may be listed only if listed on MegaCon website or noted to have attended pre-2000.
 * Youtubers may be listed only if they have reached the 100,000 subscribers eligible for a Silver Creator Award.
 * Music performers may be listed if on MegaCon website as a guest.
 * Book Authors may be listed only if on MegaCon website as a guest.
 * Cosplay guests, tattoo artists, other artists, and retailers may not be listed.
 * Guests partnered with vendor booths may be listed if they are actors/voice actors, renowned comic creators, or have met the 1 million subscribers eligible for a Gold Creator Award.

Post-COVID
NOTE: The Wayback Machine has been unable to properly archive the MegaCon guest lists since the 2021 event due to a page script and all guests were added here shortly before each event.

Exhibit hall
MegaCon since 2012 has had an exhibit hall sectioned into many different sections listed below: Ticket Hall: The ticketing hall is where attendees pickup their badges required for attendance or buy new tickets. The lines are separated by ticket type. Past the ticketing booths is the show waiting area where attendees await the show's opening hours. The MegaCon store is in this area and sells convention themed merchandise as well as convention exclusives. Retail: The retail section is home to shops numbering in the hundreds. This section is often subdivided into comics and anime sections. A small section "Tattoo Alley" is home to several tattoo vendors. While a majority of the businesses are small, some larger vendors also appear with more frequent ones including NASA and Dragon's Milk. Artist Alley: A section where several hundred artists are given a booth to sell their wares. This section is surrounded by a ring of comic book guests ranging from independent publishers to writers for DC and Marvel. Community: The community section is home to life-size replica exhibits from many fan organizations including the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, Daleks of Florida, the 405th, and the Delta Fleet. These groups often raise funds for local charities via voluntary donations or paid photo ops. Celebrity: Actor guests of MegaCon have booths in this area. The booths form a ring that is empty in the center to allow for longer lines for the more popular stars attending the convention. A separate area adjacent is used for photo ops of more popular celebrities. Food Courts: Multiple areas of the show floor and lobbies contain food courts with food options provided by the convention center. Cuisine options often include: Chinese, Papa John's, barbecue, Starbucks, Häagen-Dazs, and Tex-Mex.

Events and panels
Outside the exhibit hall, the show has many events in the convention center lobbies and panel rooms. Panels: MegaCon is host to panels of many genres relating to cosplay, anime, gaming, and world building among many other subjects. Celebrities attending MegaCon may also star in their own panels. Gaming: Several RPG games are hosted at MegaCon including Dungeons & Dragons living campaigns, Living Forgotten Realms, Pathfinder Society and Legends of the Shining Jewel. Non RPG gaming is also hosted at MegaCon ranging from the card-based Magic: The Gathering to strategy games. E-gaming arcades are available and tournaments are held at the event for games like Super Smash Bros. Cosplay Contest: Since 2018, MegaCon has been home to the FanExpo Masters of Cosplay Grand Prix Sunshine Qualifier where dozens of cosplayers display their talent in costume construction. Family Zone: The MegaCon family zone is hosted in a large panel room with activities directed towards preteens and younger. Activities include a kids cosplay contest, a sorting hat ceremony, and padawan training. Afterparties: MegaCon has been host to afterhours entertainment since 2003. These events grew to include offsite locations in 2006. Since 2010, Moshi Moshi Productions has handled offsite after hours events with a kickoff party in the Icebar Orlando on Thursday, and themed parties on Friday and Saturday at the Rosen Plaza and Rosen Centre respectively. In 2023, a Wednesday afterparty was hosted at ICON Park. In 2024, the convention booked an exclusive afterhours event at the nearby Universal Islands of Adventure theme park.

Celebrity guests
MegaCon brings in large numbers of celebrities of various professions for fans to meet and receive autographs and photos with. Actors: Since its migration to the Orange County Convention Center, MegaCon has drawn in celebrities who have starred in various films and television shows. Some years may see a collection of actors from a particular franchise like the four Hobbits from Lord of the Rings in 2022. Voice Actors: MegaCon is frequented by voice actors from various western animated and anime shows as well as video game characters. Comic Artists: From its beginning, MegaCon has had a large number of comic guests both veterans of the industry from Marvel and DC as well as indie publishers wishing to use the convention to kickstart their jump into the comic scene. Other guests: In some years, MegaCon has been host to popular guests of other professions including authors and internet celebrities. Some vendors at MegaCon like RangerStop may also share their table space with a few non-actor celebrities.