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 160,000 recorded in 2023.
History
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.. Prior to the founding of MegaCon Orlando, the name "MegaCon" was used for a convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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. (Breitbiel became CrossGen's Marketing and Distribution Director.) During this period, from 2000 to 2003, MegaCon heavily promoted CrossGen products and creators, to the frustration of some other exhibitors and attendees, although the show itself grew and thrived. After being the venue once in 1997, the Orange County Convention Center has since 2001, been the host of the convention.
From 2001 to 2019, MegaCon was the location of the long-running "Paranoia LIVE!" LARP, based on Mongoose Publishing's Paranoia.
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, currently runs the show along with her daughter Christine Alger.
In 2007, MegaCon hosted the first live presentation of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards.
In August 2008 MegaCon announced that it would host the first inaugural Project Fanboy Awards ceremony, awarding authors, writers and publishers with honors voted on by Internet users on the Project Fanboy website. The Project Fanboy Awards are now an ongoing event.
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.
Post-Covid
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. 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.