This is an interview between Mark Baumgarten, host of the MarkWHO42 podcast, and Charles McFall, Digital Media Track Director at Dragon Con, discussing the upcoming 40th-anniversary convention scheduled for September 3-7, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia. Charles explained that Dragon Con has grown from 1,500 attendees in 1987 to approximately 74,000-76,000 attendees across five host hotels, featuring almost 36 programming tracks, including the BritTrack, Star Trek, Star Wars, and main programming with celebrity guests such as David Tennant, Billie Piper, Katee Sackhoff, Edward James Olmos, and Jonathan Coulton. Mark discussed his plans to attend as both press and a fan, expressing particular interest in the BritTrack programming and the famous parade that shuts down downtown Atlanta streets. They covered practical aspects, including hotel locations, accessibility accommodations, weapons policies, and tips for first-time attendees, with Charles emphasizing that Dragon Con offers something for everyone across multiple genres while maintaining its fan-run and fan-focused nature. Oh, and Mark goes on a Doctor Who Competitive Tender tangent… but of course he does.
For more information, go to https://www.dragoncon.org/
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MarkWHO42
Mark Baumgarten is an old school Whovian who hosts and runs the award-winning online science fiction radio show and podcast The MarkWHO42's Universe Podcast. He became a fan of Doctor Who in 1978 and worked on several of the Omnicon Conventions in South Florida back in the 1980's. With an accumulated knowledge of Who-lore as well as Science Fiction in general, he needed to share it with the world. In 2010 he started markwho42 Books selling Doctor Who books online and at conventions and in 2012 started the show MarkWHO42 and has been invited as a guest panelist at conventions around the country. He definitely puts the "Mark" in MarkWHO42!
