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Conageddon 2018: ‘The 100’ Convention – What Happened, What’s to Come

Heather MasonBy 368 views
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Photo courtesy Conageddon Facebook

I’ve been home from Boston for The 100’s first U.S based The 100 centered convention for awhile now and I’m still processing everything that happened. There are not enough words to do justice to how spectacular Conageddon truly was. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have gone to a handful of cons in the past but this one was on a different level. Conageddon’s main agenda was for fans to have an intimate and exclusionary time that is unparalleled to other conventions of this nature, and they delivered on that promise. Everyone was relaxed, access to the actors was extraordinary, and the overall feeling of delight, joy, and appreciation was palpable.

VIP Party

The fun kicked off Friday, March 17, with the VIP party for guests who were lucky enough to hold a VIP ticket. As you may know, Conageddon offered five different VIP opportunities, one for each actor that consisted of black passes with different colored lanyards: maroon for Eliza Taylor, purple for Bob Morley, black for Zach McGowan, white for Tasya Teles, and red for Rhiannon Fish. The layout of the VIP party was simple: there was a dance floor in the center of the room, a DJ station set up on a stage upfront, and tall tables placed all around for fans to hang out with their friends and mingle while waiting for the cast to arrive. Let’s not forget the cash-bar that, while pricey, was well stocked, and the bartender friendly (fun fact, if you tip your bartenders really well throughout the night, they tend to give you half off drinks).

The cast came in to the sounds of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” and immediately started interacting with fans. Each one of them made a point to not only try and talk to everyone that was there, but actually get to know them, spending stretches of time with anyone who approached them, delivering on the promise of a once in a lifetime opportunity. At two separate points in the night, fans were able to line up to take photos with the cast-first with Bob, Zach, and Tasya, and later in the evening with Bob and Eliza-both of which were unplanned but spontaneously happened. The cast was generous with their time and their affections, hugging, shaking hands, casually throwing arms around shoulders, dancing and drinking with fans, being genuinely happy to be surrounded by the support and love of all that were there. It was a lot to take in and even more to muddle through all of emotions and excitement it invoked….and that
was only the first night.

Panels

I’m going to be frank: panels are a LOT. This is doubly true when you’re also trying to live-tweet an event and you end up missing other things while you’re trying to figure out, “Wait…what was their exact wording again? Oh God, I’m going to be sued for libel.” To avoid any of that confusion, here is a playlist ALL of the panels from the entire weekend, courtesy of Youtube user and Conageddon attendee Alison Parker. Make sure to be a good human and like and comment on any videos you watch. Special thanks to Clare Kramer and Cancer Gets LOST Co-Founder and Executive Director Jo Garfein for doing a wonderful job moderating and hosting the panels for the weekend.

Well, maybe not all of the panels. After all, the much anticipated Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley panel was exclusively streamed on the Conageddon Facebook page, which you can find here. The biggest surprised from the panels came from Eliza Taylor’s solo panel where she dropped the bomb that Conageddon was her brain-child with Bob Morley and Zach McGowan, something that attendees were surprised and overjoyed to find out. After all, how many actors organize their very own cons simply because they want a chance to know their fans better?

Vendors

While Conageddon did have their own official merch available for purchase (seriously, those hats? How forking cute!), FangirlProblems Inc was the solo vendor of the event. Everything was available: hats, shirts, flasks, coffee cups, tumblers, pins, bracelets, necklaces, anything your The 100 loving heart could desire. It was rare not to see at least one person at any given time poking around the booth or squealing over an item that they just had to have. Rumor has it that they will be back at Conageddon II so keep your eyes peeled for them and start saving your money now. Can’t wait until then? Swing by their online shop and if nothing there catches your fancy, custom orders are available.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FangirlProblemsInc

Cancer Gets Lost

Cancer Gets Lost partnered with Conageddon for an exclusive online charity auction to benefit the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. They not only met their original goal of $3,000 which was later upped to $4,000, they went over, donating $4,500, $4,382 coming from fans. It’s a beautiful thing when fans can ban together for something so wonderful that makes a genuine difference in people’s lives.

“Cancer Gets LOST is grateful to our friends at Conageddon for partnering with us to host an online charity auction of The 100 items! We are so thankful to the fans for their generous support, because 100% of the proceeds from the CGL Conageddon charity auction will be donated to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, for young cancer survivors and childhood cancer research. CGL would also like to extend a note of gratitude to the amazing cast of The 100, who always take the time to sign items for our charity auctions! The global kindness of The 100 fan community does not receive enough recognition. Auctions like this are proof positive that there are lovely humans out there who genuinely strive to make a difference in this world.”

And What Comes Next?

I was able to speak with some of our friends behind Conageddon and ask them some serious questions about Conageddon II, something that has been confirmed to be coming back next St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Ticket sales for the first Conageddon ended at 305 passes sold for five guests and an unforgettable weekend. So, how do you top that? After all, what made Conageddon so special was the feeling of getting moments with the cast in a non-rushed and personal environment. More attendees would mean less one on one time and less of those personalized and cherished moments. The solution? “We’re going to keep the amount of tickets for 2019 in the same range, but we’re also going to add guests, and more VIP package options. We expect to have the same intimate feel in 2019, but to be able to offer more options for the fans.”

And what did TPTB behind Conageddon take away from their first event? Well, nothing but good things. “Everybody involved was very pleased with how the event turned out, and by the overwhelmingly great response by those who attended. The best part was clearly the great feedback from the fans. We literally didn’t hear from one person that they experienced anything other than a great time.”

We love to love you, guys. And clearly by the response from fans who weren’t able to make it this year but are clamoring to come next year, Conagedon II is going to be even better.

https://twitter.com/BCAtItsFinest/status/976310219415474176

Until then! Make sure to tune in to The 100, returning April 24th 9/8c on The CW.

Heather Mason
Heather Mason joined the TV Source Magazine team in December 2017 with plans to cover The CW's 100.

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