What Is All-Con?

Imagine a 4-day street faire where a person could sample and participate in the finest content that many different communities and conventions have to offer. All-Con fills 3 halls, 3 suites, 6 panel rooms, a performance room, a tiered seating projection room, and 3 ballrooms with exhibits, workshops, discussions, game shows, performances, and competitions. The selection of activities changes every hour from the start of the day until 2:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

All-Con offers the core structure expected of most conventions. The vendor room and exhibit halls have 80 booths and tables. There is an art show gallery which also has a live auction event.

With over 200 different choices to offer in one weekend, All-Con has a set of headlining features around which the convention is constructed each year. The traditional Cosplay competition and Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow casting performance are Friday. Saturday has a ball jointed doll mini-con, Ms. Star Wars pageant, Maid contest, Texas Hold'em poker tournament, Costume contest, Repo: The Genetic Opera shadow cast performance, professional burlesque performance, and a themed dance. Sunday's signature is an overall super hero theme, ending with the Super Hero Sunday competition.

The rest of the one hundred and ninety-plus events are a combination of All-Con supplied content (like our many game shows throughout the weekend), performances hired by the convention, and a recipe of the best community run features that change year-to-year.



Who Attends All-Con?

All-Con welcomes many genera-based fan groups each year. Some exhibit to grow their group, some present content, and some just show up to enjoy and participate at the convention. Costumers, from the hard core to the whimsical, are present en masse all day each day. The literary, filmmaking, podcasting, and social media interests are well represented as is the general public. All-Con's formula for success is to provide content targeted to existing fan cultures while also maintaining a selection broad enough for general walk-in public appeal. (The convention maintains family friendly standards until 9:00 p.m. when some events or discussion topics can turn to more mature themes.) An All-Con weekend includes over 2,000 attendees all enjoying the unique selection of that particular year.



Which Communities Participate?

It's difficult to list specific communities because there is so much cross over. If we said the "sci-fi community" we would also have to break out the subcultures with large attendances: Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who, Firefly, etc. We would then also have to point out that of sci-fi, we get the gamers, the costumers, and the general fans.

All-Con is community inclusive; not exclusive. So sticking with just the broad interests represented: Sci-Fi, Steampunk, Anime/Manga, Roller Derby, Costumers, Poker players, Super Hero, Shadow Casters, Media, Horror, Literature, Artists, Otaku Culture, Ball Jointed Dolls, Game Shows, Theater, Maids, Gamers, and Geeks all attend to present content.



How Long has this Multi-Cultural Convention Been Going On?

The very first event for All-Con was February 25-28, 2005 at the Sterling Hotel in Irving. It was the second year in 2006 that the event changed the event month to mid-March. At the end of the second year, All-Con had outgrown the Irving location and in 2007 All-Con III took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel North Dallas in Addison. The Crowne Plaza is still the home to All-Con. Comfortable rooms, a restaurant with good food and special low prices during the convention, and plenty of space to offer such a variety of events have all been factors keeping All-Con and our public happy.






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