40th Anniversary Special Series – Part 5

What began in 1987 as a three-day convention taking up two floors of the Pierremont Plaza Hotel with 1,400 attendees has become a cultural and economic phenomenon that, in 2025, drew more than 80,000 people from across the country and around the world to Atlanta. Dragon Con has had an impact on the city, on popular culture in America, and on (literally) hundreds of thousands of people. It is, as Adam Kincaid writes, “an 85,000-attendee mega-con rivaled only by leading pop culture events in San Diego, New York, and Denver.” The key to understanding Dragon Con and its impact, multi-dimensional though it may be, is to see it through the lens of family.

Pat Henry loves Atlanta, and Dragon Con is quite proud of the difference it makes for its Atlanta extended family. One of the clearest measures of Dragon Con’s impact on Atlanta is economic. You can easily track the increasing dollar valuation of Dragon Con to the city as the convention has grown. According to Jim Lovel, writing in the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2001, the economic impact of Dragon Con in the city then was still “relatively mild,” at approximately $6 million. Officials at the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau told him that this was due to the lack of attendees flying into/out of Atlanta. They described the average Dragon Con attendee as “regional,” driving into Atlanta for the convention. Just six years later that number had tripled. According to Debby Canon, then Director of the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality at Georgia State University, the 2007 show was one of Atlanta’s top ten conventions, with an economic impact of more than $21 million. Attendance during the same six-year period grew by approximately ten thousand, and in 2005 Dragon Con expanded to a three-hotel convention, adding the Atlanta Hilton to the Hyatt Regency Atlanta and Mariott Marquis. One can only conclude folks started flying in! In 2016 Henry reported to Amy Went of the Atlanta Business Chronicle that over the previous five years (2010 – 2015) Dragon Con had generated more than $250 million for the Atlanta community. In 2025 alone that number stood at $80 million. According to Erica Qualls-Battey, area general manager for Marriott International, Dragon Con, “makes more money for the Marriott Marquis, the Hilton, and the Hyatt (Regency) than the Super Bowl.”

Beyond the business generated by a convention that packs the city’s five largest hotels, 20 overflow hotels along with its neighboring food courts and restaurants, there are staple components of Dragon Con that have also made a profound impact: the annual blood drive and the Dragon Con charity program.

In 2002 Dragon Con began its relationship with LifeSouth when Henry invited them to conduct a one-day blood drive at the convention and forged an association with The Heinlein Society’s “Pay it Forward” program. In describing their blood donation program, the Society’s website declares that Dragon Con “leads the pack” among the many organizations and events that participate. In 2023 the Fresenius Kabi National Blood Donation Hall of Fame inducted Pat Henry. LifeSouth nominated Henry, and in the nomination letter wrote: “he has inspired many to try donating for the first time while reminding returning donors – many of whom make donating blood part of their Dragon Con tradition – of the need to donate throughout the year.” Dragon Con’s 2025 blood drive resulted in 3,950 donors who gave 10,600 blood components. LifeSouth serves 25 hospitals in greater Atlanta and more than 125 across the southeast.

The city of Atlanta has noticed. Mayor Bill Campbell issued a Certificate of Acclamation to Dragon Con in 1996. In 2002, Mayor Shirley Franklin declared Monday September 2, 2002 “TrekTrak Day” in Atlanta! In honor of Dragon Con’s 25^th Anniversary in 2011, the City of Atlanta issued a Proclamation of Commemoration. In 2016, to celebrate Dragon Con’s 30^th year, Mayor Kasim Reed, along with city council Chairman Kwanza Hall officially recognized and honored Dragon Con and its impact on the city of Atlanta. In November 2025 the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau inducted Pat Henry into its Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame.

At the heart of Dragon Con are people, and its very history is, in many ways, the story of family. A “family” of friends sat in a Gwinnett County pizza restaurant and planned the very first Dragon Con in 1986. Of that group, John Bunnell, David Cody, Robert Dennis, and Pat Henry are still a part of the convention. Pat and Sherry Henry, as President and Vice President of Dragon Con, along with a dedicated family of founders, staff, and volunteers, led the convention through remarkable growth and expansion. They’ve weathered more than one storm and climbed more than one mountain. Yet through it all the family stayed together. Even more Pat and Sherry Henry raised their family right alongside Dragon Con. Their girls grew up with the convention. As they built their careers and lives, they always came back for Labor Day weekend to support not just their parents, but their Dragon Con family. When the convention became too large for their parents to manage on their own, the girls assumed more active management and leadership roles. Mandy Collier left Delta and joined Dragon Con full time in 2012. Her sister Rachel Reeves joined full time in 2013. By 2014 Reeves and co-founder David Cody were serving as co-chairs of the convention. Currently, Collier serves as Senior Director and Reeves is Co-Chair and Senior Director, Guests and Media. Of this generational legacy and passing the baton of leadership to his daughters, Henry declared “it’s a family business now…that’s one of my proudest achievements.”

Sherry Henry assumed leadership of the Dragon Con charity program in 2000 and set a goal that $1 per person be raised for a local charity. Mission accomplished. Since 2012, Dragon Con has annually chosen a different organization to be designated as the convention’s dedicated charity. As the convention has grown so too has the amount of money raised for charity. In 2005, Dragon Con raised $20,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (now known as Blood Cancer United). Dragon Con’s 2025 charity, NAMI Georgia, an organization working to raise awareness, provide support, and advocate for those affected by mental illness, received almost $350,000. In 2026, Hope Atlanta, Georgia’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness, is Dragon Con’s official charity. With more than $2 million raised to benefit Atlanta charities just since 2012, Dragon Con’s commitment to its Atlanta family is clear. As Erica Qualls-Battey put it: “[Pat and Sherry Henry’s] vision turned fandom into philanthropy and forever changed the heartbeat of Atlanta.”

Listen to the reflections of long-time members and volunteers and you’ll hear the same word: family. Philip Schultz of LaGrange, Georgia has attended Dragon Con annually since 2000 and has served as a volunteer since 2015. A retired educator, Schultz likens Dragon Con to a “family reunion.” For him, he finds not just a sense of kinship but real community. He loves being able to reconnect and catch up with his Dragon Con friends during the con. Heather Stephenson, founder of the Dragon Con Collectible Exchange group on Facebook, and Dragon Con archivist, made her first trip to Dragon Con in 2010. She immediately felt it’s impact. As she surveyed the fans that Friday morning after a Thursday night ‘red eye’, she turned to her husband and declared “these are our people.” Stephenson likens Dragon Con to “home.” She finds the fact that every year some 3,000 volunteers commit themselves to the success of the convention “heartwarming.” For her it’s evidence that there exists a real sense of “family.” “Dragon Con is different for everyone,” Stephenson declared, but in the end “you find your joy.”

Perhaps the most powerful testament to the power of family and the impact of Dragon Con comes, in the final analysis, from the fans themselves. On Georgia Tech University’s The North Avenue Lounge broadcast of October 28, 2013, host Amanda Plumb chronicled her first visit to Dragon Con. She made a point to attend the parade and during it interviewed attendees of all ages. Plumb came upon a family who had decided to come and watch the parade. The mom (who never gave Plumb her name) when asked why she’d brought her family to the Dragon Con parade said that it was first and foremost a “family outing.” Everyone in her family “loved comic books.” Moreover, hers was “a really creative family” that draws, builds, and creates things. In the end, she said, attending the Dragon Con parade was “something to do together as a family.”

If you want to understand the impact of Dragon Con at 40, cast your net wide. At the same time, never stray too far from “family.” In the end, that’s what Dragon Con is all about.

Click here for notes and acknowledgements from the author.