Emmy Award winners RuPaul and World of Wonder (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) hosted close to 50,000 attendees during the second annual “RuPaul’s DragCon NYC” at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in September 2018. The massively popular convention has experienced rapid growth since its Los Angeles debut in 2015 and NYC debut in 2017.  

RuPaul’s DragCon is a family-friendly event welcoming attendees - of all ages and backgrounds - to kiki with all of their favorite drag queens and stars in a creative, friendly and accessible environment. We were actually on our way to RuPaul's DragCon, when my daughter who is a huge RuPaul fan, started to get really nervous about meeting one of her fave celebs, so I started talking to her about all the fun things she would see and how the event expanded to three days for the first time in NYC, included curated panels and live runway performances, talent signings, an Instagrammable photo lounge including a balloon re-creation of the Werkroom from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” 339 exhibitors and 80+ gag-worthy Queen spaces offering attendees the most sickening shopping around.

“DragCon is a celebration of life, love and laughter...things we need now more than ever,” says DragCon and World of Wonder co-founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. “We are so grateful to all the artists whose talent and creativity spreads a message of love and acceptance.”

The convention featured incredible talent for performances, meet and greets, and panels, with surprise appearances by A-list icons and more, including: RuPaul, Tina Fey, Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, Charles M. Blow (New York Times), Michelle Visage, Trixie Mattel, Katya, Alyssa Edwards (Netflix’s “Dancing Queen”), Peppermint, Johnny Bananas, Kim Chi, Dusty Ray Bottoms, Eureka, Kameron Michaels, Mayhem Miller, Miz Cracker, Monét X Change, Aja, The Vixen, Ross Mathews, Todrick Hall, Miss Vangie, Aja, Detox, Carson Kressley, Fashion designer Jason Wu, Asia O’Hara, Bob the Drag Queen, Sasha Velour, Ginger Minj, Thorgy Thor, Yuhua Hamasaki, Peppermint, Bebe Zahara Benet, Aquaria, Blair St. Clair, Kalorie Karbdashian Williams, Nikki Blonsky, Matt Bellassai, Nico Tortorella, and World of Wonder co-founders & DragCon creators Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey. ​

• Nearly 50,000 attendees explored more than 270,000 square feet of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
• The Kids Zone, an interactive space for kids, made its NYC debut with a space fully dedicated to children with Drag Queen Story Hour, face painting, arts & crafts, a bounce house, a lightsaber demonstration by the Padawan Training Institute, more!
• For the first time in DragCon herstory, RuPaul hosted a full slate of 1 on 1 programming for attendees to get up close and personal, including RuTalks with Isaac Mizrahi and Charles M. Blow (NY Times) and three What’s the Tee? podcast tapings with Drag Race judge Michelle Visage.

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• Panel programming highlights include:
  • After hundreds of fans lined up for hours before their panel, Trixie and Katya announced the return of their massively popular online series "UNHhhh" (124M views), with a new season that will premiere uncensored exclusively on WOW Presents Plus, World of Wonder’s premium subscription service, before `making its way 1 week later to WOW’s YouTube channel (1M+subs), WOW Presents.

• In the Beyond the Binary panel, panelists discussed how we can make the world more inclusive of non-binary and gender non-conforming people. Actor Nico Tortorella, Alok Vaid Menon, and Drag Race’s Aja sat down to discuss non-binary identity and its impact on the mainstream media and entertainment.
  
• In the It Looks Like I’m the Queen: Broadway Stories With the Stars of Frozen on Broadway panel, the stars of the smash hit musical Frozen including Caissie Levy (Elsa), Patti Murin (Anna), Greg Hildreth (Olaf) and John Riddle (Hans) shared video excerpts from the show followed by a magical audience Q&A.
  
• In the Too Gay to Function: The Cultural History of Mean Girls panel, the Damians (from the “Mean Girls” movie, broadway show, and real life) united to discuss the cultural significance of the Mean Girls story. Tina Fey joined the “Mean Girls” broadway cast backstage after their “North Shore Winter Talent Show” event at The Runway, posing with Taylor Louderman (“Regina George”) and Grey Henson (“Damian Hubbard”).
  
• Swing Left Presents: The Resistance discussed the democratic resurgence of grassroots energy in the form of art, activism, and political rallying. Featuring Speaker of the New York City Council Corey Johnson, Bob The Drag Queen, and others, the group discussed the most important elections of our lifetime – the midterms!
  
• In the Susanne Bartsch: Club Legend panel, the audience was transported back to 1980’s New York as Michael Musto spoke with club legend Susanne Bartsch about her new World of Wonder documentary, “Susanne Bartsch: On Top.”
  

Founded in 1993, the Original LGBT Expo is the largest and longest-running LGBT convention in the world celebrating diversity in business, education, politics, the arts, health, technology, media, travel, and non-profit sectors.
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Being held March 12 & 13, 2016 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, the event features over 300 exhibiting companies, many of which are LGBT owned and operated, an engaging seminar series, live entertainment stage, LGBT Film series and much more! The 100,000+ square foot show floor also spotlights specific areas dedicated to some of the most most popular industries catering to the LGBT community including the Silvercar.com Travel Pavilion, Wedding Pavilion, Small Business Pavilion, Non-Profit Pavilion and the all new Family Pavilion.

Once again, Connextions Magazine is a proud sponsor of the LGBT Expo, as we have been since our inception in 2010. This year we will also be hosting an EXPERT TRAVEL – A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION on Saturday, March 12 at 3:15pm. Connextions Magazine's Editor In Chief, Manny Velasquez-Paredes, will be the moderator for this discussion between Denise Reichwein Lees of MSC Cruises, I Love New York, one of our gay travel experts, David Perry and our travel-lite (budget travel) expert, Ross Christianson, among others.

Be sure to visit our Connextions Magazine booth for a chance to win some awesome prizes and vacations.