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.”
  

This year's 2014 GLBT Travel Expo in NYC's Washington Square was yet again, a wonderful networking success!

The event was held on April 27, 2014.

A quaint atmosphere with just the right amount of gay swag.  Next up is the 2014 GLBT Travel Expo in Chicago on May 4th.  Sadly, Connextions will not be among the many vendors with great travel options but will be promoting the success of this event just the same!

#GLBTTravelExpo @GLBTTravelExpo

Connextions Magazine was thrilled to attend this year's GLBT Expo in New York City.  The event was held on March 22-23, 2014.

This is our 4th consecutive year and yet again, we take first place in social media marketing and coverage of the event!  Yes, we give ourselves this award because we have a team attending the event, as well as a team of social guru's at the office who blast the excitement all weekend long - on all social channels.  We searched on Saturday evening, but did not find more than a photo or two from other media outlets and vendors.

Disappointing but also true, even the EXPO itself had no social presence throughout the weekend.  We have found the most used hashtag to be #glbtexpo.

Click any photo below for a slideshow view!

A quaint, intimate and dignified affair.

In lieu of one annual expo, the "GLBT Travel Expo" goes on tour each year to hold trade shows in several cities across America.  Connextions Magazine attended the expo held in New York City, at NYU on April 28th, 2013.

Before opening doors to attendees, I engaged in conversation with some of the other exhibitors and we all expressed concern that due to the gorgeous spring day, the visitor count may be decreased.  But to our surprise --this was not the case! 

I spent all 5-hours of this trade show, talking shop with visitors to my booth.  There was a non-stop flow of people, but never so over-crowded that my conversations were cut short or I wasn't able to give my full attention to each visitor. 

The expo remained true to its purpose -- A trade show dedicated to businesses in the gay-friendly travel industry.   No other distracting events took place during the show, which gave exhibitors an opportunity to truly market their product or services in a targeted environment.

Kudos to Steven Levenberg for a well-thought and well-designed travel expo for the glbt community.  Looking forward to our next one!

Click the photos below to enlarge and show captions:

Lori Michaels and the girls made a special appearance at the 20th Annual GLBT Expo in New York City, on March 9th, 2013.

Thank you to all who came out to grab a quick photo with the Lesbian Superstar Lori Michaels, along with a signed copy of her article in Connextions Magazine.  Special thank you to Rula Kanawati for her always incredible photography!

These photos have also been posted to facebook so feel free to tag yourself!  Click here to view the facebook link.




Click here to visit the official Lori Michaels website. 

Click here to listen to Lori's latest single on iTunes "Rain Down Love"

Justin Utley and several fans gathered at the 20th Annual GLBT Expo in New York City, on March 9th, 2013.

Thank you to all who came out to grab a quick photo with Justin, along with a signed copy of his article in Connextions Magazine.

These photos have also been posted to facebook so feel free to tag yourself!  Click here to view the facebook link.

Click here to visit the official Justin Utley website and listen to clips of his music.

The 19th Original GLBT Expo
Saturday March 17, 2012 & Sunday March 18, 2012

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
38th & 11th Aves
New York City, NY. 10014

#1 in Attendance
#1 in Exhibitors
#1 Advertising & Promotion 
#1 Expo

2012 is  the  19th Anniversary of the expo, and this is a huge milestone for the GLBT Community, the loyal sponsors/exhibitors/attendees that support the EXPO and the dedicated staff at The RDP Group.

For the past 19 years, the EXPO has helped to present the finest products & services available to the GLBT consumer. Starting in 1993, the EXPO has generated over $80,000,000 of dollars spent within the Greater Tri-State area. This includes the GLBT friendly companies from every industry, both large and small, Fortune 1000 and Gay-owned companies. They have all discovered the GLBT Community is affluent, brand-loyal, well educated and business minded. It is the truest of definition of "THE PERFECT NICHE MARKET".