Dragon Con 2013, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

In 1998, Dragon Con established the Julie Award, in honor of Julius Schwartz, bestowed for universal achievement spanning multiple genres, selected each year by a panel of industry professionals. The inaugural recipient was science fiction and fantasy Grandmaster Ray Bradbury. Additional recipients of the award, presented by Schwartz each year prior to his death in early 2004, include Forrest Ackerman, Yoshitaka Amano, Alice Cooper, Will Eisner, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Carmine Infantino, Anne McCaffrey, Jim Steranko, Peter David, and Paul Dini. It is also the host of the Dragon Con Independent Short Film Festival, the Futura Award (paying homage to the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis), the Parsec Awards, and the Georgia Fandom Award, renamed in 2008 as the Hank Reinhardt Award, after its first recipient.
Economic impact
In 2011, Dragon Con attracted some 50,000 people and had a direct economic impact of $40.7 million, as reported by the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. According to statistics provided by Georgia State University, Robinson College of Business, Dragon Con brought in over $21 million of direct economic impact to Atlanta in 2007, and an estimated $25 million in 2008. It also raises tens of thousands of dollars for charities and hosts a large blood drive.