48 Hours, Andrea Canning, Cold Justice, CrimeCon, Dateline NBC, Dennis Murphy, Erin Moriarty, fan events, Keith Morrison, Nancy Grace, Nashville, NBC Universal, Oxygen, true crime, TV
April 30, 2018
by Carla Hay
The second annual CrimeCon for fans of true-crime stories is set to take place at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville from May 4 to May 6, 2018.
The guest speakers include:
- Nancy Grace: Oxygen host; founder of Crime Online; former prosecutor; author; former HLN and Court TV host
- Erin Moriarty: correspondent for “48 Hours”
- Kelly Siegler: former prosecutor; host of “Cold Justice”
- Josh Mankiewicz: correspondent for “Dateline NBC”
- Keith Morrison: correspondent for “Dateline NBC”
- Andrea Canning: correspondent for “Dateline NBC”
- Dennis Murphy: correspondent for “Dateline NBC”
- Beth Karas: attorney; former Court TV correspondent
- Jim Clemente: former prosecutor; former FBI profiler; podcaster; TV host; “Criminal Minds” writer/producer
- Dr. Laura Pettler: forensic criminologist
- Darren Kavinoky: defense attorney; former Investigation Discovery host
- Ryan Ferguson: author; former prison inmate who was wrongfully convicted of murder
- Juan Martinez: prosecutor; author
- Dianne Lake: author; former member of the Manson Family
- Callahan Walsh: child advocate at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; former supervising producer at “America’s Most Wanted”
Several of the guest speakers will be doing meet-and-greet sessions with CrimeCon attendees.
True-crime network Oxygen (which is owned by NBCUniversal) has signed as the event’s presenting sponsor, which explains the prominent presence of Oxygen stars Grace and Siegler, as well as several correspondents from NBCUniversal’s “Dateline NBC.” There will also be a screening of the Oxygen special “Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers.”
In addition to panels about famous crime cases (such as the Golden State Killer, Jodi Arias, the West Memphis Three, Israel Keyes, Sister Cathy Cesnick, Maura Murray), CrimeCon will be a highly interactive event, with a private-investigator experience with attendee participation, a screening of an episode from WGN America’s drama series “Pure,” about a Mennonite pastor who goes undercover in the drug trade; and Oxygen’s augmented-reality experience “Forensic Detective: Inside the Crime Scene.”
Click here for a complete schedule of events.
CrimeCon, produced by Red Seat Ventures, is a rival to IDCon, an annual one-day convention in New York City for fans of Investigation Discovery (ID), the true-crime network that debuted in 2008 from Discovery Networks.
Here are the main difference between the two events:
- CrimeCon takes place over three days and has programming from various media outlets, whereas IDCon is one day only and focuses only on programming from one network: Investigation Discovery.
- CrimeCon takes place in a different city every year, while IDCon is in New York City.
- The cost of CrimeCon is much higher per day and is a much larger event. CrimeCon’s 2018 admission prices range from $229-$1,199, not including the cost of on-site meals. IDCon has one admission price, which includes on-site lunch. IDCon’s admission price for 2018 was $50. IDCon has about 300 attendees. CrimeCon has not yet released its attendance figures.