Into The World Of Geek Conventions

Posted in Events, Opinions by Marina, October 11, 2010 at 11:23 am | 562 views, 0 comments

When going to conventions there’s always so much to see and do. These sorts of events may be a form of entertainment, but underneath it all cons are also vital for the geek culture to survive and thrive.

Peter White, 20, lives for conventions.

The Mount Royal University student mostly sticks to cons in Alberta, yet the farthest he has travelled was for Celebration V, a Star Wars convention that was hosted in Orlando, Fla. this summer.

“I go to them because it’s an excuse to wear a costume and to hang out with my friends and meet new ones, which is great at a convention because everyone has something in common,” he said.

White has been into the costuming scene for about three years. He belongs to a few local Star Wars costuming groups such as the 501st Legion and the Mando Mercs as well as the general Star Wars FanForce group.

In addition to going to conventions as a costumed unit, these groups help raise money and awareness at charity events. White says they cover an average of three different events a month.

“Everybody loves to see costumed people at events, it’s a big attention-getter,” White said.

Richard Harrison, Associate Professor of English at Mount Royal University, says that with the help of groups and conventions, geek culture has changed from a typically introverted scene to a incredibly social one.

“Conventions allow people to appear in numbers and you get all the benefits of that, you get a strengthening of the community, you get a more rapid fire exchange of ideas and you get acceptance. People long for acceptance,” he said.

According to Derek France, the chair for Con-Version, a sci-fi convention in Calgary, the young adult scene of con-goers is quite healthy in this city. It also continues to grow more confident with every year.

“It seems that for a long time fans hid their interests from the public eye and only in the last few years have they started coming out to events in larger numbers,” he said.

The reason geeks are becoming more open with their interests is because hobbies such as reading comics and gaming have become a lot more mainstream and accepted, says Harrison.

“You see the word geek or nerd being turned on itself, the way any negative label of a group, and it gets owned by that group and used as a flag. It’s like a badge of honour.”

White agreed saying that at one time these interests seemed like they were only meant for a small group of people, but now they are becoming more open and accessible to new audiences especially through conventions.

“It’s a lot about existing geeks going there and having fun, but it’s also about getting new people introduced to this stuff and going and seeing what it’s all about and realizing we’re not completely crazy and that hey, this is actually kind of cool,” he said.

“They just draw new people in and grow the culture.”

Check out the upcoming conventions in Calgary here.

To contact the author of this post: marina.giannitsos@wildgunmen.com