This was my second year at Blerdcon and it was just as great as the first time. In only it’s third year of existence this event has grown by tremendous levels. Just walking in on the first day, my wife and I immediately noticed that there were more people in attendance this year. Many of the attendees were first timers and over the course of the weekend. In the first panel we attended many of the attendees acknowledged that this was there first Blerdcon. Word of mouth, Instagram, and booths at local cons were enough to create an explosion of new attendees.
The diversity of the event has also increased as the message that this is an all inclusive event has also increased. While yes the majority of the faces are “blerds”, there were now more faces of in the crowd that encompassed other aspects of blerdom and nerdom. Some of the panels included:
Being Trans: Storytime and Q & A with KingKitsu
Masks and Melanin: Black Representation in Comics
Being Fluffly: Celebrating Being Plus Sized and Cosplay!
Kinks and Curls: Ethnic Hair in Cosplay
LARP 101
Salsa Dancing for Geeks
Fabulous Fictional Females
Nerd Parenting 101
Anime and Activism
There was even an onsite barbershop where you could get a haircut and shave, because what says black culture more than the friendly neighborhood barbershop. Except instead of discussing the latest NBA news, conversations revolved around Bleach and Naruto. There were so many more with so many diverse topics that I missed many of the ones, I wanted to attend. I love the fact that panels are done by everyday people and creatives, who have something to say and want to see if others agree. The last panel we attended on Sunday was just a discussion about Into the Spiderverse which was like sitting around with a group of about 40 friends talking about one of your favorite movies.
Outside of the panels it was also great to see the tremendous cosplays and the amazing about of work people put into them. See cosplayers of different ethnicity and with different disabilities was very cool and refreshing. Check out my vlog below:
Over all this was another great event. The organizers and founders of Blerdcon are very visible and developed relationships with many of the regular attendees. It was a beautiful experience and one I plan on making an annual event.
