GeekGirlCon celebrates and honors the legacies of underrepresented groups in science, technology, comics, arts, literature, game play, and game design. We do this by connecting geeks worldwide and creating an intersectional community that fosters the continued growth of women and other underrepresented groups in geek culture. GeekGirlCon provides a safe space to spark conversations around social justice while encouraging unabashed geekiness.
GeekGirlCon acknowledges that the land on which we gather is the occupied, unceded territory of Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Lummi, Skagit, and Swinomish. Acknowledgment is a small gesture that becomes more meaningful when coupled with authentic relationships and informed actions. GeekGirlCon pledges to open all public events and gatherings with a statement acknowledging the traditional Indigenous stewardship of the lands on which we gather. We pledge to move beyond words into initiatives and programs that fully embody a sustained commitment to Indigenous rights and equity. There are 29 federally recognized tribes throughout Washington. In addition to recognizing the sovereignty of these nations, GeekGirlCon would also like to recognize the Duwamish, Wanapum, and Chinook people. Despite their traditional and continuing presence in this region, these nations are still not recognized by the United States government. (More information at Duwamish: duwamishtribe.org, Wanapum: wanapum.org, Chinook: chinooknation.org).
DAY-OF BASICS
Location
Arch at 800 Pike Street
800 Pike St
Seattle, WA 98101
(This is the new name for the space formerly known as Washington State Conference Center in Seattle—the same venue GeekGirlCon has always used!
Skip the line and pick up your badge early on Friday from 4-7 p.m. at the convention center! We’ll be just inside the main doors.
If you’re picking up your badge on Saturday, doors open at 9 a.m. and check-in is on the first floor.
You must keep your badge visible at all times during the con.
Vaccines and Masks are Required
Everyone who comes into GeekGirlCon ‘22 is required to be fully vaccinated. Vaccine status will be confirmed at the front doors before you get in line for check-in.
Everyone is required to wear a mask that covers their mouth and nose whenever they’re inside the convention center unless they’re in a designated eating area.
Further information about COVID safety at GeekGirlCon ‘22 can be found on our website here.
Safety Stuff
Please take a minute to look through our Code of Conduct. This includes our Harassment Policy and Cosplay Policy (weapon and prop stuff). It also includes information on how to report harassment during the event.
If you need any help during the con, head to the Info Booth or flag down a Reaction Team volunteer. Reaction Team folks will be wearing blue Agent t-shirts and Wonder Woman crowns.
The EMT office is located next door to the Info Booth (Level 1) across from Introvert Alley.
Don’t take photos of people without their consent! This, of course, includes cosplayers. If you don’t want your photo taken, you can pick up a “Do Not Photograph” sticker from the Registration or Info Booth.
GeekGirlCon is not responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged property. Additionally, GeekGirlCon is not responsible for injuries sustained over the course of the convention.
We reserve the right to ask anyone to leave the convention if they violate these policies. Have fun, be safe, and be respectful.
Accessibility
GeekGirlCon will reserve Accessibility and Interpreting seating areas in every presentation space. Attendees who decide to not sit in the Accessibility seating areas are welcome to ask Agents to make their desired area accessible for them and any mobility devices. Attendees with disabilities may request early entrance into panels, events, and activities to allow ease of entrance and additional seating variety. The Expo Hall will open at 9:30 a.m. for those with Accessibility stickers on their badges. If you would like to utilize early entrance or Accessible and Interpreting seating areas, please request either an Accessible or Interpreting sticker from the Registration Desk or Info Booth (Level 1).
More information about accessibility stuff at GeekGirlCon ‘22 can be found here. During the event, accessibility information can also be found at the Info Booth (Level 1). You can also ask for assistance or information from staff and volunteers, who will be wearing blue Agent t-shirts during the event.
Schedule (Panels, Workshops, and Other Events)
Here’s the schedule!Printed copies of the schedule will also be available at the Registration and Info Booths.
Floor Maps
Here’s where you can findfloor maps of the space. The schedule tells you the name of the room the event is in, so use that information to cross-reference here to figure out which level it is on (e.g. the room Kamala is on Level 1). These will also show you where bathrooms (including all-genders ones) and other important spots are located throughout the convention center.
Data & WI-FI
Reliable cell-phone and Wi-Fi service is not guaranteed at the convention center, so it is highly recommended that you set a time and place to meet back up with friends and family before you scatter throughout the venue. You can also take screenshots of the schedule and other parts of this guide to reference in case the webpages won’t load!
Engage with Us Online Using #BackAtGGC22
Lots of GeekGirlCon’s community-building happens online during the event. To share your cosplay, photos, and live-posts with the larger GeekGirlCon family, be sure to tag them with #BackAtGGC22!
Like so much of the world, GeekGirlCon has been functioning on a skeleton crew for the past couple of years. In that time, despite all of tragedy surrounding us in so many different ways, we manageing to put on two whole epic digital events: GeekGirlCONLINE ’20 and GeekGirlCONLINE ’21. The backlog of that digital programming can always be found on our Youtube channel for whenever you’re hankering for some geeky content.
Though we’re unbelievably proud of our team and community for coming through and making in happen safely online, we’re beyond excited to announce that GeekGirlCon will be back and in-person on November 5, 2022 as a one-day event. You heard that right: GeekGirlCon ’22 will be a real-life IN-PERSON, ONE-DAY event on November 5, 2022 in Seattle.
We take protecting our community and staff seriously. To help us gather in-person safely, attendees of GeekGirlCon ’22 will be required to submit proof of vaccination and wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth during the event. To help us protect each other, we highly encourage our community members to further:
Have your badge mailed (instead of picking up in-person the day of)
Leave 6 feet of space between yourself and those outside of your party
Take a rapid test the day of the convention if one is available
Stay home if you feel sick!
We will definitely keep y’all posted as we further work out what meeting in person this year will mean, so please keep an eye here and on our social channels.
GEEKGIRLCON NEEDS YOU!
Lastly, we wanted to point out that we have a bunch of open positions on our year-round staff. The pandemic has been tough on us all, and GeekGirlCon’s staff is much smaller than it has been previous years. We need you to help us make GeekGirlCon ’22 possible! In particular, we’re seeking a Volunteer Manager, Registration Manager, Exhibitor Services Manager, and Cosplay Contest Coordinator. Please email us if you’re interested in those roles or any of the roles listed here.
GeekGirlCONLINE ‘21 WILL BE HERE IN LESS THAN A MONTH! If you haven’t already, mark your calendars for November 13 and 14!
All of our programming this year is free to stream on Twitch. Click through here for FAQs about this year’s event.
In case you haven’t seen already, we’ve recently announced our full programming schedule. We’ve got a packed schedule—from the DNA of strawberries to BIPOC artists in animation, there’s truly something for everyone this year. Read on for full details about each event.
On the weekend of November 13 and 14, we’re bringing you this year’s celebration of all things geeky in the form of GeekGirlCONLINE ‘21. This is a free, digital event streamed on GeekGirlCon’s Twitch channel. Follow and turn on notifications now!
Programming content for this year’s event is being curated by our glorious Programming Team. Some of the sessions will be pre-recorded, but most will be live. We’ll be announcing the schedule in early August, so stay tuned.
Below we’ve answered some FAQs about GeekGirlCONLINE ‘21. If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to geekgirlconline@geekgirlcon.com.
For the past several years I’ve been setting myself a goal of reading 50 books per year. Somehow, I always feel certain I’ll easily accomplish it and reliably come out five to ten books short.
Last year was the first time I’ve ever officially succeeded. In the final few days of December 2020, I forced myself to rush through a forgotten stack of graphic novels I’d already decided I didn’t want to read. I guess this was the way my particular brain compromised between the incessant call to be “productive” above all else and my absolute rejection of that value in general.
It’s halfway through 2021 now—both months after last year’s “triumph” and months into this year’s challenge. (Again, 50 books. Again, I’m behind and feeling guilty about it.) It’s an odd time to be thinking about this, I guess, but the charge to write about something interesting for this blog post forced me to confront just how depleted my capacity to fully engage with media has been during the pandemic. The bleak truth is that though I might have finally met a goal I’d been striving for, I don’t really remember anything meaningful about any of the books I read last year. In some ways, that claim might be an oversimplification, but it’s also an accurate description of the emotional toll the past year and a half took on me and, consequently, my media habits. So, in other words, when it came down to it, I placed more value on the quantity of books I read than the effect that media had on my life.
Who We Are Vaguely and in Terms Only of the Media We Seek Out Most Often:
Teal (plain) Literally any teen TV show, YA, women’s and feminist media, everything Star Trek Caitlin (italics) Star Wars, Marvel & the MCU, documentaries, and trope-defying comedy.
Jill (bold) Superheroes, space, sci-fi, out-of-the-box sitcoms, cartoons, and PUNS.
Welcome to #GeekGirlTalk, a (biased, subjective, opinionated) conversation about the pop culture we’re currently loving, hating, and obsessing over. To launch this series for the year, I’ll be chatting with Caitlin, one of our content strategists here on the GGC blog, and Jill, our former workshop coordinator, about the Netflix series Bridgerton.
Spoiler disclaimer: We definitely talk about a couple of big plot moments, but not in a ton of detail. If you really don’t like spoilers and you intend to watch the show, you might wait before reading.
Since I’m starting us out, I have a confession. I was really, really frustrated by almost everything about the show. Yes, it had our beloved cringey/dreamy regency social customs. It had the effervescent Nicola Coughlan. It had, if we’re being honest, the kind pure, unadulterated vibes that are getting us through this pandemic. But, as a lifelong fan of romance and period fiction and Shonda Rhimes (the show’s executive producer), my expectations were high….and entirely unmet.
In our eleven years, GeekGirlCon has made it our mission to celebrate and honor the legacies of underrepresented groups in science, technology, comics, arts, literature, gameplay, and game development. To keep our community mission alive, we must take a stand against white supremacy and show support for those who are currently living in fear for their lives and safety.
Since March of 2020, reported hate crimes against Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans (APIDA) have increased over 150%. The APIDA community has been impacted disproportionally from COVID, with over 223,000 APIDA-owned businesses forced to close their doors. Eight lives were lost on March 16, 2021 as a result of one of many hate crimes targeting those in the APIDA community. GeekGirlCon staff are mourning. We hurt for not only the lives of the eight that were lost on March 16, but also for the thousands of lives that are impacted by white supremacy every day. We understand that while the increase of reported hate crimes against the APIDA community is alarming, these crimes are often not reported, spoken about, or acknowledged.
Our values of community, empowerment, diversity, and inclusion cannot be honored if we stand on the sidelines and ignore the impact of hate crimes in our community. We must acknowledge our peers in the geek community who are victims of hate crimes. We must give them the microphone to hear their experiences, and we must educate ourselves to understand why those who are APIDA are afraid and hurting right now. We must fight for those who are too tired to keep fighting. More importantly, we must create a space for those who need the shelter to recoup. As long as we stand silent, we give the megaphone to those who spew hate and normalize racism.
GeekGirlCon stands with the APIDA community and will ALWAYS condemn white supremacy. Though we are apart, we still stand with all of those who need our support at this time. We understand that many of our volunteers, supporters, and community members use GeekGirlCon as an escape from the hate, attacks, and harassment. We will continue to create a community that serves as a safe haven for all who need it and to work towards our mission to ensure that GeekGirlCon celebrates underrepresented groups in all things Geek.
Our community comes together on Indigenous land–the occupied, unceded territory of Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Lummi, Skagit, and Swinomish. It’s our responsibility to reckon with this reality every day, throughout our personal lives, professional lives, and everything in between.
However, this acknowledgement is not enough. A continuing priority for GeekGirlCon is to build real, lasting, power-sharing relationships with Indigenous communities. We commit to holding ourselves accountable to this work and doing better.
Today, Thanksgiving in the United States, is a symbolically relevant day to center conversations about how white and non-Indigenous people perpetuate the ongoing colonization of Indigenous communities. That being said, we must make these conversations–and action–a priority every day.
Below are some resources for education, taking action, and engaging with Indigenous creators–this is far from a comprehensive list, but rather a place to build from:
The people harmfully mythologized in our stories about Thanksgiving are currently fighting to defend the status of their Reservation and along with it resources for critical programs. This page describes direct action you can take.
In more amazing news, Dante Basco will be making an appearance during our fifth weekend of GeekGirlCONLINE. Stay tuned for details coming next week, and in the meantime, follow us on Twitch to catch our live GAMING content this weekend.
Join a panel of women from Valve sharing their experiences wearing all of the hats as they contribute to games, Steam, and VR, discussing topics ranging from mechanical keyboards, wildlife tracking, imposter syndrome, confidence, humility, design, and playtesting.
MINECRAFT
Behind the Blocks: The Women Making Minecraft w/ Helen Chiang
Meet the women making Minecraft: Head of Studio Helen Chiang, Chief Storyteller Lydia Winters, Minecraft Creator GM Deanna Hearn, and Executive Producer Anita Sujarit as they discuss being a leader inside one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world, Minecrafting for good, career tips for industry pros and newcomers, and what excites them as they look to the future of gaming.
