GeekGirlConnections: Connect With Your Career
At GeekGirlCon, we’re all about idolizing the achievements of women and girls in geek culture. Whether we’re talking comics, gaming, science, or tech, our goal is to highlight the accomplishments of these women while actively enforcing a productive conversation about the obstacles and challenges that they face in the field.
GeekGirlConnections, one of the many stellar components of our convention, helps give women the ability to connect with professionals on their desired career path. In fields where women are often underrepresented, GeekGirlConnections aims to inspire and encourage women and girls to pursue their passions. Located on the 4th floor of the convention in our Exhibitor Hall, we’ll have teams of these professionals ready and waiting to build connections and chat about their organizations!

Two game developers presenting their work at GCon ’15. Photo courtesy of NPR.
GCon
GCon was made into being after women were barred from attending an all-male gaming convention in Saudi Arabia that was held in 2011. Co-founders Tasneem Salim and Felwa al-Swailem joined forces and curated a group of large-scale gaming companies to back them in starting their own convention, specifically geared for young Saudi women that love games! Salim, who served as our own Corporate Sponsorship Manager at the beginning of 2016, explained in an interview with NPR that videogames aren’t only for play, but can be used to help learn or further their skills in languages such as English or Japanese. Not only do they encourage girls to not be afraid to express their love of gaming, but encourage them to pursue careers in technology.
Kal Academy
The Kal Academy’s primary mission is to help women and minority groups land more jobs in the tech industry. They provide technical training and programs that teach markable skills in coding, mathematics, and science. All of their programs are affordable and effective to best forward and support their clients’ careers. The Kal Academy strives to break barriers that otherwise hold women back in pursuing tech-based jobs, taking on an industry where women make up less then 10% of the workforce.
West Seattle Amateur Radio Club
WSARC, the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club, is organized for charitable and educational purposes. A collective of individuals passionate about amateur radio, WSARC provides amateur radio communication services in times of emergency and in support of charitable agencies, and helps provide education to improve the skills of amateur radio operators at local schools. WSARC also encourages scientific discovery and supports the research of technological innovation in relation to amateur radio.
Feminist Frequency
Created and founded by Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency is a non-profit educational organization that focuses on the relationships between media and societal issues. Feminist Frequency has a strong interest in taking on both fictional representation, as well as highlighting the accomplishments that are present in the industry. In their new video series on Youtube, #OrdinaryWomen: Daring to Defy History, we’ll dive into the histories of trailblazing women that should be household names. Their first installment on the series focuses on Emma Goldman, and went live September 12th.
Chick Tech
ChickTech is a non-profit that dedicates their time to helping women integrate into the tech workforce. Whether their hosting hands-on events in coding, they aim to support and inspire both women and girls to pursue careers in technology. Starting as early as high school, girls can attend ChickTech events and workshops in multiple chapters across the United States.
CBLDC
Comic Book Legal Defense Club is all about one thing: protecting the First Amendment rights of comic books! Whether their protecting the community of creators, publishers, realtors, librarians, and even readers, CBLDF provides advice, assistance, and referrals to help them maintain their goals and integrity. Superheroes themselves, CBLDC helped take down an unconstitutional bill in Utah that sought to censor internet speech that could be found “harmful to minors.” The bill would censor graphic novels, art, information on sexual health, and the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.
Women Write About Comics
Women Write About Comics is an online magazine whose beat is everything comics and geek-culture from a feminist perspective. They focus on both intersectionality and internationality, hosting a wide range of editorial work from women writers such as essays, reviews, and news content. Particularly interested in publishing work from an international, diverse perspective, their core writers hail from Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Brazil, and the United States. This round table of fem-intellectuals writes daily content about television, publishing, and of course, comics! They’re always looking to expand that bubble, and take pitches for new work from anything loaded and ready with a good idea.
All of these groups strive to help others in pursuing their goals, whether through exposure, assistance, or education. GeekGirlConnections is a fabulous way to meet and interact others, in the name of all things professionally geeky! However, career or trade related groups aren’t exclusive to GeekGirlConnections. Many non-profit organizations and clubs within our community will also be joining us, from a Seattle’s premier adult-only Quidditch team to our friends over at the Living Computer Museum. Coming up on the blog tomorrow, we’ll introduce you to those groups, and give you a sneak peak into who you’ll meet next month at the convention!
[…] you can donate to or volunteer with GeekGirlCon. You can also show your support for some of our partner organizations. Or, if you are currently unable to donate or volunteer, there is still a lot that you can do. […]