With GeekGirlCon’s second annual convention coming up next month (August 11-12 at the Conference Center in Seattle), we thought this would be a great time to let you know more about this fangirl celebration, courtesy of InkFarm.com’s Sabina Cao.
Susie Rantz never stood a chance of not being a geek girl. Having a pilot for a father instilled in her a love of being in the sky and thinking about space from a young age. She grew up watching X Files and Star Trek with her family. The number “42” is tattooed in Tengwar, the Elvish language from Lord of the Rings, on her wrist. And now Rantz is the PR Manager for GeekGirlCon, Seattle’s annual convention dedicated to women and girls in “geek” culture.
“I work in PR for my career, I am geeky, and I really support promoting more women in not just the comic industry but in math, science, technology and arts,” Rantz said. “I just felt such a natural tie [to GeekGirlCon] – I’ve only been on staff for a few months, but it has been fantastic working with so many dedicated people.”
The inaugural GeekGirlCon took place last October 8th and 9th, a convention dedicated to promoting awareness of and celebrating the contribution and involvement of women in all aspects of the sciences, science fiction, comics, gaming and related Geek culture.
“I think the girl part is the most unique [part of GeekGirlCon],” said Rantz. “We have a lot of staff and a lot of people who come to GeekGirlCon but also go to Emerald City Comic Con or Sakuracon or other conventions, but it just felt like there needed to be this one gathering place for people who support girls and women and their role in geek culture.”
GeekGirlCon is not only a convention, but also a nonprofit organization that works throughout the year to host events. These events, like the convention, work towards empowering women in their various roles.
“The special events are just a really great way for people to casually get introduced to GeekGirlCon, what our mission is and hopefully people who come and have fun at those movie nights or other events we hold will come to our website more often, will join our Facebook page and start to really interact with other GeekGirlCon supporters,” Rantz said. “So whether it’s through these little special events or through its social media, we really want to engage other people beyond those who just come to the convention.”
“And they felt that GeekGirlCon was just that; they had fun and met so many people while at the same time they really felt like they made some significant connections that bettered them as people.” –Susie Rantz |
GeekGirlCon 2011 was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, both at the convention and online. Two-day and single-day passes sold out the first day and roughly 4,000 attended the event – some coming so far as England and India.
Read the rest of the article at Inkfarm.com’s blog: Take Back Your Printer!
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