Clearwater's Table at GeekGirlCon a Success

Brenda, Gabriel, Kallisti and Meghan at booth with cosplaying attendee

As mentioned in last week's post, The Clearwater School participated as an exhibitor at the second annual GeekGirlCon. Thanks to a great design by Clearwater parent, Brenda Conken, and Clearwater staffer, Mat Riggle, plus silkscreening and booth art by Clearwater parent, Elrond Sheppard, our booth looked great! We were sandwiched between Sakura-Con and a Lego jewelry booth.

Awesome Clearwater students Meghan, Maddy, Alise and Gabriel

Table staffing duties were shared by Clearwater students (Gabriel, Meghan, Alise, Kallisti and Maddy), parents (Brenda, Kelley Sheppard, Susan Milton and Amanda Klein) and staff (Shawna Lee). It is common for exhibitors to hand out swag (appealing trinkets or edibles) to attendees. Brenda thought Tarot cards were a memorable handout at another con and suggested handing out single cards with Clearwater's name, URL and phone on the back. Kallisti also donated a bunch of fortune cookies of different flavors to  give out.

A lot of people came by the booth for a Tarot card or fortunate cookie, and a good number of those wanted more information about the school. The con was also fun for Clearwater table staff. Several of them took breaks from staffing to take advantage of panel discussions on various topics, including "Steampunk Sewing", "Really Make Your Own Videoblog", "The Last 'Outsider' in Popular Culture - Disability", "Spotlight on Purple Reign", "Comedy Web Series: 'Standard Action'", "So You Want to Write (and Finish) a Novel", and "Writing for the Young Adult Geek".

Booth design by Brenda Conken and Mat Riggle

In short, it was a fun event to be part of, and we got the word out about The Clearwater School to a great audience. We hope to be a part of GeekGirlCon again next year.

Clearwater at GeekGirlCon This Weekend

The Clearwater School will have an information table at the second annual GeekGirlCon, Saturday, August 11, 9am-6pm, and Sunday, August 12, 9am-5pm, at the Conference Center, in downtown Seattle across the street from the Washington State Convention Center.

This is the fourth event this summer where students, staff and parents have staffed an information table at a large public event. In June, we had a table at the Fremont Fair and Seattle Pridefest. In July, we were at the Mill Creek Festival.

A few students and their parents attended the first GeekGirlCon last year and thought it would be a great opportunity to publicize Clearwater. We are excited to be a part of it. Mat and Brenda have designed a great booth display that includes a 10-minute looping video of still photos and student-created movie trailers, in addition to some other large graphical elements. Several Clearwater parents and students will represent the school at our table.

In addition to information tables, there are panels, guest speakers, cosplay (people dressing up as their favorite characters), a masquerade and a venue for connecting and networking with women who are professionals in science, video games, comics, television and more. Tickets are available online at GeekGirlCon's website. You may also still be able to get discounted tickets at your local comic store.

We hope to see you at GeekGirlCon!