If spending the weekend with a room full of geeks, whiling away the hours playing board games and role-playing games, sounds like heaven to you, then you’re in luck. GeeklyCon is taking over our fair city, bringing podcast heroes, gamers, and nerds of all stripes to St. Louis.
The convention goes from July 20–23 at City Place Hotel downtown. Hundreds of folks from around the country will converge to play games, learn about playing games, practice dressing up like characters from games, swap tips on running better games… You get the idea.
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In its fourth year, the convention arose from the rabid fan base of the GeeklyInc family of podcasts. (The podcasts are about games. Keep up.)
“Our flagship podcast is called Drunks and Dragons,” says Michael DiMauro, a co-founder of GeeklyInc and GeeklyCon. “We played Dungeons and Dragons online and, for some reason, thousands of people downloaded it.” A Game of Thrones podcast is another popular offering.
The first GeeklyCon was almost a joke. One fan was visiting another fan three years ago in Chicago, where co-founder Tim Lanning happened to be heading for a wedding. “Let’s meet up” turned into scores of people converging for the first GeeklyCon.
“A lot of the community has been pretty open and accepting,” says Carly Shields, another partner in all things Geekly. That acceptance is a key tenet of GeeklyCon and might be crucial for some of the folks who come out. “We have social anxiety; we got bullied in high school. We rally around the theme of acceptance. People respond to that. A lot of people have made really good friends.” (“Good friends” is an understatement; Shields and DiMauro met at the second con and got married this spring. She says they’re not the only Con Couple—and there are even Con Kids.)
Even given the welcoming atmosphere, meeting hundreds of new people can be scary. So this year, they came up with a Harry Potter-esque system of houses, complete with backstories. Attendees were sorted into the groups, and once the con is underway they can expect friendly competition (and collaboration) between the houses for trinkets, tchotchkes, and bragging rights. Most preregistered attendees are already participating in a lively Slack channel to talk about games, St. Louis, and socializing.
Besides all the gaming, there’s a whole slate of other activities planned. “The kickoff party on Thursday is going to be heralded as Geekly Prom,” says Shields. “A bunch of people are going to dress up. We’re looking forward to seeing the mishmash.”
Instead of the usual isolation of recording podcasts alone in their bedrooms, the GeeklyInc crew will be recording live onstage at Old Rock House on Friday night. They’ve done live broadcasts at prior cons, and the energy (and inside jokes) are lively.
There are planned outings to the Gateway Arch, the Saint Louis Zoo, City Museum, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Attendees can also check out St. Louis’ thriving gaming culture through an outing to downtown’s Start Bar, featuring old-school Donkey Kong, on Saturday evening. They’re heading for Sunday brunch at Pieces in Soulard on Sunday morning, with a wide array of board games on hand. And some con attendees might find their ways to Maplewood’s Orbit Pinball Lounge and the Central West End’s Up-Down.
“Every year, we do a big farewell picnic,” Shields says. “This year, it’s going to be a carnival. We’ve got a bunch of carnival games and street food, but it’s all indoors because we’re nerds and indoor kids.”
It’s too late to get tickets online, but walk-up registration will be available.
