Culture

CONvergence 2016

We are talking about a little nerdy culture today. You might be thinking, where are my comic book hero roster update (and isn’t this slightly late). For the first one, coming back next week. For the second part, moving is a lot of fun, but I’m getting the post taken care of.

Image Source: CONvergence
Image Source: CONvergence

So let’s start out with, what is CONvergence?

CONvergence is a nerdy convention based out of Minneapolis. It is around the fourth of July weekend every year. They have different themes every year, and this year it is about the nerdy means of travel. This is by far the weakest theme that I’ve gone to, the British Invasion and Dystopian. However, besides the theme, there are a lot of other interesting things about the con. It isn’t that large a con, only gathering around 6,000 people, but that means that it isn’t nearly as crazy as larger cons. In the evening the party suites/rooms open up and you can walk around the cabana getting drinks and going into different themed rooms. There have been some that are Zelda themed, the Eolian from the Kingkiller Chronicles, Star Trek, and many other different rooms. A lot of them have booze, some of them have tea, and there is the House of Toast which has something like 100 different ingredients that they put on the toast.

Why CONvergence?

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Now that Wizard World Comic Con is coming to Minneapolis for the past few years, why do I still go to the small CONvergence? It’s because it is small and it attracts and older crowd. Because the drinking/party rooms are a fun part of it, it tends to have an older crowd. Along with that, you tend to have a crowd that handles themselves better. I’m sure there are incidents that happen every year there, but it tends to be less crazy. That said, the big reason I went in the first place was because James Moran was going to be there one year. He is a screenwriter who wrote “The Fires of Pompeii” episode of Doctor Who and the screenplays for the movies Severance and Cockneys vs Zombies. If you haven’t seen either of those films, do yourself and watch at least Cockneys vs Zombies. My wife doesn’t like zombies all that well, and she enjoyed Cockneys vs Zombies. It’s in the vein of Shaun of the Dead.

What Keeps Me Coming Back?

Probably the biggest thing is the panels. There are often a lot of interesting panels on different nerdy topics. The first time there were a lot of British themed panels and I got to learn a whole bunch more British slang which I’ve probably lost most of now. But the panels are probably one of my favorite parts. I’m sure that other people are really tied into the gaming aspect, or the party aspect (which is fun), or just the social aspect of cosplay and the other random events that they have going on. But when I go to a con, like CONvergence, I always hope to learn something new, and generally I do. I lost of list when I got a new phone, but I had a list of something over 50+ lousy dystopian movies that I could watch, and I maybe got through one or two during the year, but it’s fun stuff like that which keeps me coming back.

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Should You Go To CONvergence?

I would recommend it. I think it is a CON that most people would have fun going to. It is one that is fairly family friendly during the day, and is a blast for the 20 and 30 year-olds who want to party in the evening. People are respectful and generally the themes are very interesting. And if you like the Cosplay, it is a great spot to do it.

If you are going to be there, look for Raven and Beast Boy on the Friday as Kristen and I will be there, and say hi. We’ll have some Nerdologists.com badge ribbons on us.

Check out CONvergence here!

 

And as always find us on twitter @NerdologistCast and search for us on Facebook under Nerdologists. You can find me on twitter @TheScando. Hope to see you at the CON!

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