GGB Youngstown – Youngstown Comic-Con 2018

GGB Youngstown Goes to Youngstown Comic-con!

The weekend of July 7th and 8th was a whirlwind of fun for the Youngstown Chapter~

We are extremely lucky to have a locally run convention right on our doorstep, and had the pleasure of not only bringing our Brunchettes for the day Sunday, but also managing to snag a table to promote our chapter and Geek Girl Brunch as a whole for the weekend!

The Youngstown Comic-Con, formerly the AllAmeriCon, was hosted this weekend for the ninth year running. Organized by the owner of the local card and comic store, AllAmerican, Greg is both a great guy, and extremely supportive of our chapter. He has frequently helped to promote us, as well as lent prize support where he can for our brunches. When we approached him about getting a space this year to try to bring in some new membership and get the word out about the organization he jumped at the chance to make room for us!

The convention runs across the two days, and estimates for attendance this year were set around 5000 attendees. With around 100 vendors, artists, and special guests, as well as costume competitions for both the kids, and the big kids~ there was something for everyone!

Two of our Officers, Sam and Heather, got to the convention center early Saturday morning and set up our table, laying out flyers, a map of all our most local chapters, and a photo board with images from some of our previous brunches and plenty of information about Geek Girl Brunch as a whole.

Then it was simply a case of waiting for the masses to roll in. Throughout the day we had many people stop by, asking questions, taking down information, and most of all excited to hear about Geek Girl Brunch and the opportunities it affords women in our communities. Sam and Heather had a fantastic time telling anyone who would listen about the great experiences they’ve had since joining and becoming officers, and every so often we’d have one of our members pass by and join in on telling whoever might be at the table about their own experience.

We were incredibly excited when Saturday afternoon one of our own members, Tracy, entered the costume competition and came away as a winner from the ‘Judges Pick’ category! She looked amazing, and all her efforts paid off when she won herself a brand new airbrush and her snazzy certificate! Many Congratulations to her!!

Saturday afternoon tapered off to a close just after five o’clock, but we were back at it Sunday morning, ready for another day of excitement!

Again, Sam and Heather manned the table, whilst another of our officers, Danamarie met up with our Brunchettes, as we had set the convention as this months official GGBYtown event. Deciding to keep things more low-key this month, we opened it up as a family event, which meant several Brunchettes came with partners or friends, and it made for a fun morning of walking the isles of vendors, catching up about the latest goings on, and generally enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the convention.

After wearing ourselves out walking it was time for some refreshments, and whilst Sam stayed to look after the table, everyone else relocated to Bistro 1907, located within walking distance from the convention center. Our fourth officer Mandy met up with the group there, eager to hear all about the convention and see the effort put in by a few of our members who donned their costumes for the day.

Good food was enjoyed by all, with many commenting on how great the restaurant was. Best of all, it made a nice way of winding down at the end of a busy, but fun-filled day/weekend.

We’d like to again make mention to the organizers of the Youngstown Comic-Con for helping us get the word out about Geek Girl Brunch, and supporting us as an organization. We’re eager to plan for next year thanks to the wonderful experience we had, and who knows, maybe by then it’ll be big enough that we might see some of you there~