Programming

2013′s GEAR Con will offer our traditional array of main events, including our variety showcase,  dances, concerts, fashion show, LARPs, and the return of the Crafters’ Lab workshop space, plus some new additions:

• The Prestigious Illusionists – an astounding showcase of steampunk stage magicians on Friday night — hosted by the Historical Conjurer, Professor DR Schreiber.
• Victorian Martial Arts Symposium – Bartitsu workshops & clinics throughout the weekend will culminate in an all-star exhibition on Sunday afternoon — orchestrated by Academia Duellatoria.
• A spacious tabletop gaming lounge (board, card, RPG, & minatures) for open play, demos, and tournaments all weekend long — sponsored by Guardian Games.

. . . plus panels and workshops by experts, talents, & creators from near and far, and musical headliners ABNEY PARK!

Propose Your Programming for GEAR Con 2013!

To pitch programming activities, please use our web forms; these organize your personal info, ideas, and needs in a way that’s easy for us to share and discuss, so please take a moment to complete them fully.

1. First – fill out the Participant Intake to tell us who you are, how to contact you, and how flexibly you can be scheduled over the con weekend.
2. Then – for each activity you’d like to run, fill out a separate instance of the Activities Submission Form.

Programming submissions must be received no later than Thursday, May 25 to be considered for inclusion. We value your original ideas, and we also hope some of you will adopt one or more of the theme-relevant topics on our “wish list”:

Steampunking American Literature — Consider Dickinson, Twain, Poe, Lovecraft, Baum, and other American voices through a retrofuturist lens.  How would their lives & works have differed in our alternate time track? How can we adapt their creations to our milieu?

Weird West of Where? — Coal-fired clockwork cowboy epics are at least as old as steampunk as a whole, but how, and in what imaginary pasts, does an untamed frontier rampant with scientific romance integrate with the rest of the USA?

Stranger Than Fact — What American myths, conspiracy theories, and urban legends can be mined for believable–even inspirational–steampunk stories?

There are more to come, so please check back. Please initiate submissions through the forms above; other inquiries, write to programming@pdxgearcon.com.