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SkepchickCON 2013: We need your ideas! + Prize Inside!

Here at Skepchick HQ, we are busy planning to make next summer’s SkepchickCON the biggest and best EVER. One way of doing that is to pack it with panels and events that YOU want to see and be a part of. Don’t think you can make it this year? Think again! We’re offering travel grants this year! More info after the jump.

What is SkepchickCON? It’s the skeptic track at CONvergence, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held in the Minneapolis area every year around July 4th. This year, the event will be held July 4–July 7, at the Doubletree in Bloomington, MN. The theme? British Invasion!

The conference is full of panels, speakers, gaming events, costumes (including a huge costume ball), art shows, music and dancing, live demonstrations, and two floors of cabana room parties every night, including the Skepchick party room and the Freethought Blogs party room, where you can come drink and chat with the Skepchicks and the FTB bloggers—all in the name of SCIENCE!

Every year, the SkepchickCON panels offer an extra helping of science, and we’re brainstorming next year’s panels and speakers as you read this. So skeptics, we need your BRAINS. Let us know in the comments what you would like to see next year. If we end up using your idea, we’ll send you a prize! The button of your choice from Skeptical Robot.
 

  • What panel topics do you want to see?
  • What speakers would you love to see on these panels?
  • What other ideas do you have for mini-events at the CON involving the Skepchicks and Freethought Bloggers?

 

To get an idea of what these panels are like, you can check out the CONvergence schedule from last year. Some of the topics we’ve tackled in the past are saving money through skepticism about beauty products and other pseudoscience targeted at women; comparison of art and the scientific method; artists and inspiration from geek culture; navigating childhood and parenthood in an online world; sexism, mysogyny, and trolls on the Internet; Ask a Scientist; science and myths related to drugs and alcohol; evolution and the female orgasm—and I’ll just stop there, because you probably won’t read a thing I say after that one.
 

Travel Grants!

We will be setting up a travel grant system similar to the one Skepticon used this year. So if the travel costs are keeping you from even considering SkepchickCON, stay tuned for more information on these grants and how you can apply for one.

 

Image credits: Christopher Jones © Convergence Events (featured image), Maria Walters.

Melanie Mallon

Melanie is a freelance editor and writer living in a small town outside Minneapolis with her husband, two kids, dog, and two cats. When not making fun of bad charts or running the Uncensorship Project, she spends her time wrangling commas, making colon jokes, and putting out random dumpster fires. You can find her on Twitter as @MelMall, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

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10 Comments

  1. Can we bully Scicurious into going? Or Maryn McKenna? Or Kate Clancy? Or Krystal D’Costa? Or all of the above? Please?

  2. Just totally keep your feminism to yourself, huh? (kidding!!!)

    Seriously though, can someone do a feminism thingy in a positive way? Sort of a collection of the best good news in the war against sexist asshats over the past year or two, and the ways that people can move forward to expand those gains? Not because pointing out the negative stuff isn’t important, but because sometimes people need to hear about the wins too, especially in a meatspace setting.

  3. How to handle obnoxious/sexist skeptics, especially in local skeptics groups, seems like a good subject to cover.

  4. I suppose it’s been done to death, but I think climate change would be a good topic.

    Speaking of death, I have an idea for a mini-event: how about karaoke of “Death from the Skies”, as done by Phil Plait and George Hrab? While at it, throw in the songs done by Kim Boekbinder, like “The Sky is Calling” and her recent one “Black Hole Baby”.

    While at that, how about having Kim as a speaker, if she has the time?

    And how about Carolyn Porco? She’d be cool to have there.

    Given the theme is “British Invasion”, I think a cosplay of certain popular British TV shows can be offered as well, just for fun.
    And let’s feature a fish and chips dinner party or something. That was a good dish when I first had it when I first visited England.

  5. I really like Amanda Marcotte on feminism and atheism. I would also love to see something like skepticism and social networking- stopping the spread of the woo contagion in online communities. I love Pinterest because I am a very visual person, but I am dismayed by all of the pseudoscience and blatantly antiscience dreck that gets pinned there. Even more mindblowing is all of the blatantly sexist crap, and the site is overwhelmingly patronized by women. I try to fight it by commenting/repining accurate information/ being pro science and pro woman, but it is a drop in the bucket. You see the same stuff to varying degrees on all of the social networks.

  6. Something about skeptical parenting, or how to enhance your children’s education with skepticism.

    Also robots…robots are cool ;)

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