Auction: Autographed Skepchick Sideshow Posters from #SkepchickCon
If you have never attended CONvergence, you might not fully appreciate one of the unique features of the con: nightly themed party rooms. Picture two floors of hotel rooms, each with a patio or balcony, looking out over the hotel pool and courtyard. In every room is a themed party, and people go all out with the decorations.
Since this is a sci-fi/fantasy con, you of course have the Star Trek room, Harry Potter room, Dr. Who, and other usual suspects, but you also have the Toast room, where people line up forever just to get one of hundreds of toppings on their toast. In fact, as soon as we get the Prometheus Debunked video posted, you’ll see the panelists offered toast topped with oysters. *shudder*
The best part? The party rooms are free. Food, drinks, dancing, demos, and more–whatever a party offers, the hosts can’t charge for it (although all the rooms accept donations, of course). This is in addition to the free coffee (as in espresso drinks, not crappy watered-down church/AA coffee) and free food (rice, pizza, soup, fruit, snacks, and more) that CONvergence offers throughout the conference.
Seriously, there’s a reason people love this con so much. And this is not even getting into all the panels, workshops, gaming, and other events, including the science and skepticism track, a.k.a. SkepchickCon, which we organize every year.
Our party room theme was Skepchick Sideshow, complete with Anne Sauer’s snake oil salesman presentation on cure-alls, which of course ended with free test tube shots of her own Amazing Skepchick Cure-All (for sobriety). Mel Springer, who works for the Guthrie (an acclaimed Twin Cities theater), designs our room every year and always does an amazing job. This year, he raised the bar again (literally and figuratively).
Plus we hung sideshow posters designed by Donna Mugavero using Gigi Chickee‘s incredible photos, also created just for SkepchickCon. (I can’t say often enough how much the collaboration with Mad Art Lab artists took this year to a whole new level.) At the end of the con, we had as many speakers as possible from the SkepchickCon track sign each poster, making them one-of-a-kind, irreproducible collectibles that we’re putting up for auction this week. All proceeds go toward SkepchickCon: travel costs for speakers, workshop and demo materials, print information about science and skepticism, and more.
Below are all 8 posters with links to their auction page on eBay. Signatures include those of Skepchicks Rebecca Watson, Surly Amy Roth, Bug Girl, Debbie Goddard, Heina Dadabhoy, Jamie Bernstein, and Nicole Gugliucci; Mad Art Labbers Ryan Consell, Emily Finke, and Anne Sauer; Teen Skepchick Lux Pickel; Freethought Bloggers PZ Myers, Stephanie Zvan, and Jason Thibeault; as well as Dan Fincke and special guests Indre Viskontas and Siouxsie Wiles.
All auctions end Sunday, July 28, starting at 9 pm EDT. You can click on the captions below to see individual auctions or check them all out here. Collect them all! We’ll combine shipping.