RPS Are At Nine Worlds Geek Fest 2013, This August
There's a new conference taking place in a couple of weeks, following some successful Kickstartering: Nine Worlds Geek Fest 2013, near London. Heathrow, in fact. Convenient for our aeroplane readers. And I'll be there, along with Cara Ellison and some mysterious, besuited stranger called Kieron Gillen. Along with proper famous names like Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow, the Guardian's Laurie Penny, Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, game writer Rhianna Pratchett, Red Dwarf star Chris Barrie, and a squillion others. The conference covers comics, sci-fi, science, geek feminism, and of course, gaming. Cara and I are on panels for the latter two, and you should come along.
I'm on a couple of panels on the Saturday, beginning at 1.30pm with Gender And The Games Industry, where I'm honoured to be sharing a stage with Rhianna Pratchett, Cara Ellison, and Dr Jo Twist, where we'll talk about, well, that. It should cover the three prongs of gaming culture's ugly fork - representation of genders in games, the experience of women working in the games industry, and the treatment of women gamers. Hopefully it should be a good, lively discussion, with plenty of high-fives.
The second time I'm up is 6.45pm, this time for From Space Invader to Starfleet: Inclusiveness in Geek Spaces, where I'm again ridiculously honoured to be included in a panel with pinko-lefty-Guardian writer Laurie Penny, and Paul Cornell whose Father's Day episode of Doctor Who was amazing. This is a more broad discussion of the nature of prejudice within geek culture, and how to tackle these issues.
Cara will also be on stage with Rhianna on Sunday night for a Fireside Chat, and appearing on a panel on Saturday afternoon called Games For Us: The Rise Of LGBT And Feminist Gaming.
And Kieron, for he is everywhere, will be talking about writing for Marvel, and on my favourite-titled panel of the event, Cyberpunk: The Dystopian Prism/Prison.
There's an enormous amount going on, including perhaps most importantly an entire My Little Pony track, including cupcakes. You should come say hi, and receive hugs.