It’s said the meek shall inherit the earth, but the geek will inherit Sioux City this weekend. The Sioux City Geek Convention, or GeekCon, opens today.
Organizer and president Skyler Gorsett says they’ll be showcasing video and tabletop games of all types, anime viewings, artists, comics, cosplay, and more at the Sioux City Convention Center.
“We’re going to be filling it with all sorts of geek-themed or nerdy-themed events, everything from playing board games and card games all the way over to TTRPGs,” Gorsett says. “We’re going to have panel discussions from some local and regional celebrity figures. We have one guy that does katana demonstrations.”
If you aren’t familiar with all of the lingo, Gorsett explains TTRPGs.
“Tabletop role-playing games, so Dungeons and Dragons is the most popular one that people recognize. Pathfinder is another pretty big one,” he says. “We’ll have stuff that’s superhero-themed, and one that’s centered around fighting dinosaurs, things like that. They span across hundreds of themes.”
Gorsett says this 8th Sioux City GeekCon promises to be the biggest yet, with integrated community organizations, a massive increase in vendor and artist booths, and a long list of regional tournaments that will bring in gamers from all over. There will also be video game tourneys.
“Super Smash Bros, we’re going to have a tournament going on for that. Mario Kart, some pretty popular ones there,” he says. “Just honestly really good ones for having a tournament and getting competitive, all the way over to Rock Band, I think he’s going to have that available for people to compete against as well.”
GeekCon runs through Sunday. Admission is free for kids, while adults will be charged a fee. There will be a silent auction and raffle, the profits from which go towards convention costs.