The mission of Nerds Experience, also known as Nerds XP, is for nerds, especially nerds of the Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPoC) backgrounds, to be able to hold space and community around pop culture and nerdism without barriers.
Nerds Experience started with Black Nerds Expo in 2018 as a way to diversify Black History Month programming at a local community college. For 5 years, Black Nerds Expo as well as Black & Brown Nerds Expo was organized.
Some of the unique things that Black Nerds Expo and Black & Brown Nerds Expo provided were:
Free booths for vendors
Free admission for attendees
Free parking
Payments for panelists, speakers, and performers
Free food for vendors, panelists, performers, and volunteers
Gas cards to vendors from outside of San Diego
Childcare and children's play area
Website and social media promotion of businesses and brands
Free reading area with comics, manga, and art books
Free trading or gifting area for comics, manga, and books
Free chances to meet or interact with celebrities
Free tabletop, board, and video gaming areas
Free-to-enter writing, video, cosplay, scavenger hunt, and art contests
Gift cards to anyone who recruited a vendor, panelist, performer or volunteer
One of the reasons that the Nerd Expos stopped is because of funding. The Nerd Expos focused on the needs of the vendors and the attendees, and the cost of running a convention, no matter how small, was partially on the college hosting the event and the few other sponsors. A majority was funded by the creator of the expos, but this wasn't a sustainable way of keeping the expos going.
So how can the Nerd Expos be brought back? With the help of anyone who would like to support in any way!
Here's how to support:
Volunteer when the next expo comes around
Be on the planning committee to help organize
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