POC Programming at Big Bad Con

In 2019, in collaboration with the Babble On Equity Project, individual, and industry sponsors, Big Bad Con hosted three groundbreaking events, that are now cemented in our vision going forward:

POC Scholarship

Working with the Babble On Equity Project we raised over $26,000 to aid people of color in attending the con by paying for travel, boarding, admission, and related expenses. This program complimented the Big Bad Con 2019 Kickstarter and Big Bad Con Scholarship program, we gave financial assistance to over 50 POCs to attend the con.

Our recipients were not only invited to attend, but also to host panels, stream events, run games, and showcase their products.

POC Dinner

Ajit George, Whitney Beltrán, and Banana Chan spearheaded a POC Dinner at the start of the convention, providing an opportunity to meet and mingle with other amazing people of color. All POC scholarship recipients, staff, and volunteers were given free admission to the dinner, and thanks to the funds raised, we reduced the ticket prices for all other attendees from $45 to $20 per person.

We bought out a restaurant near the convention and broke bread with over 90 attendees!

POC Meet & Greet

On the Saturday night of the contention we hosted the POC Meet & Greet, a mixer specifically designed to connect POC writers, artists, editors, and creators to their fellow piers and industry contacts. Non-POC industry attendees were invited as well, with the directive to offer mentorship, publishing, or employment opportunities to the POC attendees.

Thanks to the incredible dedication of Ajit George, Whitney Beltrán, Victoria Caña, John Stavropoulos, and Stephanie Nudelman each attendee was given a custom program that included five other attendees that they might benefit from talking to based on the interests they expressed when signing up for the event. Over 100 attendees showed up. New contacts were made and after the convention we got multiple reports of freelance and career connections!

Would you like to contribute?

Going forward, Big Bad Con will continue to host POC events including the Scholarship, Dinner, and Meet & Greet. If you would like to support out efforts, please consider donating below. All funds sent to this link will go directly to our POC programing. For more information about our charity status, click here.