Written by Diego Machado

On October 28th, the Kamloops holy grail of all things nerdy, Kamcon, returned to being an in-person event for the first time since the pandemic for their third annual event. This locally founded and funded event has a wide range of activities for attendees, and booths for local vendors to sell their nerd culture-inspired products and art. The convention ran from Friday, October 28th to Sunday, October 30th, with the first day not being considered an “active” day for all the vendors and booths to get set up. This first day, which they call the “pre-party” took place in the evening and included dungeons and dragons games for the vendors and presenters, and a live show. The other two days are chock-full of educational panels about a variety of topics related to board and tabletop games, and even a Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament for attendees. 

Kamcon’s founding year was 2018, started by founder Tyler Carpentier and his friends. They were sitting around their gaming table, and when the thought of starting a con came up, they all agreed because they “thought it would be fun.” Now the con has served its third year, with smaller offshoot events planned throughout the year until the next one. When asked about

their demographic so far, it has been wildly diverse, which was to be expected. “There’s no one simple demographic, it reaches out to just about everybody. Everybody loves gaming and having fun. Most people are passionate about this and you want to make a difference.” While talking about Kamcon, even while supervising the setup and organizing booths, Tyler seemed truly passionate about the event, and about making it as accessible and inclusive as possible. “we wanted to make sure that not only did an event like this exist but that we can make sure it’s a safe place for everybody to come to learn.”

However, Kamcon wasn’t always as extensive of an event as it is today. They started with just role-playing games, but very quickly expanded into board games, card games, video games, and other kinds of tabletop games. This year they even had a local virtual reality company with an interactive display, allowing attendees to try their hand at any matter of virtual experience. Anime showings will also happen as the events of the day unfold, and a cosplay contest for attendees and vendors alike, and a dungeons and dragons style improv comedy show from local improv troupe the Freudian Slips rounded out the afternoon of the 29th.

Dan Ondang, creative director of the Freudian Slips, spoke very highly of Kamcon and the environment they offer. “So Kamcon is like, you live in this town, and there’s maybe not a ton of people that are enormous dorks like me. Then you come to an event like this and you realize you’re home. All of my people are here, everybody who likes nerdy junk as I do is here, all of these cool folks come out of the woodwork and set up booths, and they’re like hey, get my bead art! It’s great, it’s just so freeing.” The improv group’s ties to Kamcon are fairly deep and significant, as they performed at the first-ever iteration of the event. Not by much coincidence, they also did their improv Dungeons and Dragons show, which was first conceived at that very first Kamcon. The Improv DnD has now become a staple performance for the group. “We do two shows a month, one of them is improv Dungeons and Dragons and one of them is just regular improv comedy,” he explained, “It’s pretty much half of what we do!”

When asked about what kind of people Kamcon could potentially appeal to, both Ondang and Carpentier had glowing, welcoming recommendations for anybody of any level of interest in “nerd culture” to come to check out the next one. “It’s nerdy, but it’s not exclusionary,” said Ondang, “I think it’s for it’s for huge nerds, sure. But it’s also if you’re looking to get your like first exposure to nerd culture, it’s great because it’s accessible.” Carpentier echoed the same sentiment, saying “The audience that we’ve received since we started this is wildly diverse. There are all ages and all sorts of backgrounds that come out to enjoy the event. There’s no one simple demographic, it reaches out to just about everybody. Everybody loves gaming and having fun.”

Talking about the future of the convention, Carpentier is confident that the potential is still not quite realized, and wants to keep growing it. “This year is the first year since the pandemic started, we’ve waited three years to get back to an in-person event. And we’re excited to use this as a launching point towards 2023 and future years.

Check out the Facebook pages of both Kamcon and The Freudian Slips to stay up to date on news about future events.