SpoCon, an approachable, smaller geek convention, finishes 15-year run on Halloween weekend

A lesser-known convention of all-things-geek, SpoCon, returned to the Davenport for Halloween weekend this year, but with the realization that this would be the event’s final run.

Dice clattered onto a table cluttered with note cards, pencils and figurines. Children, teens and adults in groups of five or six sat around a dozen tables with different games: Magic the Gathering, Pathfinder, Nyctophobia, Dungeons and Dragons.

“A woman’s head appears in the mist,” a game master narrated to a team of role players. “ ‘Who has freed me from the demon’s clutches?’ ”

The players occasionally shouted with excitement or giggled as their adventures unfolded in unexpected ways.

Nearby, prop master, costume designer and stuntman Dragon Dronet demonstrated a sword fight in full armor and regaled his audience with tales of working on Hollywood sets.

Visual art, literature and costumes filled the convention grounds.

Large-scale conventions, like San Diego Comic-Con or Emerald City Comic Con, may draw hundreds of vendors, thousands of guests and numerous celebrity appearances, but smaller conventions, such as SpoCon have something else, attendees and organizers said.

“It’s really small, and that’s a benefit to it,” said Eugene Taylor, alongside his wife, Michelle Taylor, both from Medical Lake. “Here, it’s a little more intimate.”

The two attendees, dressed as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus from the cartoon “Phineas and Ferb,” both said that SpoCon is the type of convention they can attend without having to worry about their two teenage children wandering too far away. In addition to roleplaying games, including Dungeons and Dragons, the family of four also participates in cosplaying as their favorite characters.

Featured guests and event organizers all seem to know each other and have relationships at SpoCon.

It’s more approachable than the larger conventions, said Edgar Lincoln, one of SpoCon’s leading organizers.

“A lot of the reason I do this is to get together and hang out with my friends,” Lincoln said. “There are people I am good friends with I’ve known for decades who I don’t see outside of this.”

Another reason is education. In addition to organizing the event, SpoCon has donated thousands of dollars worth of books to local high school libraries and even to little free libraries over the years.

“One of the things we’re seeing now is reading takes more of a backseat because there is so much accessible visual media,” Lincoln said. “We’re just trying to encourage those strange nerd kids to read … to know that there are other people in the world like them.”

Michael Brugger, a guest speaker and artist at the convention, said the organization’s charity is one of his favorite aspects of it.

“We come to get our nerd on and have fun, but we also get to give to the community, and that’s a huge upside,” he said. “It’s not just raw capitalism.”

Despite a run that lasted more than a dozen years, SpoCon organizers say that 2022’s event will be the convention’s last. The reasons are many. Lincoln said, citing declining attendance, COVID-19 cancellations, event space that is outside of their budget, burnout among event organizers and debt.

Although SpoCon started in 2007, Lincoln said it’s the third iteration of a series of small, local conventions in the Inland Northwest. There was a Spokon in the ’80s, and then there was Incon, which lasted from the ’90s into the early 2000s, Lincoln said. There’s a high likelihood that the convention will come back in some other form, he said.

“If there was a medium-sized hotel we could fall back and retrench … we just don’t have staff, and we are burnt to a crisp,” he said. “There’s a lifespan on these things, like anything else.”

Quinn Welsch can be reached at (509) 459-5469 or by email at quinnw@spokesman.com.