This coming weekend, if you can make it to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., there’s some serious fun to be had for you and your kids at a convention. Dubbed “Intervention” by making a portmanteau of “internet” and “convention,” this is not your typical con where you have to struggle to find something for your kids to do while you peruse the dealers’ room or play a game or two or three.
Intervention, now in its third year, is run by its founders Onezumi “Oni” Hartstein and James Harknell, and it’s all about people who use the internet as their primary means of delivering content to their audience. Consequently, you’ll find many webcomics creators there, as well as bloggers and makers of online videos. In fact, I will be a guest at Intervention myself, talking about blogging for GeekDad and how to balance blogging with family life, among other things.
Intervention started children’s programming last year, and is expanding it this year with a focus on art. This year finds Saturday devoted to building comic books, Sunday devoted to animation, and for those who make it on Friday evening, fun experimenting with different artistic media. While last year I (along with fellow GeekDad Brian McLaughlin and GeekMom Helene McLaughlin) helped plan and organize the children’s programming, I’m not involved this year — which is a good thing, because my artistic skills are about as limited as a Kardashian’s acting ability. I’ll certainly be stopping by the programming, though, if for no other reason than that I’m certain my kids will want to spend a lot of time there.
Intervention 2012 will be held at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville, located in Rockville, Maryland (roughly 20 miles NNW of Washington). The con opens Friday evening, September 21, and runs until Sunday afternoon, the 23rd. My panels will be on Friday at 8:00pm, and Saturday at 11:00am and 1:00pm. You can find out all the details of Intervention at the official website.
You should also check out Corrina Lawson’s interview with Intervention founder Oni Hartstein from last year. Also, a completely shameless plug: My wife will be selling her awesome, self-designed, handcrafted geeky amigurumi in the dealers’ room (tell her you saw her mentioned here and she’ll give you a discount).
