Tremendicon, a gathering of writers, artists, game designers and other media professionals, is coming to Springfield’s Oasis Hotel soon. The event will be held June 17-19, 2022, and is dedicated to help educate and inspire the community.
Like Comic-Con and other events targeting the pop-culture crowd, Tremendicon focuses on the creators of this type of content. This includes tabletop game designers, writers and artists.
David Stanfield, president of Tremendicon, was a part of Visioncon for 12 years and oversaw it for three years. Currently, he works in cybersecurity, as well as doing game designing on the side.
He expects between 500-1,000 attendees but hopes for more.
Although similar in style, Stanfield said Tremendicon is a completely separate entity from Visioncon. What makes it unique is its main focus on vendors/creators and not what guests are able to buy or what celebrities there are to see.
“You know, celebrities are good, but it's frustrating for creators when most of the money from attendees goes towards that,” Stanfield said. “[Creators] aren’t getting any money because [guests] are paying $100 for William Shatner's autograph, you know? So, with this, they don't have that kind of competition.”
Stanfield said he planned the convention with his wife for the last few years. He made sure to include “subtle” things for vendors as well, for example catering directly to booths during the convention. He also commented on how recruiting personnel for staffing the convention was tricky, but despite it all he managed to get those who shared his vision to help out.
What to expect at Tremendicon
Events will include model-kit building, leather working and a pinball tournament hosted by the 1984 arcade. Stanfield said half the quarters spent on the pinball machine will go towards Tremedicon’s partner charity, Ozarks Food Harvest.
The partnership with OFH will result in 80 percent of profits will being donated to the food bank, with the remaining 20 percent going to participating artists and vendors.
The pantry partners with 28 counties, and is one of six large-scale food banks throughout Missouri. Jessica Sickinger, OFH’s community engagement manager, said she was “thrilled” to be working with Tremendicon this year.
“It’s such a creative, fun event for our community, and we're excited to be associated with them,” Sickinger said.” It’s a fantastic partnership and it’s a new partnership. I'm really excited to see what happens and how many folks we can feed together.”
Sickinger said the income is used in a variety of ways. This includes maintaining the food bank's vehicles or purchasing groceries for patrons.
According to Sickinger, every dollar donated by Tremendicon will be stretched into four meals for OFH patrons.
OFH’s summer program is focused on helping children during their time out of school. Sickinger also mentioned how this is the program’s 12th year participating in Hunger Action Month during Sept. OFH’s main initiative during the month is the Weekend Backpack Program, dedicated to helping keep kids fed over the weekend.
A full weekend pass to Tremendicon is $50, with a single day Saturday pass being $30. Those interested in attending the convention can find tickets here.
