We have some very exciting news for LeakyCon Portland today! Sony Pictures will show us exciting new footage from the upcoming film, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones at LeakyCon in Portland on June 29, 2013. This glimpse at the eagerly awaited film will be accompanied by a live video conference chat with the New York Times Bestselling author of the series, Cassandra Clare, a famous alum of the Harry Potter fan world. We are thrilled welcome her to LeakyCon, and can’t wait to bring this peek to our guests!

“The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” hits theaters on August 23!

LeakyCon Portland is filling fast; register while there is still space!

These guys made a huge splash in Chicago, performing as a part of our Opening Ceremonies and helping to judge our first-ever LeakyStars competition.  You might recognize them as members of the Dalton Acadamy Warblers on the hit TV show Glee, but more than that, they have become part of the spirit of LeakyCon. Whether singing Harry Potter-based filks or joining in at the rock shows, or signing hundreds upon hundreds of your bags, or simply lending a hand and getting involved, these guys know what LeakyCon is about and love to be a part of it. And we love to have them!

Please help us welcome these guys back to LeakyCon!

Julia will be directing our epic Opening Ceremonies. Julia directed several shows with Basement Arts while at the University of Michigan, including The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, the reboot of which premieres later this summer in Chicago. Julia has appeared in various Team Starkid productions, including A Very Potter Musical and Holy Musical B@man! She is a co-founder of Glow* Collective, an online community that seeks to inspire and empower women, and she is also the author of A Glamorously Unglamorous Life, which was released summer 2011.

Devin will feature in our Opening Ceremony and will serve as one of our Fittie 5K coordinators. Devin is a fitness buff and a contributing member of Fitting It In, a health and fitness blog founded by Melissa Anelli. Devin will also participate in a body image panel with Hunger Games star Jackie Emerson. She has also appeared in various Team Starkid productions, including as Cho Chang in A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Senior Year. And no, she doesn’t really have a Southern accent (even though she is from the South!). She attended the University of Michigan and currently lives in Los Angeles

Help us welcome Julia and Devin — we’re so excited to have Julia and Devin back and working with us!

The Opening Ceremonies: Not something you’re used to looking forward to at a conference? At LeakyCon this is a celebration of all the geekery we’re about to embark on over the following days. They tend to be festivals of music and skits and other tomfoolery; past ones have featured choirs, impromptu Britney Spears singalongs, new music from LeakyStars contestants, surprise performances from our special guests, and even Hank Green dressed as the Tenth Doctor. You really never know what’s in store here: and if the plans are any indication, this year’s will be the most memorable ever.

Autographs and Photobooths: An ongoing roll of autograph and photo sessions with our special guests: unlike collector-based conferences, LeakyCon’s are no additional charge. This is a major difference between LeakyCon and a lot of entertainment-related conferences out there, and since we know we will be welcoming a lot of first-timers, we want to make sure you know that your ticket is inclusive. Save your money for the exhibit hall!

Panels and Q&As with Guests from Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glee, and more to be announced! We already have announced two Buffy cast members, a Hunger Games tribute and three Potter stars: with more to come. Because LeakyCon focuses on valuable interactions with our special guests, you will get to hear from them and ask them questions. They will also be part of several panels discussing their work, and if past LeakyCons are any indication, that’s just the beginning of the surprises and tomfoolery they get into; Evanna Lynch playing bass for Harry and the Potters was just the beginning!

Rock Concerts! Save Thursday and Friday nights for some of the most fun you’ll have with your robes on. The first two nights of LeakyCon are rock concerts of the most awesome, nerdiest variety. Songs about Harry Potter, about the Hunger Games, about all the many nerdy topics of Hank Green’s music, and more. This year we have an amazing lineup including:

Leaky Lit: If you are a booklover and haven’t been to LeakyCon Lit, you haven’t seen a literary conference the way Maureen Johnson and Robin Wasserman make them. It is the funniest, most vibrant celebration of young adult literature in existence. This year’s lineup of authors is nothing short of awe-inspiring: Maggie Stiefvater, David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, E. Lockhart, Coe Booth, Leah Bardugo, Matt de la Pena, Lev Grossman, Heather Brewer, Barry Lyga, Cheryl Klein, (Portland resident) Laini Taylor, Stephanie Perkins, Amber Benson… if we’ve missed anyone it’s because we’re overwhelmed. You can see everyone listed on our Portland page. (Make sure you have a Lit ticket to attend this portion of the conference!)

Lizzie Bennet Diaries Mania: Yeah, we invited almost every cast member and a couple of creators of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries back to LeakyCon, because they may be off the YouTube air but they are not out of our hearts. This year, they’ll be taking part in a number of panels, from a big mainstage moderated Q&A to discussions of transmedia, and more. We are even hearing tell from Bernie Su that LeakyCon will feature some…exclusive things… that we can’t talk about yet. Damn you, spoilers!

JMOMS: The Joe Moses One-Man Showses! Who can forget Wrong Direction? Not us. Join the mischievous panda-hat wearing improv show for another year of creative hijinks featuring Joe Moses, Tessa Netting, and who knows who else? Take a look:

Panels, Workshops, Podcasts, Meetups Galore: Our full lineup will be revealed soon, but here’s a tiny taste of what’s coming:

Meetups: Whovians, Disney fans, Fanfic writers, veteran LeakyCon attendees, first-timers, presenters, fans of slash, Tumblr-ers, Aussie fans, parents? These are just a few of the meetups we have waiting for you on your first day to make sure you meet like-minded people to make your LeakyCon experience awesome.

A few selections from our panels and podcasts:

• MuggleNet Fan Fiction’s Audio Fictions podcast
• Creative Editing for Betas and Writers workshop
• Nerdfighter Meetup! Standing room only, every year!
• So You Think You Can Travel in Time? Harry Potter, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Back to the Future…time travel is a tricky thing!
• How Do You LeakyCon? A guide for the newbies!
• Sorting Other Series: The Hunger Games: Got an opinion on who from the Hunger Games belongs in Slytherin? (Like, everyone?) This is where to bring it!
• Wandlore: A Complex and Mysterious Magic: Harry Potter lore doesn’t get thornier than this!
• The Heroine’s Journey: We all know about the hero’s journey. What about ladies who kick ass?
• Achieving Performance Perfection with Potter: Improv workshop!
• The Wonderful World of Whedon, 2.0: So popular last year, we brought it back!
• Katniss the Cattail: Naming in the Hunger Games: What do Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling have in common? For one thing, they both pick pretty apt names for their characters. Come and discuss what the names of characters might tell you about your favorites in the Hunger Games.
• The Harry Potter books as Feminist Text? An informal roundtable discussion.
• Dance Against the Dark Arts: The Quidditch Trials: Telling Harry’s story through dance!
• (Muggle) Quidditch Through the Ages: Learn all about the International Quidditch Association!
• Creating Transmedia: Big Stories, Collaboration and Cross-Pollination: The Angel Punk creative team talks about works of art that escape their traditional boundaries
• Angels, Demons, Shadowhunters and Slayers: With book-to-film projects like The Mortal Instruments and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, this presentation delves into what it is that makes these stories so popular today
• How Fandom Helped Me: A discussion of fandom and its power for good
• Relationships: Canon vs Fanfic: Discuss how the fan world changes our perception of our favorite characters, for better or worse!
• What Does Your Wand Say About You?
• Defending Draco Malfoy: Because really, we’ve been trying to forever.
• Hufflepuff Affirmation! Those badgers have a lot of house pride but don’t often get the most love!
• LeakyCon Broadway Babies: Meet other musical theater geeks!
• Steampunk and the Potterverse: Need we say more?

…and a LOT more. Really, you’ll need one of those fancy doo-dads from the Ministry. This is just a selection.

Quidditch: Leaky is working on its second annual LeakyCup! The details will be released soon. In addition to the cup games, you will be able to watch demos, and try the game yourself with experts on hand to help you do it.

LeakyStars! The Internet has been buzzing with entries and votes, and now the time will come: time for our LeakyStars contestants to get on stage and compete for the 2013 title! We’ve got some special judge announcements and more coming!

The Geekiest World Records: Last year we set a world record for Most People Wearing One-Piece Pajamas at once. This year, we have something equally as awesome planned, and you’ll find out about it soon!

The Fittie 5K: Created in conjunction with Fitting It In, this is our first nerdy fun run/walk! It is not, however, our first physical activity session; LeakyCon has held yoga and meditation sessions for each of its previous conferences. This time we are taking fitness to a new level as we challenge our attendees to get into the proper spirit by starting the conference with a 5K run/walk. There will be surprises throughout; costumes are encouraged, and participants get a special piece of swag when they finish. Who says nerds aren’t athletic? Definitely not LeakyCon!

The Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball: On our last weekend night together, we will dance our butts off. Why butts? Because Esther Earl – one of the attendees at our first LeakyCon, the young woman who inspired the story of The Fault in Our Stars, and a dear and missed member of our community – loved to talk and joke about butts. In her always-light spirit we pledge to make sure that every Saturday night of LeakyCon is a night of major joy and revelry.

Sunday Funday: Instead of eating, we are making sure to spend Sunday having more fun together, but in that laid back, it’s Sunday, let’s do some fun stuff, kind of way. You’ll have a last chance to say goodbye to your newfound friends; we’ll be doing last signings, last photo sessions, and many other activities (perhaps some … ahem … specific singalongs) to see the weekend off right. We’ll wave at each other, pack our bags… and start the reminiscing on the Internet.

So, what do you think? Will you have anything to do?

The studio creates earrings and necklaces to reflect their love of Harry Potter, in addition to creating jewelry for many other fandoms, such as Doctor Who, Buffy, Supernatural, and Sherlock.  Amery Studios specializes in wire earrings, fandom jewelry, Nerdfighter jewelry, book pendants, John Green/TFIOS quote necklaces, and much more.

Additional local flare will accompany Amery Studios, as local painter John Pinney will be on hand to share his unique glazed ceramic shot glasses in Hogwarts House colors.

Get in touch with Amery Studios through her Etsy page, and check for updates via her Tumblr.  Information about John Pinney’s work can be found on his website here.

VEND AT LEAKYCON
Interested in selling your goods at LeakyCon?  Vendor spaces for Portland and London are still available.  Email vendors@leakycon.com for more information and pricing.

Thank you for all of the amazing entries, we’re overwhelmed with your awesome talents!

By Melissa Anelli
LeakyCon Co-Founder

This post won’t follow our standard announcement format, because it’s the rare joy that I get to introduce someone so dear to me to the LeakyCon audience. This person is responsible, in tangible ways, for everything that the Leaky entities have become, from our efforts creating digital and real-world places for geeks to call home, to those that have resulted in handing out more than $220,000 in charitable aid. Getting to know him back when Internet fandoms were little more than online mailing lists is a big part of why I found the courage to pursue bliss in whatever form it presented to me. As such, it led me to work on the Leaky Cauldron, and everything that has followed has been an offshoot of that. It’s never been easy to make his contribution clear: that ends today!

It’s my great pleasure and honor to announce that actor Anthony Rapp is going to join us in LeakyCon Portland. While best known for originating the character of Mark Cohen (off-screen and on) in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent, Anthony is also a writer, musician, activist, humanitarian, video game aficionado, and all-around amazing guy.

Anthony made his Broadway debut in 1981 in a musical based on The Little Prince. Since then he has also created memorable roles Adventures in Babysitting (Daryl), Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, Six Degrees of Separation (stage and film), and more. He originated the role of Charlie Brown in the early 2000s Broadway revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

What does Anthony have to do with a nerdy/geeky fan conference? No one knows fandoms like Anthony. As part of the pre-Harry Potter digital fan world during the Rent phenomenon, he was at the center of the formation of modern fan culture. His autobiographical book, Without You, is an exploration of love, life, and loss: all with a cultural phenomenon raging in the landscape.

Anthony will be taking part in various areas of the conference, in some ways we can tell you about, and some ways we cannot! He’ll be taking part in various panels and signings, talking about early fandom with yours truly, and serving on our panel of LeakyStars judges.

In addition, Anthony will be representing his favorite charity, Friends In Deed, the organization that forms the basis for the group “Life Support” from Rent and has helped thousands of people through disease and crisis. We can’t wait to share more with you about this fantastic group’s mission and focus.

Ever since LeakyCon started, it has been my aim to get Anthony out there to meet you all. I’ve never known someone more in line with the themes of LeakyCon: the belief that the things we love can change us for the better if we let them, the importance of staying true to yourself and your passions, the knowledge that art and creation can serve as pathways to compassion and understanding. He often says:

“There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself.”

If that is not a LeakyCon credo, I don’t know what is!

I know you will all love him as much as I do. Please, everyone, join me in the joy of welcoming one of my best friends to the LeakyCon family!

The Irish actor has been in films such as Angela’s Ashes and the TV movie Yesterday’s Children. Devon is a big supporter of Manchester United, and as a horse enthusiast has competed at show-jumping events.

This will be Devon’s first time at LeakyCon, so help us give him a huge Leaky welcome!

Jackie played Foxface in The Hunger Games film. Earlier this year, she appeared alongside a very fandom-inclusive cast including YouTuber Tessa Netting, StarKid’s Joey Richter and Glee’s Curt Mega in the Joe Moses One Man Showses at El Rey Theatre in LA. She will be appearing in The Curse of Downers Grove and Son of the South, both which will premiere next year.

Jackie is from Washington, D.C. and in addition to acting, Jackie is also a singer and posts her music videos to her YouTube channel. She recently started a project called Spread the Light, where she and Carmen Isabel Grendy visit charities, volunteer and make short videos about their experiences.

Jackie will lend her voice to a wide array of panels and discussions at LeakyCon Portland including everything from talks about The Hunger Games, to a discussion about female body image. We are beyond excited to welcome her to the Leaky family!

You can follow Jackie on Twitter and see her music and Spread the Light series on YouTube.

We are excited to announce that this year, Amber will be joined at LeakyCon by her Buffy co-star Tom Lenk! After playing the villainous Andrew Wells on Buffy, Tom portrayed a snarky intern in Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods and has most recently starred alongside other fan favorites in Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.

Please help us welcome Tom to (and Amber back to) LeakyCon! They will be adding their voices to a multitude of panels and discussions throughout on Buffy and the Whedonverse.

Amber will also be joining the LeakyCon Lit Track to talk about her career as a novelist and her recently published The Golden Age of Death.

So…once more (with feeling!) please join us in welcoming Amber Benson and Tom Lek to LeakyCon Portland!