Author's Note: This post was co-authored by WBI research contributors CJ and Caleb Inman.
This year, Women+s Brick Initiative (WBI) had the amazing opportunity to host a panel at GeekGirlCon (GGC) in Seattle, Washington on November 9, 2024. GeekGirlCon is an organization that works to empower women and girls to pursue their passions—whether they love science and technology, comics, literature, gaming, or anything else! This was the first WBI panel at GGC, though WBI is known to host annual panels and workshops at Recognized Adult Fan of LEGO (AFOL) Networking Events, such as Bricks Cascade in Portland, Oregon (USA) or the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Billund, Denmark.
We had two amazing panelists who joined us for GGC and shared their love of the LEGO brick with our audience: Kelly Bartlett, who displayed in the LEGO Masterpiece Gallery at the Billund LEGO House in 2023 and competed as a LEGO Masters season 4 contestant, and Phoebe Arcilla, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), diversity and equity, and robotics educator from Alberta, Canada. WBI team members CJ and Caleb jointly hosted the panel and had a fantastic discussion with the 58 attendees, including many LEGO veterans and some who were interacting with LEGO for the first time!
Audience participation was a primary goal of this panel. Since not everyone in attendance would be a native LEGO hobbyist, the WBI team wanted to engage every attendee with both a visual LEGO presentation and some physical bricks to play with. The first 40 attendees to the panel received a small box of LEGO pieces with a 6×6 plate and enough dots to make a small mosaic, as well as two small micro-builds, randomly selected from 5 different designs. Four of the models were designed by panel members: CJ designed the dark pink micro-castle, Caleb designed the forklift, Phoebe designed the treehouse, and Kelly designed the robot. Complete with custom-printed instructions, these models were the perfect way for attendees to tangibly interact with LEGO while enjoying the panel. Many of the boxes also included the WBI brick badge and a WBI sticker.
The hosts and audience members asked our two panelists some very compelling questions, such as “why do we build”, “how does LEGO art related to or interact with your other creative endeavors”, and “what other creativity do you use in your LEGO creative workflow?” Kelly shared her childhood addiction to LEGO, what a design process looks like for her, and how to navigate sponsorships for custom LEGO creations, an experience which gives her opportunities to sketch out ideas before she starts building.
Phoebe showed how she incorporates her passion for Hello Kitty into many different building styles… and then combines them together into a cohesive multi-media display. And of course, since both a panelist and a panel host build pink castles, we dove into the mechanics of colorful medieval worldbuilding!
The panel presentation not only showcased our panelists’ LEGO works but also featured pictures from 16 of WBI’s members to help demonstrate the different ways we use and create with LEGO bricks. Since most panel attendees received a set of WBI brick badges, we discussed how those reflect individuals’ creative preferences within the LEGO community. GeekGirlCon was the perfect venue to talk about data, so the panel hosts shared some research results from the WBI research survey with information on demographics, favorite LEGO themes, and community notes. We also celebrate the creativity our amazing members and followers every chance we get, as you can see in the slideshow below!
Our team had tons of fun at the convention! Since Women+s Brick Initiative and GeekGirlCon have similar goals of empowering women and girls, this was a fantastic opportunity for WBI to share the love of LEGO. And in return, we made many amazing memories with friends beyond the LEGO community. Some highlights were Phoebe’s passionate show-tunes sing-along, Caleb’s favorite panel that was all about bug exoskeletons, and CJ’s new friend, adopted at one of the many vendor booths: Existential Dread Opossum, or EDO for short!
A huge thank you is in order to the wonderful people at GeekGirlCon who hosted our panel and provided the most spectacular experience, filled with support, knowledge, empowerment, and camaraderie. We can’t wait for GGC 2025!
