Danielle Jablonski – ClexaCon UK

By starrymag | September 24, 2018

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) How did ClexaCon UK come about?

A) ClexaCon UK came about because we were hearing from people around the world who wanted to attend ClexaCon but couldn’t – for financial reasons they couldn’t get over to the US. We wanted to do something that could take CC out of the US and bring it to some people thinking that Europe would be a good place to start, especially because we have teams there already. So, for us, that seemed like the logical place to do our first event.

Q) With ClexaCon Las Vegas there are scholarships that you can donate to so that people can attend. In the future will that be an option for London as well?

A) Potentially in the future. We’re not offering it now, but we will try to have it for the next one. That fundraising has already started, and we hope to be able to support even more people to get to the Las Vegas event in 2019. We’re really thankful to everybody who donated to help make that happen. I think most of us have been in a position where we haven’t had the money to go to an event like ClexaCon. And we’ve heard that it is such an important event for queer women to have and there aren’t a whole lot of spaces like it. So, we are really happy to be able to help some people attend.

Q) Are there any final last-minute details you are working on for London?

A) There are still a lot of things going on and still some things in the pipeline. It’s never ending!

Q) What have you found the most challenging and rewarding parts of creating this convention?

A) I think it’s challenging to put on an event of this size generally. Even in our first year we had around two thousand people and four thousand people at our last Las Vegas event. So, that’s a lot of people to manage. That’s probably one of the more challenging things, but it’s incredibly rewarding to just hear from people who attended and what it means to them to have a safe space. We get a lot of stories from parents who have brought their teenage daughters who have just come out and what it means to them to be surrounded by so many queer women and supportive allies. It’s fantastic to hear those stories and it really makes all the hard work worth it.

Q) Being around that kind of environment must be super emotional.

A) The whole event is super emotional! The whole event itself is super emotional – being around so many members of our community. Because we don’t have that space very often and then to share peoples’ stories throughout the year is super emotional. It really keeps us going during the whole year of planning.

Q) We just saw you announced that Dana Piccoli will be having dinner with some people. Are there any guest or special event announcements that you can tease?

A) Not really that I can tease. With guests there are times when we may not know if they can make it or someone might have to cancel at the last minute. So, we try not to get peoples’ hopes up in case something falls through. There may be more, but I think we have a pretty cool line up already. It will be a smaller event than Vegas, but we have a whole lot great panels and great people coming into speak. I’m really excited about some of the guests coming out. I’m just really excited for everyone to be there.

Q) London has a great intimate and eclectic feel to it. Las Vegas is incredible, but an enormous venue. I like that London will have a more intimate feel to it as well.

A) I’m really excited about that, too. It’s a small space. Less attendees. I think people will be able to make some really great connections and get to meet people from all over the world. We have, at this point, people coming from over thirty countries. So, though it’s small, it’s still going to be a really great international crowd.

Q) What do you think are going to be some of the biggest draws when it comes to the panels or do you feel like the extra activities like the tour bus is going to make it feel even more personal for attendees?

A) I think that it’s going to be both. Fans of “Carmilla” are really excited that we have Natasha [Negovanlis], Elise [Bauman] and Annie [Briggs] coming out. We have some other great guests that we’re excited about like Jamie Clayton from “Sense8.” She doesn’t do many events so we’re super stoked to have her coming out for this. We have the film screening is going to be fantastic. We’re doing a 10-year anniversary of I Can’t Think Straight with the film makers and one of the actresses. So, I think that’s a really cool thing to do something out and about in London and get people out on the city. There is a bus tour that is going to be a lot of fun as well. That sold out pretty quickly! [laughs] I think that will be a great way to see the city with a bus load of queer women.

Q) Are there any evening parties and events for attendees?

A) We’re planning a little bit of a party on Saturday night. We haven’t released all the details for that yet so everyone should keep an eye out for that.

Q) You talked a little bit about these other events, like Elise is doing yoga and acting class with Natasha. How did these extra offerings expand through the ClexaCon UK event?

A) We love to offer as many different things as we can in Vegas. And we have a lot of great relationships with these actors and agents that if there is something they would like to do we are generally happy to help facilitate that if we have the space for it. We like to offer a lot of opportunities for attendees to get to mingle with their favorite guests. I’m really excited about Elise and Natasha’s extra events. Also, Dana Piccoli is doing a special workshop as well. We’re super excited about those kinds of things. We’ll definitely be doing more and more of those in Las Vegas as well.

Q) Now that ClexaCon has gone international, what’s next? How are you continuing to expand?

A) Let’s see how this goes first and then I can answer that more fully. [laughs] We have a very big event in Las Vegas coming up next April. So, we’re focused on that as well. But we also want to expand on the things that we do like the workshops in conjunction with YouTube Space and Tello Films. We just had an event there a few months ago in Los Angeles and we have another one in New York in December where we bring together queer female content creators to do panels and workshops and networking to get more queer women creating content. So, we’re also really excited about that side of what we do.

Q) There is an amazing balance to all the events ClexaCon. I like the diversity that is highlighted, elevating queer POC voices, and all of the panels offering writing content for films and TV shows to keep important conversations going. I like that there are more opportunities for the writing side of things and not just the performance side.

A) Absolutely! We’re really excited about the content creation side in terms of those workshops that we do. We are very much interested in supporting queer women who are making content, writing about content or anywhere in the media at all. We really believe that we need more people in our community involved in every aspect of media to make sure that we’re having more positive representation and visibility in all areas.

Q) Is there anything with regards to ClexaCon UK that you would have loved to be able to highlight more, but for whatever reason someone wasn’t available or something was not able to come to fruition for the moment?

A) Not so much. I’m really excited about a lot of the panels that we have coming up for London that we haven’t necessarily announced. We are in the final stages of getting some things sorted out behind the scenes so that we can announce more of the panels. I think it’s really cool to have US creators coming over to the UK as well as being able to highlight the UK creators and having conversations about how representation in the two countries differ and how we can learn from each other to improve it in both countries.

Q) What does it mean to you to be able to elevate queer voices and be a part of something that has been such a groundbreaking catalyst for LGBT conventions?

A) It’s very gratifying and satisfying to be able to be a part of something that I think is important and that I think is moving conversation forward and that it’s supporting members of our community. It’s really exciting for me to be involved. I’ve always loved film, TV and media. So, to be able to be a part of this conversation is a really exciting thing personally.

Q) Is there anything else you want ClexaCon UK attendees to be sure to know?

A) We have a lot of volunteers. That’s one of the great things about our community, too. People really want to get involved and step up and help, which is fantastic. There are some tickets still available. VIP is sold out, but there are still some regular passes available. Go check out the website, have a look at the content and come see the movie on Friday night. I think it’s going to be a really fantastic weekend! We hope to see a lot of people there.