Fully Charged with Fun: ThunderCon a success at ABAC

Sep. 12—TIFTON — The con craze from last month's Tift-Con continues as Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College brings its own pop culture convention to Tifton.

ABAC hosted their first ever ThunderCon on Sep. 9, inviting their students to get geeky and express their love for their favorite movies, comics, games and anime right on campus.

Student activities director Shaun Burnette explained that he'd been inspired to put on the event while doing research on how to update ABAC's student activities page and discovering Kennesaw State University's Geek Week and OwlCon events.

"I thought, 'There's no way we can do this, no way!...But maybe we can.'" Burnette said. "This was back in May, so I've done four months of planning on [ThunderCon]. I went through the proper channels of our campus to request this, it got approved by our cabinet, and we had our event."

Sponsored by the ABAC Campus Activities Board and Gray Ghost Comics, the flagship run of the convention took over the second floor of the Carlton Center from late morning into the evening.

Nestled in the middle of the library and the convention was center stage, where ABAC faculty and staff gave lectures and presentations throughout the day, analyzing and discussing their favorite movies, franchises, and characters.

Professor of Political Science Dr. Hans Schmeisser kicked things off with an examination of "The Karate Kid's" Mr. Miyagi and how it could be applied in improving the academic performance of students.

Lakeside Residence Life Coordinator Naomi Chance then dove into the wonder of Disney from the eyes of a professional and later Associate Professor of Rural Sociology Dr. Eric Larson put his experience to work in analyzing the origins and flaws of the Jedi and Sith from "Star Wars."

Also joining them was voice actor Joshua Seth, famous for his continued portrayal of Tai Kamiya of "Digimon" over the past twenty years, his role as Tetsuo Shima in "Akira," and for voicing countless other characters in beloved anime and tv shows.

Seth participated in a Q & A panel run by the campus activities board, who interviewed him on his start in voice acting and rise to fame, his work on "Akira" and "Digimon," and his experiences with his fellow voice actors.

Audience members were invited up to ask him questions as well, and Seth was happy to answer their questions about his favorite roles and co-stars, inform them about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike and give advice on how to start out as a voice actor.

Once the panel was finished, Seth remained at the convention for the following hour, signing autographs for "Digimon" and "Akira" prints and talking with his fans face to face.

Vendors from Tifton and the surrounding area were invited to join the fun, including local artists, returning alumni now working in the comics industry and representatives of TigerCon to advertise their own upcoming convention.

And while Gray Ghost wasn't able to attend due to celebrating an event of their own, they made sure to show their support alongside the campus activities board, through the Funko Pops and figures given away to convention attendees over the course of the day.

ABAC clubs Knights of the Square Table and the ABAC Adventurers' Guild hosted their own events throughout the afternoon, inviting ABAC students to test their skills and strategy at chess, join a tournament in Dungeons & Dragons, sit down for a one-shot in various tabletop RPGs, or challenge their classmates to a game of Magic the Gathering.

The Knights of the Square Table also challenged event patrons to train their brain in a different way, setting up a complex board state in a game of chess and asking them to decide what the next best move was. Entrants moved the piece they believed was optimal and submitted a picture of their decision, winning a gift card if they were correct.

Once the convention had come to a close, Burnette and the campus activities board expressed immense satisfaction with how it had progressed. This sentiment was echoed by many of the vendors, who stated they would be more than interested in returning for a repeat showing next year.

"[ThunderCon] was really just a spur of the moment decision," Burnette said. "I serve as the advisor to the campus activities board, and I said to them, 'Hey, guys, can we do this? This is a corny idea from an old man who is also a nerd, is this a good idea?' and they said, 'Try it out!' That's what we've done since I've taken over this position; we've tried new events every year that have become part of ABAC."

And indeed, while he stated that there were no definite plans for the time being, Burnette did assert that he hoped to bring ThunderCon back to ABAC even stronger next year.