Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Seckinger.
Hi Chris, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
For a number of years I ran a Harry Potter themed summer camp at my home for a week each summer. Every year I would post on Facebook to remind my friends to sign their kids up for the camp and every year the parents would always comment, “I wish you ran one for adults.” When my girlfriend (now wife), Angela, saw those comments she said, “You know what they call a camp for adults? A convention.” I’d been going to sci-fi/fantasy/comic conventions since the age of 11. It never occurred to me that I might be able to actually run one myself. We decided to spend a few months polling people about the actual interest in a magical fantasy convention in Atlanta that focused on Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc. After about 6 months we decided that we might be able to pull it off, found a host hotel, made a website, and hoped that we’d get a couple of hundred people. From October 31-November 2, 2014 we held our first CONjuration and had around 750 people in attendance. We’re now entering our 12th year of hosting the convention! In 2024, we got the notion that since there wasn’t a dedicated science fiction convention in Atlanta, that we should create one. We had our first Stellar Fest in April, 2025 and look forward to many more years of serving both the magical fantasy community with CONjuration and the science fiction community with Stellar Fest.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Since we’d both attended, volunteered, and vended at various conventions in the late-70’s, we thought we knew enough to make the show a success. We did. To a certain point. The first thing that we learned was that the more volunteers you have, the easier life gets. We had less than 15 volunteers our first year and it was exhausting. We ran around that first year like chickens with our heads cut off. But, we met the RIGHT people. Knowing the right people is key. A friend of ours connected us with 4 or 5 people who had a much deeper understanding of the workings of the convention world, what was needed, what was not needed, and how to make things run smoothly and efficiently. Giving up some of the control and delegating responsibility was not something that either my wife or I wanted to do (and we fought against it), but once we did then all the pieces fell into place. Our volunteers and directors make everything better!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have a BFA in Art Education and taught for 11 years in both elementary and middle school. I quit teaching to stay at home with my small children for almost a decade. When I got divorced I decided I’d like to try my hand at something different and went into the “vending world”, traveling to various conventions and selling my collectibles and my creations (buttons, posters, t-shirts) and I still work in that field.
My wife has a degree in marketing and has worked for many large corporations through the year, homing her skills with a variety of products and services.
It’s a perfect merger of skillsets needed to make a convention successful.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The most important aspect to our success is the cultivation of a team, actually more of a family. We don’t talk a big talk like many businesses and corporations; we actually walk the walk. We are very hands-on. When the convention begins then we have a team of volunteers who step in and take over the tasks that we can’t manage with just the two of us. The rest of the year, my wife and I create advertising, hand pick the artists, vendors, and authors that join our show, create decorations, manage the programming and panel offerings, and work with everyone on an individual basis to answer questions, solve problems, or create something new and wonderful for our shows. We answer all the messages and emails personally, We listen to the feedback from our convention attendees to give them the experience that they want to have, and we make sure that everyone at CONjuration and Stellar Fest knows that they are part of our family. We even have a “Welcome Home” party at the start of every convention so that they know how important they are to us.
Pricing:
- www.conjurationcon.com/memberships
- www.stellarfest.org/register
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.conjurationcon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conjuration_con/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/conjurationcon
Image Credits
David Thomas
Steven Diaz
