ConGregate 12: Full Schedule

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10:00am EDT

Intersection of Science & Art

Saturday July 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Our panelists discuss how Science and art are two sides of the same coin: human attempts to observe, understand, and interpret the universe.

Speakers

Gray Rinehart

Literary Guest

Gray Rinehart is an award-winning author, an editor, a singer/songwriter, and a retired Air Force officer. He is the only person to have commanded a USAF satellite tracking station, written speeches for Presidential appointees, devised a poetic form, and had music on The Dr. Demento... Read More →

Jim Beall

Science Guest

Jim Beall (BS-Math, MBA, PE) has been a nuclear engineer for 50 years, beginning as a nuclear engineering officer in the US Navy. Civilian experience includes design, construction, inspection, enforcement, and assessment with a nuclear utility, an architect engineering firm, and the... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Science

Tech Needs Projector/Screen

11:30am EDT

YA Round Robin: Camp Halfblood's Next Season

Saturday July 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Join a group of teens and tweens as we discuss "Uncle Rick's" popular Camp Half-Blood Series - from the books to the TV Series. What do we like about the series and how does it compare to the books?

Speakers

Hannah Fulbright

Asst. Programming Director, ConGregate

Hannah Fulbright is a fan that has been in the local con circuit all her life. She enjoys consuming various media such as fantasy books and cartoons and helping run sci-fi events in the area. She has helped with registration, auction organization, and guest relations for many local... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

YA Round Robin

1:00pm EDT

Room Closed: We Suggest You Go Shopping or Eat!!

Saturday July 18, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Saturday July 18, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Room Closed

2:00pm EDT

To the Moon, Alice, to the Moon!

Saturday July 18, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

With Artemis making it's first successful trip around the moon, and plans continuing to move forward for another moon landing, what does space look like for us know? Are we on our way to the New Frontier and how will we get there?

Speakers

Gray Rinehart

Literary Guest

Jennifer Whitworth

Science Guest

Jennifer Whitworth is an engineer and writer from Huntsville AL. Currently working at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, she supports Artemis and Gateway Payload Integration working directly with the science teams to help them through the various processes to design, build, test... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Science

3:30pm EDT

35 Years of Vampire: the Masquerade & The World of Darkness

Saturday July 18, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

35 Years of Vampire: the Masquerade & The World of Darkness (how White Wolf's TTRPGs influenced us as writers, gamers, artists, etc. - a total WoD love fest & celebration

Special Guest: Viovode Mekhet (Storyteller for the Sat night LARP?)

Moderator: Michael G. Williams

Speakers

Steven S. Long

Literary Guest

Steven S. Long’s been involved in the gaming industry for over thirty years, during which time he’s written, co-written, edited, or developed over 200 books. He got his start as a freelancer for Hero Games, for whom he wrote several books in the mid-Nineties. He soon branched... Read More →

Michael G. Williams

Literary Guest

Michael G. Williams writes queer horror and science fiction celebrating the monstrous and the macabre. His books include the award-winning vampire series The Withrow Chronicles (Laine Cunningham Award); the thrilling urban fantasy time travel series Servant Sovereign; the sci-fi... Read More →

Janet Carden

Online Media Guest

Janet Carden aka The Halfling is one half of the husband/wife team of The Halfling and The Spaceman podcast. She has been active in many aspects of fandom since her high school days. She and her husband have created many fan projects together, including The Familiar Magazine... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Fandom

5:00pm EDT

From Audio to Visual: How online media is changing

Saturday July 18, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Podcasting is no longer just an audio game — your video strategy can unlock new ears and eyes. Hear from our panelists on tips for optimizing your presence on the platform and suggestions on how to incorporate the newest tech (including AI).

Speakers

Mur Lafferty

Literary Guest

Mur Lafferty is an author. Mur Lafferty is a podcaster. Mur Lafferty podcasts about writing and writes about podcasting. She also writes about murders in space, zombies, Minecraft and Han Solo. Her writing and podcasting have resulted in numerous award nominations and wins, such... Read More →

Roger Carden

Online Media Guest

Roger is the producer of the Applied Game Mastery YouTube channel, where he works with his team to explore the tips, tricks, and techniques for developing your skill as a game master for tabletop role-playing games. In addition, Roger along with his wife Janet Carden are team behind... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Online Media

6:30pm EDT

Making Material Decisions

Saturday July 18, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

So there's leather and fabric, or worbla or casting/sculpting, but when it comes to deciding to build a costume, how do you decide where to start? What material works best for which types of costumes? What looks like armor but doesn't weigh you down? What looks like leather but moves like fabric?

Moderator: Cheralyn Lambeth

Speakers

Dave Fretz

Costuming Guest

I’ve been a part of science fiction and fantasy fandom for more than 50 years and grew up reading Andre Norton, Allan Dean Foster, and Edgar Rice Burroughs books. I even named my younger son Jason after the lead character in the Ray Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts. I was... Read More →

John Dondero

Costuming Guest

He is a certified Jack of All Trades. He started out as a filmmaker and special effects editor, building both digital and practical effects, and has won many awards for both filmmaking and editing. When COVID hit, he switched gears and became an affiliated Twitch streamer and podcaster... Read More →

Cheralyn Lambeth

Film Guest

Cheralyn (Cher) Lambeth is a professional costume, prop, and puppet builder whose work includes feature films (The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Patriot, Evan Almighty, The Hunger Games, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret), television shows (Dinosaurs!, Homeland, Outcast, The ... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Costuming/Cosplay

8:00pm EDT

Geeky and Nerdy Parenting

Saturday July 18, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Geeky and nerdy parents are not quite the outliers they once were, but are not really still "normal". How do geeky parents deal with "normal" kids? Other parents? Techniques for creating well-rounded individuals?

Moderator: J. Matthew Saunders

Speakers

DJ McGuire

Performance Guest

D.J. McGuire began his geek journey watching Star Trek Original Series on syndication. These days, he works in Defense IT and teaches economics at his local community college. He has been a musical performer (bass and vocals) for over eight years, starting with Dimensional Riffs in 2017. He has also played with the Nefarious Ferrets... Read More →

Sammie Cassell

Film Guest

Sammie Cassell is a North Carolina based filmmaker, actor, improv and sketch comedian, and all around busy guy. His film/tv credits include Halloween Kills, Eyes of Tammy Faye, Kill Giggles and upcoming appearances in Righteous Gemstones and Please Don’t Destroy. A life long comic book fan and collector along with being a lover of all things horror, wrestling and pop culture, he’s also known as Sammie the Comic Book Man. Sammie and his production partners, Dan Sellers, Jeff Cochran, and Chad Hunt with Wreak Havoc Productions also do the... Read More →

Bryan Young

Literary Guest

Bryan Young works in many different media. He's published thousands of essays and hundreds of short stories in publications like Marvel and Image Comics, Star Wars Insider, Huffington Post, SYFY, /Film, Script Magazine, Weird Tales, the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Library Literary Magaz... Read More →

EJ Isaacs

Literary Guest

EJ Isaacs is at heart, a geek. As a child I grew up with classics in science fiction from Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark and Robert Heinlein. A late comer to role playing, he enjoyed creating backgrounds to the characters he was playing. For a three-year period, he was involved with... Read More →

J. Matthew Saunders

Literary Guest

J. Matthew Saunders is the author of the Daughters of Shadow and Blood trilogy inspired by the Brides of Dracula, the Dreadful Penny occult detective series, and numerous fantasy and horror short stories. He is a member of HWA and SFWA.He was born in the small Appalachian town of Clayton, Georgia and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. He received a B.A. in history from Vanderbilt University and a master’s... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Fandom

9:30pm EDT

But I'm Not Crazy! The Best Ideas of Mad Scientists, Supervillains, and Other Evil Geniuses

Saturday July 18, 2026 9:30pm - 10:30pm EDT

Piedmont Salon 3

Let's discuss the "best" villain ideas — not the over-the-top, evil-for-evil's-sake stuff, but plans that actually make sense: deliberate, driven by clear motives, and logically thought-out. Villains whose schemes feel plausible, spark interesting moral or philosophical questions, or try to expose/fix problems they see in society — whose methods and reasoning make their actions understandable, not just malicious.

Moderator: Jim Beall

Speakers

Kal Spriggs

Literary Guest

Kal Spriggs is a US Army combat veteran, gamer, and science fiction and fantasy author of over 40 published novels. He has visited over 35 countries and has worked in a variety of industries including environmental remediation, farming, civil engineering, the military, and transportation... Read More →

Dr. Philip A. Kramer

Science Guest

Dr. Philip A. Kramer is a biomedical researcher who studies aging, oxidative stress, and metabolism. In addition to his academic works, he is a hard science fiction author with two published novels (under the name P. A. Kramer), and several award-winning short stories. His blog (... Read More →

Dr. Robert Hampson

Literary Guest

Professor, Neuroscientist, and Unofficial Penguin WhispererWhen not advancing the frontiers of neuroscience or constructing elaborate multiversal portals in his office, Dr. Rob can be found lecturing to an elite audience of penguins in lab coats. An advocate of hands-on learning... Read More →

Jim Beall

Science Guest

Old Dominion Daleks

Costuming Guest

Rick and family took their love of theater and science fiction and formed Luna-C Productions in 1997. Rick is the director, one of the scriptwriters, and plays several roles in the Luna-C Productions comedy troupe in addition to producing, directing and acting in a number of their... Read More →

Saturday July 18, 2026 9:30pm - 10:30pm EDT
Piedmont Salon 3

Science

10:00am EDT

11:30am EDT

1:00pm EDT

2:00pm EDT

3:30pm EDT

5:00pm EDT

6:30pm EDT

8:00pm EDT

9:30pm EDT

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