This weekend is the 10th anniversary of Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. I have been lucky enough to attend every one of them. The expo grew out of a desire to have an alternative to Comic-Con. It has grow from a very small convention that only filled two small rooms of a huge convention center to a massive celebration of all things geek.
For the first time, the convention has completely sold out. Today I attended and was thrilled to see that the number of vendors had grown significantly. But there was something else that stood out that was even more impressive.
Each year as the crowds have increased in size, it has also become more and more diverse. It is so cool to see people from so many backgrounds uniting under one roof to celebrate what they have in common... we are all geeks!
I am a special education teacher. As a result, I am constantly on the lookout for people and places that make it easy to include people with disabilities. C2E2 has definitely become a haven for any geek including those who have disabilities. I saw dozens of people who use wheelchairs or crutches. This can be a huge challenge in any situation but in a humongous, sold out, crowd milling around a convention center it should be incredibly difficult.
But here's the coolest part. It wasn't. I saw complete strangers going out of their way to adjust their pace and positioning in order to accommodate people who needed it. People consistently took a step back so that a person in a wheelchair could see what vendors had to offer at their tables. Those who moved could obviously still see over those in the chairs, but that wasn't the point. The point is that so many people noticed that by simply taking a step back, both they and a complete stranger could enjoy the show.
Stan Lee would have been proud.