Fan Expo Denver is run and managed by Pop Culture Classroom (formerly known as Comic Book Classroom), a non-profit educational organization that strives to encourage and promote the use of comics and other pop culture media in school education. Shortly after the organization was founded in 2010, its team began to prepare for the first Denver Comic Con.
The inaugural convention was held from June 15–17, 2012 and turned out a great success. It attracted almost 28,000 attendees, which was the second largest opening in history for this type of convention, and featured several dozen television, film, animation, comics, artist and literary guests. Attendance have been growing steadily ever since. In 2013, Denver Comic Con was voted “Best Fan Convention” by the editors of Westword, a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Denver. In 2021, Pop Culture Classrom joined forces with Informa, and the event was renamed Fan Expo Denver.
Fan Expo Denver has one of the richest and most diverse programming schedules of any major fan convention. It offers over 300 hours of educational programming and almost 400 events and activities such as celebrity panels, seminars and workshops with industry professionals, special events for kids, Artist Alley, Author Alley, Merchant Mesa, cosplay events, parties, and more.
The convention strives to bring together diverse people regardless of their age, race, gender or background as well as to contribute to the development of the local community. It hosts a series of events focused on comics and other pop culture media produced by local creators, women, minorities, and the LGBT+ community.
Over the years, Fan Expo Denver has welcomed numerous celebrity guests, including actors known for their roles in science fiction and fantasy films and television series. Past guests include William Shatner, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and Wil Wheaton of Star Trek; Gwendoline Christie of Game of Thrones and Star Wars; Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Karen Gillan of Doctor Who; Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite of Firefly and Serenity; Manu Benett, Stephen Amell and Caity Lotz of Arrow; and many others.
Photo: fanexpohq.com/fanexpodenver
