Entertainment
TwitchCon 2019 Meeting your online friends IRL. Story and Photos by Christian Wiseman
...this convention wasn’t like any other I’d covered before.
The weekend of September 26 should have been just another weekend of attending a convention as part of the press, something I have done many times before. I would go to the con, take some pictures and arrange some interviews. At the conclusion of the convention, I would take the audio and edit it into an audio story to play on 22 West Radio—something I have done many times before and I enjoy doing. However, this convention wasn’t like any other I’d covered before. It involved the chance of a lifetime: to meet a group of friends I have only interacted with online. I went to TwitchCon, the convention that is sponsored by the live streaming service Twitch. The convention itself brought together a collection of community members, streamers and exhibitors to show off their various products. Streamers are also able to network with each other, learn skills and meet up with their viewers. In past years,
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Twitch has held the annual convention in different cities across the state. This year they decided to hold the convention in San Diego. Plans needed to be made weeks before the convention. I planned on attending with a group of seven other people months before ticket prices were even announced. One of my friends who I knew by his Twitch handle Spades13 threw out the idea of going one step further than just a meet up: he wanted to rent a house through Airbnb. Initially, I wasn’t planning on joining in on the Airbnb idea for two reasons. First, I originally was planning on going to the convention with two people from 22 West Media. However, due to events out of our control, that plan fell through. Second, and a more powerful reason, it was due to my nerves. I was excited about being able to meet my friends in person, yet at the same time I have read many horror stories about people who have met online. Some stories go from having things stolen to physical harm. Things became easier to prepare for as the date of our giant meet up grew near. As it came up, we began comparing travel times. With a group of people around the
