Two weekends ago, I made my first ever trip to Seattle. I didn’t visit the Space Needle, and I still don’t really know anything about the city. I was instead consumed by GeekGirlCon, a 4,000-person event that was definitely worth the cross-country trip.

GeekGirlCon sprung out of overwhelming support for women’s experiences in fandom during a 2010 San Diego Comic-Con panel, and has been a yearly event ever since. Between gender-neutral bathrooms; an “introvert lounge” for the overstimulated; and plenty of frank discussion about harassment, sexism, and representation; it may have been the most inclusive convention I’ve ever attended.

I love West Coast conventions because to me, an East Coast girl who has been to Otakon nearly ten times now, they can make me feel like a brand new fan. I’ve never seen any of those panels, any of the artists in Artist’s Alley, none of the dealers in the Dealer’s Room. I spent the weekend with bat wings by Idolatre in my hair, which I justified buying because although I’ve seen dozens of East Coast cat ear headbands, I’d never seen anything like this!

Most of my time was spent preparing for panels, presenting panels, or getting from one panel to another. I was on three. First came, Slash in the Mainstream, where we discussed how gay relationships are portrayed on TV today. The highlight was when an original Kirk/Spock shipper piped up about her 30+ years in slash fandom! A media studies professor was kind enough to create a Storify of the panel.

Next, I was the organizer on Fandom and the Media, in which fandom professionals discussed the way the media does and does not get fandom right. My Mac had some technical difficulties, but our room’s discussion still went overtime. On Sunday, we presented From Feels To Skills: Putting Fandom On Your Resume, and you can watch the entire panel and fill out my resume worksheet online.

I spent my free time with my fellow panelists, amazing people from the Internet whom I rarely get a chance to meet up with in person. Passionate about reporting on fandom, geek fashion and more, Aja, Gavia, Lisa, and Versha are some of my favorite otaku journalists. Amanda is a meme librarian and Tumblr fairy who leaves a trail of stickers in her wake. Alex is an Emmy-winning writer for the YouTube series Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Cathy and Mike are fanfiction readers and writers with brilliant insights. Loraine, a professional artist who also draws fanart, brought her (amiably bewildered) dad to watch our resume panel!

Through all of this, I’d have to say the highlight was getting to see Anita Sarkeesian speak. Her panel was ostensibly about her work, but let’s be honest, these days her biggest accomplishment is continuing to be vocal while people are trying to make her disappear. I was impressed with how articulate and inscrutable her speaking style continues to be against such a backlash that I actually got tweets directed toward me simply for saying I was at her panel.

I have a lot of well-meaning friends who have urged me to join the GamerGate movement since I am a journalist and interested in geek journalism ethics. While I believe that is a conversation we will eventually need to have, I don’t think that while a section of the movement is screaming death threats at Anita is really the time. Ethical reporting is certainly something I care about, but I care more about women like Anita being able to put their opinions about video games on the Internet without people threatening to kill them.

In a lot of ways, GeekGirlCon was a huge stand against harassment in the way it gave us a safe space to talk about it openly. I was shocked to hear about some of the terrible experiences my friends have had with their online audiences. We’ve become so programmed to “not feed the trolls,” that we don’t even share this stuff with each other. But an audience member asked, and suddenly it became an ad-libbed new part of our Fandom and the Media panel, when it turned out we all had these stories that we’d never told one another. And there we were, telling stories about stalkers and Internet bullies in front of a packed crowd—and feeling good about it. It was just that kind of con.

Photos: Nimona cosplayers, artist Katie Clark wrapping up this painting for me, me obviously, and the crowd at our Slash panel.