Inspired by Daniel Champion‘s list of UK Conventions, I have complied as many Cons in Toronto that I could find (that are nerdy related) into the convenient list below.
I tried to keep the list to Toronto, if I missed any cons please feel free to add them in the comments section below with a link to their website.
SpellStorm
TableTop
March 1 – 3 2013
Royal Canadian Legion
Toronto Furnal Equinox
Furry
March 8 – 10 2013
Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre
Hobby Star Toronto ComiCon
Comics
March 9 – 10 2013
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Ad Astra
Sci-Fi
April 5 – 7 2013
Markham Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites
Costume-con 32
Cosplay
April 25 – 28 2013
Sheraton Hotel
Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF)
Comics
May 11 – 12 2013
Toronto Reference Library
Anime North
Anime
May 24 – 26 2013
Toronto Congress Centre and Double Tree International Plaza Hotel
Astronomi-conÂ
WarHammer
June TBD 2013
Polaris 26
Sci-fi
July 6 – 8 2013
Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel
Zine DreamÂ
Books & Comics
August 11 – 12 2013
Tranzac
Fan Expo
Comics, Horror, Anime, Sci-fi & Gaming
August 22 – 25 2013
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Supernatural Convention
TV (Supernatural)
October 11 –Â 13 2013
Westin Harbour Castle
Toronto After Dark Film Festival
Horror
October 17 – 25 2013
Reversed Polarity
TV (Dr. Who)
November 1 – 3 2013
Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel
Toronto AnimeCon
Anime
December TBD 2013
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Joe Shuster Awards
Comics
TBD 2013
I like that TCAF is the weekend after FCBD this year, gives me a chance to go!
Too bad the furries couldn’t get a hotel closer to the MTCC (two 2 March 9th 10th cons), I would have loved to see the herd mix with the cosplayers at the comic con!
Great post Leigh
Costume Con is 2014.
Wow, that comment was tremendously abbreviated and snotty sounding. Other than that little quibble, nice post. Thanks for pulling all that together.
Thanks Walt!
I hate that they continue to have it on mother’s day weekend.
Nothing wrong with a little snotty-ness
Thanks for the update!
Did Wizard World get scratched this year?
Removed the show from their schedule with no mention of it on their web site.
Like Scott said, I couldn’t find anything on their website so I did not include them on this list
Thats unfortunate.
I might try and make the trip for Fan Expo 🙂
Wonder why they decided not to do it. The Wizard World Con schedule has no event in April so WWTO was not bumped by another event. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre still has a free weekend in April. Too bad it is gone. I thought it had a good chance to grow based on what I saw last year.
Here’s some for the toy crowd:
http://www.actionfigureexpo.com/
http://www.tfcon.ca/
http://www.canadianjoecon.com/
http://conbravo.com/
After Gareb Shamus resigned from Wizard Dec 1, 2011 there has been an overhaul of Wizard and I’m not surprised there is no Wizard con announced as of yet.
There is a vacuum to be filled and hopefully another con will spring up to fill the space. I would love to see the resurrection of the Paradise Con which Wizard bought and buried.
Great list Leigh.
I didn’t know some of these cons were still alive.
Thanks Ed!
A lot of the toy cons were outside of Toronto and I tried to keep the list to Toronto just so it wasn’t super long. Hamilton has some great cons, but if I put in the Hamilton ones, then I should probably put in the Mississauga ones, Oshawa etc. It was a dangerous extensive road to go down 🙂
But, if an readers would like to add cons in their areas on here please do so!
Then we definitely have to get the CBD group all out for a drink together
Thanks Jim!
You know how badly I would love to run a con! I have a background in events planning and PR. I go to cons and all I can do is see all the problems, but I still love going to them. Comics with extreme organization is like a dream for me 🙂
Having worked on comic cons for over a decade, I’m kind of glad to be out of them planning/coordination level for them — too many headaches, and there are too many vocal groups to appease so you never feel like you accomplish much. So I now apply scratch my event coordinating itch by having them at my business instead. But as a comics retailer, I like comic cons, they make me extra money and allow me to promote my business. I like that there has been interest and growth in cons in ON outside of the GTA — like in Ottawa and Niagara Falls.
With the Toronto ComiCON, Fan Expo Canada and TCAF, certain needs are being met, .but I do think that there is room for a couple more small, one day cons but I’d like to see people do them in the ‘burbs instead of just downtown all of the time.
Did someone say drinks?
You do throw great events Kevin! It is much easier when you yourself are the venue. I understand why the cons tend to be more centralized, mostly because of the geography of our area. Toronto is in the middle, all public transit (aka the GO) are centered around the city. This makes having con goers from all over the GTA come to the cons easy. If the cons are out in the ‘burbs they are more likely to have con goers from that city/town attend and not those from other suburbs. Like you said, a one day con would probably be best for that situation. But, that is a lot of work for just one day.
True, but I think if I were to target a specific area, I would look closely at Yonge and Sheppard given it’s proximity to the highway and to the Yonge Subway Line as well as the York Mills Go Terminal.
When you said ‘burbs, I was thought you meant Markham or Vaughan. Yonge and Sheppard has a nice transportation hub but I can’t think of any large place you can hold an event. Intriguing location, though.
You may have soured on the organizing/coordinating of comicons but you must have had fun doing it for the first couple of years.
I did, but it’s a lot of work and you don’t get a sense of accomplishment as you move on to the next one almost immediately. The Novotel near Mel Lastman square has space… but yes, I would also support a con north, east or west of the city. Lots of folks hate coming downtown, so as long as expectations were reasonable I could see something small and reasonable taking place in the burbs. I hear good things about the toy shows up in Richmond Hill. A one day show would require 6,000-25,000 square feet I would think.
I wanted to mention Unplugged Expo a downtown Toronto Convention. http://unpluggedexpo.com Its a small multi-genre Geek Culture Event Held in September. This year’s event is September 27-28 2014 at the Chestnut Conference Centre just behind City Hall. The headline Guest is Johnny Yong Bosh the 2nd Black ranger from Power Rangers.
Thanks!
JB