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Also Appearing

In addition to current and alumni Guests of Honor, CONvergence welcomes many professionals each year to participate in our programming, panels and events.

2026 Invited Participants

  • Shanti Tata

    Shanti is a game designer and founder of North Games LLC, a small video game company based in Minneapolis Minnesota. His new game Witches Quarrel hit its Kickstarter goal within a month, will be demoed during the convention in our Gaming space. Shanti says ““I like everything to feel both like engineering and art!”

  • S.P. (Satish) Jayaraj

    Satish is an author, worldbuilder, podcaster, creative life coach, innovative event planner, and “a generally positive dude!” He is the co-host of the podcast Not Your Mother’s Mahabharata, which he will be performing during the convention in Wordslingers Way. Satish also says that he’s “proud to be a cog in other creative’s adventures through his Imagination Life Coaching business.”

  • Lee Brontide

    Lee Brontide is an author, artist, and animator. They often use their training as a therapist to explore the themes of family, trauma, queerness, surveillance, bodily autonomy, and community in complex and nuanced ways. Lee will be doing a presentation on “Cyborg Psychology” during the convention, which is a must see!

  • Jay Gallentine

    Jay is an award-winning American space historian, author, and filmmaker. He is best known for his narrative approach to the history of robotic space exploration, focusing on the human stories behind unmanned missions. Jay’s presentation on the 1989 Galileo Mission to Jupiter is not to be missed!

  • Leslie Barlow

    Leslie is an artist interested in reimagining the relationship we have to our radical identities through healing our collective understanding of belonging and what it means to be family. Her life-size oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations into how race entangles the intimate sphere of love, family, and friendship. Her work is colorful, tender and nuanced, and inspired by conversations and personal experiences. Barlow believes art and art making is both healing and liberatory through the power of representation, witnessing and storytelling. Be sure to check out some of her pieces on display in our Art Show.

2026 Alumni Guests of Honor

These Guests of Honor from CONvergences past will be returning to CONvergence 2026!

 

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