WATCHERCONS: CONVENTIONS COME TO THE COUCH

Highlander WorldWide always tried to give fans the best convention experience possible. The 2017 ‘Gathering’ event in Los Angeles was a great success with a large turn-out of attendees and guests…

The convention weekends happened every eighteen months to two years, depending on location and timetables, but given the scale of that particular event, general rising costs involving travel and accommodation and then the pandemic only eighteen months later, HLWW ultimately decided to pivot to an obvious solution – a set of virtual conventions where fans could have the same sense of community and interact with the guests, but all from the safety of their sofa and the comfort of their couch.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, HLWW ran a one-off online event called Holy Grounded in which John Mosby hosted several Highlander guests, including Adrian Paul, Elisabeth Gracen and David Abramowitz – each ‘beaming in’ from their own homes to take part in a discussion and answer some fan questions. It was a great way to bring people together at the most stressful of times…

Highlander WorldWide then considered if it would be possible to run further online events with a bigger scale.

HLWW‘s first ‘Watchercon‘ (technically the eleventh event following the numbering of the physical conventions/events) ran in August 2021 with over 150 attendees from all over the world and with many guests from the tv show in  panels across two days.

Guests included: Adrian Paul, Alexandra Vandernoot, Charles Wilkinson, Ken Gord, David Abramowitz, Stephen Geaghan, Richard Ridings, Marcus Testory, Valentine Pelka, Elizabeth Gracen, Amanda Wyss, Donna Lettow, Gillian Horvath, James Horan, Clay Boris, Anthony Delongis, Peter Hudson and Musetta Vander.

The next event went for a more specific tone, celebrating the women of Highlander – including Elizabeth Gracen, Alexandra Vandernoot and Amanda Wyss, behind-the-scenes discussions with director Doug Aarniokoski and creative consultant David Abramowitz as well as another meeting with fan-favourite Jim Byrnes.

For these Watchercons and the virtual environment, we are able to run the event with a fraction of the overheads and thus reduce the amount we have to charge for ‘attending’, merely to cover basic costs – making them accessible to almost anyone who wants to join in, wherever you are. All you needed was a computer or device.