TIFTON — While it may have had a small start last year, the second showing of ABAC’s ThunderCon brought a true convention experience to the university this past weekend.

Following the success of its flagship run, the university hosted a second ThunderCon Sept. 14 to provide their students and the surrounding community an outlet to celebrate all things geeky and nerdy together.

This year’s con saw an exponential growth across the board, increasing the number of guest speakers, vendors, and presenters to a total of 40 and adding enough activities for con patrons that the convention was spread across four different campus buildings.

While the main event was once again situated on the second floor of the Carlton Center, King Hall, Conger Hall, and the Environmental Horticulture Building offered guests a variety of panels and activities hosted by ABAC staff that they could take part in.

These included a seminar on painting miniatures for tabletop games, a round robin tournament of trading card game “Magic: The Gathering,” a discussion of horror films and their effect on the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s, a drawing workshop, and Jeopardy games for popular games “League of Legends” and “Genshin Impact.”

In the main hall at Carlton, convention patrons had a full house of local vendors and artists to meet, chat with, or browse their art and merchandise, many of them being ABAC students, faculty, or alumni.

Each vendor brought their own little flair to the convention, offering con attendees original art and books, custom-made commissions, classic collectibles, or even some tasty snacks all the way from Japan.

Local author Jess L.M. Anderson and Tifton-based comic and collectibles stores Gray Ghost Comics, who helped sponsor the event last year, and The Zone Collectibles also set up shop alongside the other vendors, with Anderson promoting and selling the entries in her book series and the two stores offering a wide selection of comics, trading cards, and collectibles from their stock.

The main stage located behind the assortment of vendors was home to its own collection of presentations and special events, including a panel with voice actor Melissa Sternenberg, known for her work as Maria Calavera in online animated series “RWBY” and Sil in “Edge of Eternity,” and local pro wrestling league Kraken Pro Wrestling.

Sternenberg spoke on her start in voice acting and her experience in the field on professional and independent projects, and she answered questions regarding such topics as her favorite anime and her dream roles, while Sam Scaggs, also known as “Hold My Beer Hanson,” and few members of Kraken Pro Wrestling spoke on Tifton’s own wrestling league and their desire to expand their connection with the community.

The main stage was also host to the convention’s first cosplay competition, inviting patrons who had dressed up for the event to show off their craft and creativity in cosplaying to a panel of judges including Sarai Mapp, Miss Georgia Black United States 2025, and Hassel Hutchinson, host of podcast “The Nerdy Manroom Show.”

Contestants were judged at four levels — Beginner, Novice, Journeyman, and Masters — with the winners of each level receiving a collection of merchandise from Gray Ghost Comics and The Zone, an exclusive comic drawn by artist Alex Geiger, hand-crocheted dolls from one of the vendors, and a limited edition ThunderCon T-shirt.

Shawn Burnette, ABAC student activities director and primary organizer of ThunderCon, was immensely pleased with the turnout of the convention, reporting a steady stream of patrons for the duration of the event and at least 200 before things had wrapped up for the day.

He was just as ecstatic with how much the event had expanded since its inaugural run.

“Last year I had four months of planning, and it was more of a, ‘Can Shawn pull this off?'” Burnette said. “This year we had close to maybe ten months of planning, and it was more of, ‘When is Shawn doing this again?’ I’m very proud of actually seeing it and seeing what our Carlton Center space can become.”

Burnette stated he had no concrete ideas for the next ThunderCon at this time, but was eager to continue the event for many years to come and to strive each year to make it a little bigger and better than the last.