GAAM Holiday Nerd Market – Crowdfunded and Made Free

The GAAM Holiday Nerd Market started as another off-shoot of the GAAM Show, with the purpose of supporting the creators and small businesses in our community and culture.

This event was branded with idea of marring the holidays and nerd culture together visually (hence the font selection, color palette, and pixelated items), as well as from an experiential standpoint. Gaming, nerd items, and holiday decorations adorned the market to further establish the theme and intended mindset.

After two successful years, we took a break (as did most of the world), and finally made a welcomed returned in 2022! We made the shift to go crowdfunded and sponsored to achieve a free event for attendees AND for vendors (they were given the opportunity for a full refund after the secondary fundraising goals were hit)!

That was accomplished in less than 6 weeks. The crowdfunding campaign and strategy, the vendor curation, event production, design, and content creation…all in under 6 weeks. We sold out, doubled in attendance size, and utilized a time slot strategy to aid in congestion and attendee experience, while also pushing a vendor based agenda to assist in sales.

Below is a quick breakdown of the site and some of the philosophy behind it.