An Update From Supanova Comic Con & Gaming: New Event Management Implemented

Supanova Comic Con & Gaming has always strived to be an inclusive, all-ages and values-led organisation that’s always sought to make sure everyone is welcome. Our team has worked passionately over the last 20 years, to deliver events Australia-wide to celebrate all that is pop culture fandom, building a loyal and passionate group of attendees, exhibitors and sponsors that see our events as an inclusive space where they can express themselves and connect with people in a welcoming and secure environment.

We acknowledge an issue with one of our exhibitors at our recent Sydney event that did not align with our values and the experience we want to deliver to everyone in attendance. At the time, we removed the exhibitor, and have banned them from all future events. We recognised that our current procedures could be improved to resolve these types of matters faster, and issued the apology to you, our Supa-Fans.

While we believe that many of the details of what happened have been inaccurately reported by some media outlets, and certain comments attributed to our Director taken out of context, we have used the time since the event to commence a review into our governance and management structures, and how we can provide the best environment for staff, attendees, exhibitors and sponsors.

We have now concluded the initial phase of our review and make the following announcements:

• Our Founder and Director, Daniel Zachariou has made the decision to step back from his role as the Event Director for all Supanova Comic Con & Gaming events.
• Scott Liston will be stepping into the Event Director role commencing with immediate effect. Scott brings with him an incredible wealth of experience and creativity through his time delivering AMC Expos, Queer Expo, First Contact Conventions, and Armageddon Expos in Australia.
• We have also committed to creating an advisory group to identify and prevent possibly contentious elements while also proposing and investigating beneficial changes for our major events going forward and ensure Supanova meets the current and ongoing needs and expectations of our staff, patrons, exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers. In addition, we will be adding an Ethics Officer to the team, a new role that will sit on our advisory group as well as work with our staff, attendees, exhibitors and partners in identifying and communicating concerns to the advisory group.

These changes are an important part of ensuring we can continue to celebrate all that pop culture fandom encompasses, and provide inclusive events where our diverse and all-ages community can express themselves and connect with each other in a welcoming and secure environment as we get closer to Supanova’s 20^th Anniversary with our Sydney show in 2022.

We thank our staff, attendees, exhibitors and sponsors for their patience as we conduct this review and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to a Supanova Comic Con & Gaming event as soon as COVID restrictions allow.