A group who has a passion for Star Wars took inspiration from national conventions they had attended and worked to make their own version back home.

The MNSWCA.org grew from the Minnesota Star Wars Collectors’ Alliance and are now hosting their own multi-fandom convention here in Duluth, Teeb Con Pop Culture & Tabletop Gaming Convention.

MNWSCA.org’s Origin Story

Starting from people just attending national conventions and collecting groups, people began to come together and realize they wanted one in Minnesota. The original Star Wars alliance began to grow with some pretty close connections to groups in Tennessee & Georgia. There were a few conventions down in the Twin Cities, but none up in the Northland. So, in June of 2023 they started one. Stephen Kaarbo, now president of MNSWCA.org shared with me Teeb Con’s humble beginnings.

“So, we wanted to put something on and last summer around the time of my birthday, like, ‘Hey, let’s do this little kind of carnival in my front yard’ kind of thing. And that was like the original Teeb con. We had like carnival games and giveaways and raffles and auctions and had about 80 people in my front yard and just had fun raising money for one of our charity partners, the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest.”

One of their members is really passionate about the Minnesota Masonic Children’s Clinic for Communication Disorders here in Duluth, Minnesota. So, as they started looking at things they recounted, “We should just build this nonprofit because we’re already doing the work. We’re already reaching out to the community. We’re already having this focus.” So then formalizing it with the nonprofit.

With Stephen’s background of working at the Northwood Children’s Services, they expanded to have this mental health and family health focus. So, making their mission really is to bring activities and entertainment to families and kids with a focus on our sci-fi and fantasy fandoms.

Teeb Con 2024

So, Stephen, a local from Duluth & President of the group, worked alongside other members to bring people and organizations together as they reached for a bigger event. He expressed the journey to now hosting the event at the DECC.

“I happened to go to The Loch Cafe and Games and met one of the owners, Matt Glesner, and kind of networked with him, talked to him, and he was talking about doing an event with a gaming focus in Duluth. And he had a group that had come together with local stores, Level Up in Superior, Globe News in Superior, Play Unplugged in Ashland. And through a lot of conversation, a lot of meetings, our groups came together, kind of merged into one, and created this larger planning group, which then turned into securing the deck for August 24th and 25th.”

“Duluth-Superior is very fortunate to have a lot of different gaming stores that kind of have their own personality. And a lot of them work really collaboratively together rather than like, “oh, I’m over here doing my thing. I’m over here doing my thing. We don’t ever cross paths.” they’re very collaborative and work really good together.”

“So, to have something here, I think, fills kind of a void or a need that our community’s had for a long time. And then what I think will make us a little bit different is we’re always going to have this focus on tabletop gaming and being the nonprofit to give back to our community.”

Teeb Con Event

The Northland’s premier pop culture and tabletop gaming convention in Duluth, MN will be held at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center August 24-25. Featuring sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, tabletop game, anime, & nostalgia fandoms.

Currently they are recommending buying tickets ahead of time at MNSWCA.org. They have 15% adult admission, kids are $10 for the weekend, and children under 5 are free.