GeeksForCONsent (a project of Feminist Public Works) modifies the gender-based safety audit for use in convention spaces

  GeeksForCONsent modified the United Nations best practice gender-based safety audits for more streamlined use and relevance in comic-convention settings. The United Nations recommended gender-based safety audit is a tool used by community groups and municipalities to audit public spaces for gender-based feelings of insecurity, incorporating objective observations of the spaces as well as subjective interviews of the people who interact with those spaces on a regular basis. The objective and subjective data is then compiled into an audit report and used to make recommendations for improved policy and suggestions for making the spaces feel safer. Safety audits incorporate desires of the people using the spaces, validating women and LGBTQ folks as experts of their own experiences, and minimizing the risk of new policies that could make the space feel less safe by incorporating subjective experiences into the decision-making calculus. GeeksForCONsent changed the questions to be relevant to convention spaces and updated the objective inquiries for relevance. The first test run of their modified audit style was used this past weekend at San Diego Comic Con International. The GeeksForCONsent team audited the convention hall, the convention policies, and the overall mechanisms for gender-based safety in the convention space. The audit report is expected to be published late 2014, including data collected at the convention and recommendations for improvements for San Diego's 2015 convention. If you're interested in auditing a convention near you, stay tuned in early 2015 for opportunities to use their streamlined model at your convention!