The family behind Calmer Space sensory booths at pop culture conventions preps for its own growing annual expo
At any of the many large conventions Greater Boston hosts each year, from Fan Expo to NECANN to biotech and marketing summits, large spaces can come to feel cramped in short time. While the bustle can be fun for some, it is overwhelming for others to the point where outings to large conventions just aren’t pleasurable or sustainable.
Around 2014, Adam Wilson was trying to attend local comic book conventions with his autistic son, Logan, but the noise, bright lights, and crowds were simply too much for the young fan to endure. After repeatedly being told that sensory accommodations for guests didn’t exist at many of these events, he created the nonprofit Calm Passion and established Calmer Space, a service that sets up free sensory respite booths at conventions.
Building and growing Calmer Con Boston
In 2018, Wilson and his team debuted Calmer Con Boston, an all-ages, sensory-adjusted comics and pop culture convention designed to meet the needs of neurodivergent fans. It’s significantly grown since that first event in Gardner, Mass, with this year’s convention—free with registration—held on Sept. 6 at the Meadowbrook School in Weston.
“We were expecting 100 to 150 people and about 300 attended from all over New England,” Wilson said in an interview. “Last year we had over 700 attendees, so it is almost as large a crowd as we can host while maintaining proper sensory accommodations. … We had eight tables for artists and guests at that first convention, and this time around we will have 30. Superhero and Jedi training, art, cosplayers, Calmer Space sensory rooms, and Lego have always been features of Calmer Con.”
In 2024, Wilson said, organizers added music, magic, and gaming, both table top and video varieties. This year, they’re increasing those options and also adding an escape room experience.
“On the surface, it seems like a very niche idea to most,” Wilson said. “Ten years ago, comic book conventions hadn’t quite hit the public consciousness in the way it exists today. Blockbuster genre movies and millions of views for online videos from larger events have made them much more commonplace now, to the point where it is getting hard to schedule around them for our event each year. You might imagine the difficulty of trying to explain why those with sensory needs would even want to attend something that is so loud and crowded.”
The cost and struggle of producing Calmer Con annually
Wilson said figuring out how to fund the event was a major challenge when it started. He wanted to keep Calmer Con free for families that were already facing the significant financial burdens associated with supporting children with challenges, but Wilson was a stay at home parent at the time, taking care of Logan.
“We partially covered our costs with an online fundraiser, and personally my family had to tighten our belts and find a way to cover the rest,” he said. “I was able to work on all the details but couldn’t contribute to the funding. Thank goodness my wife Lynn is so amazing. Luckily, some dear friends of mine had just started Plastic City Comic Con in Leominster, Mass, and they were invaluable in setting realistic expectations and with sharing a lot of the smaller details that I needed to be aware of to get things off the ground.”
When COVID hit, Calmer Con was also hit with a one-two punch. Calm Passion lost its venue when Becker College in Leicester closed; from there, venues charged double their previous rates to help recoup what they had lost during the pandemic.
Wilson was distraught. But then, like a super hero, the Boston Comics Art Foundation came to the rescue. The better funded nonprofit began partnering with Calmer Con in 2022, and things turned around from there. He explained …
“My experience with sensory accommodations and how to run family friendly conventions fit perfectly with their ability to raise funding though a variety of means and provide a more structured behind the scenes approach to event planning and execution. It has been a great match.”
The family team behind the Calmer Space program
Calm Passion has since established relationships with several conventions where they provide Calmer Spaces. The rooms are for people who are challenged with neurodiversity, anxiety, sensory, and autism and need a safe place to reset, relax, or self regulate.
“Rhode Island Comic Con, Kid’s Con New England, and Granite State Comic Con have all been great allies to us over the years,” Wilson said. “We also have reached out to publishers to see who they might have available on the date of each event.”
Over the last seven years, Wilson said his family has grown closer through the extensive planning process and communicating with so many other orgs. Through it all, he said Logan has become increasingly comfortable in busy environments.
“Our son couldn’t last for 15 minutes at his first comic convention without melting down, even with headphones,” Wilson recalled. “It was heartbreaking to watch, and ultimately why we took on this challenge. … Logan is now able to go out into crowds of thousands of people at larger events by himself because he knows he can return to our rooms at any time to reset. He also helps us to manage all of our spaces. My wife Lynn has become a full-blown nerd. She helps with Jedi training and even dresses up to cosplay when we need help in that area.”
The entire experience has become a real gift, Wilson said. He’s able to watch his family find joy together in helping others, including several of his grown nieces and nephews.
“I would like to encourage people to use whatever gifts that they have to create things for the people that they care about,” he said.
“Running Calm Passion has been the hardest thing that I have ever attempted, and I have faced everything from financial hardship to complete failure at times. … That being said, none of it was as difficult as that hopeless feeling I had when Logan had those repeated meltdowns in public at that comic convention all those years ago.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect. The fact that it exists and helps even one person or family is enough.”
