Milwaukee Paranormal Conference

Panel Discussion:Haunted Road Trip

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Sunday, UWM Ballroom West

Supporting sponsor: Fuel Cafe  (show up early to get a free mini-bag of Fuel coffee, while supplies last!)

Moderator: Mike Huberty (See You on the Other Side podcast, Minneapolis Ghost Walks) Panel:  Mike Hoke (Cedarburg Ghost & Dark History Walking Tours), Lisa Van Buskirk (Madison Ghost Walks), Kathi Kresol (Haunted Rockford, author of Murder & Mayhem in Rockford, Illinois).

Pack a lunch, fill up the ol’ gas tank, and hit the open road in search of ghost stories! Our panel moderator is Mike Huberty, who explores the paranormal on a podcast he co-hosts called See You on the Other Side. He also runs a Minneapolis ghost walking tour and will talk to a panel of tour guides and experts that will tell you about some places you can visit within a couple hours drive of Milwaukee.

You’ll hear the lore behind eerie historical locations in Madison, Cedarburg, and Rockford that are open to the public, so you can plan a fall drive to go take a look and explore for yourself.

MPC Tours

We have three tours associated with this year’s Milwaukee Paranormal Conference and we encourage you to get tickets now as all of these have a very limited capacity.

Milwaukee Ghosts- Tours and Investigations has their Third Ward Walking Tour the night of Sat., Oct. 15 after the con.. Meets outside Milwaukee Public Market, 7:30pm. More info here: www.milwaukeeghosts.com/tours.asp

Forest Home Cemetery Walking Tour, is taking place Sunday morning, 10:30am-noon (meet at cemetery office at 10:15am). Historical tour with guide Robert Giese. Tour is $7, includes a souvenir booklet. Tickets are limited to 30 and can be purchased here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Guest Speaker: Katrina Weidman

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Shepherd Express presents: “Q & A with Katrina Weidman of Paranormal Lockdown,” Saturday, Wisconsin Room

Katrina Weidman became actively involved in paranormal research while attending Penn State University. While pursuing degrees in Integrative Arts and Theater and a minor in music technology, she was also able to pursue her passion for the paranormal by becoming case manager for the famed Paranormal Research Society (originally founded as a Penn State student organization). PRS (and Katrina) became the focus of the A&E channel docudrama Paranormal State, which aired from 2007-2011.

Katrina then served as host to the Chiller channel’s Real Fear: the Truth Behind the Movies, which explored horror movies based on actual events. It has been rated Chiller’s number one original program.

Katrina currently co-stars (along with Nick Groff, of Ghost Adventures) on the hit Destination America show Paranormal Lockdown. The popular and acclaimed first season that aired earlier this year led to a renewal for a second season. A Halloween 2-hour special airs just a couple weeks after our conference, on October 28. That special will document Katrina and Nick (along with Haunted Collector star John Zaffis) on their investigation of the Black Monk House in Yorkshire, England.

At the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, Katrina will be featured in a special Q and A session facilitated by Mike Huberty and Wendy Lynn Staats, hosts of the podcast See You On The Other Side. They’ll talk about Katrina’s experiences on the first season of Paranormal Lockdown, and what we can expect for season 2. It’ll be followed by a Q and A from the audience, and an autograph session– Katrina will have photos available to sign for $20.

Website: www.katrinaweidman.com 

art592This presentation is made possible by the Shepherd Express, Milwaukee’s weekly alternative. Be a reader, not a follower: www.shepherdexpress.com

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VIP tickets, which includes a dinner party with Katrina and other guest speakers are available until Monday, Oct. 10 and are $75. We also have 1-day ($10) 2-day ($15) and Super (both days and Raven’s Ball party, $23) available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Milwaukee Paranormal Conference Needs Your Support

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Con fans! Last year you blew us away with your response to our show. The feedback we got was more space, more amazing guest speakers, more days, more everything! We couldn’t have agreed more on said more! The 2016 Milwaukee Paranormal Conference WILL feature more everything, but that also means a much bigger investment for us. Please consider using our IndieGoGo to pre-order your ticket before it expires on September 5. By pre-ordering your ticket you help us fund all of the everything. If we fail to meet our goal we might have to scale back some of our plans and we want to make sure this is the best con it can be. Please blow us away with your support again!

Here’s the link to the Indigogo page: igg.me/at/milwaukeeparacon

In addition to pre-ordering tickets, we have some additional options. You can pre-order some merch:

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Logo T-shirts, S-XL: $15

Logo T-shirts, 2XL-3XL: $20

Logo Coffee Mug: $9

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Poster: $20

Poster T-shirt, S-XL: $25

Poster T-shirt, 2XL-3XL: $30

[We will  be adding more shirt designs, tank tops and sweatshirts– updates soon!]

Our VIP ticket is the ultimate conference experience and includes admission to both days of the conference, an exclusive Friday night VIP dinner party, our Saturday night masquerade ball, and a swag bag filled with items from our vendors and sponsors, all this for $85. A $95 version also includes the Forest Home Cemetery tour and MPC Film Fest. A $100 version limited to 10 includes the VIP ticket and a glow-in-the-dark ink version of our conference poster from Muddy Water Press.

Another great promo we have going is an Event Supporting Sponsorship. Basically, you buy a block of 12 tickets for the price of 10 and get listed as a supporting sponsor. More info here: milwaukeeparacon.com/our-sponsors

Please consider contributing today at: igg.me/at/milwaukeeparacon

Panel Discussion: Searching for Wisconsin’s Sasquatch

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Bigfoot? Prints found on a 2014 WPI Hunts the Truth expedition,

Saturday, UWM Ballroom West

Moderator: Sanjay R. Singhal (Beyond the Forest Radio). Panel: Author and researcher Linda S. Godfrey, Jay Bachochin (WPI Hunts the Truth), Larry and Jen Dopke (WI chapter of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization).

Bigfoot, one of the star cases of cryptozoology, has been spotted in states coast to coast and, according to our panel, is no stranger to Wisconsin. Our panel consists of people who have actually gone out into the field in Wisconsin to locations like Kettle Moraine State Forest and beyond to seek evidence of this elusive mystery. They’ve had some interesting encounters along the way and will share some of the unusual (and at times frightening!) experiences they’ve had.

Our panel includes:

Linda S. Godfrey, cryptozoology researcher and author of classics like The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin’s Werewolf, Weird Wisconsin, American Monsters, and many more.

Jay Bachochin of the investigation group WPI Hunts the Truth has led several expeditions looking for Bigfoot and is wrapping up a documentary on his search titled Into the Woods.

Larry and Jen Dopke are leaders of the local branch of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO is the group  represented on the show Finding Bigfoot) and have led several Wisconsin expeditions for the organization, in addition to filing reports from witnesses. (See an example HERE from earlier this year.)

Our moderator Sanjay R. Singhal is an investigator and host of the Beyond the Forest Radio show, in which he shares his own experiences and talks to other field researchers.

You can catch Sanjay interviewing the Dopkes TONIGHT (Aug.2) on Beyond the Forest.
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7pm CST: www.blogtalkradio.com/beyondtheforest

Additionally, a trailer was just released for Into the Woods, that stars panelist Jay Bachochin and documents his research along with Mary Marshall, who we’re glad to say is also a 2016 guest speaker.

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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

 

 

Guest Speaker: Allison Jornlin

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Presentation: “Milwaukee Forteana II,” Saturday, Wisconsin Room

Sponsored by: OnMilwaukee.com
Supporting sponsor: Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

Could Milwaukee be even stranger than it seems? Absolutely! Milwaukee’s Fortean history may surprise you. This presentation features ghost stories and other weird tales from Milwaukee history. Are immortals among us? Can ghosts leave footprints? Do demons possess the souls of those around you? The fascinating answers to these questions and more will be revealed by Allison Jornlin of milwaukeeghosts.com

Allison grew up in a small town in southeastern Wisconsin, reading everything in the school library about UFOs, monsters, ghosts, and psychic phenomena and wondering about the mysteries of the big city.  When she moved to Milwaukee she dug even deeper into the city’s dusty archives and began gathering first hand accounts of encounters with the paranormal.  Finally, inspired by Chicago’s Richard Crowe, who kick started U.S. ghost tourism in 1973, she founded Milwaukee’s first haunted history tour in 2008.

When she’s not teaching fourth graders at a local elementary school, Allison conducts ghost tours in the Third Ward and down Milwaukee’s haunted main street, Wisconsin Avenue.  She assists businesses and paranormal investigation teams with in-depth historical research.  As an admirer of anomalies researcher Charles Fort, she frequently provides expert commentary on a variety of Fortean topics for the podcast, See You on the Other Side (http://othersidepodcast.com).

Allison is currently compiling her more than 10 years of local research into a travel guide featuring 101 of Milwaukee’s public haunts.  If you have a ghost story to share, she’d love to hear from you.

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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Vendor of the Week 19: Dawn’s Dark Treasures

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SUNDAY ONLY

dawn con

I grew up in Waukegan, Illinois and upstate New York. My earliest memories are of re-imagining favorite cartoons on paper and inventing my own. I have a husband, three kids, and a ridiculous number of pets, mostly guinea pigs. I read adventure fantasy, horror, science-fiction, or anything else that takes me away from it all. I hope that my stories can do for others what they have done for me.

Website: www.dawnsdarktreasures.com

storyland__dawnnapier                  black bells

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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available now: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Guest Speaker: Chase Kloetzke

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Presentation: “Admissible: Is the Burden of Proof Enough?” Sunday, Wisconsin Room

Chase earned her Master Trainer, Master Instructor title while employed with the Department of Defense. Armed with a Bio-mechanical Engineer accreditation, she was responsible for designing specialized programs and the supervision of complete success regarding Force Readiness, unique mission responsibilities and Elite Force Protection. This was achieved by understanding the goals and requirements placed on physical and mental strength assignments that are demanded and expected for today’s Active Duty members and civilian anti-terrorist units. This includes assignments with Homeland Security and Private Sector Security Forces.

Schooled and certified as a Private Investigator, Chase consistently demonstrates the knowledge, technical requirements, legal parameters and the commitment to evidence based investigations using the latest technologies and methodologies deployed by professional Law Enforcement Officials in a modern and forward moving scientific environment.

She joined the Mutual UFO Network in 1996 and was selected as The Star Team Manager and Deputy Director of Investigations through 2011. She was responsible for the program design, protocols and investigation procedures for a national rapid response unit. This included supervision of the most experienced investigators and access to the most sensitive and complex cases reported to MUFON.

In 2015 she accepted the position of Deputy Director of Investigations and Special Case Manager leading a team of high performance and highly skilled investigators to special assignments in MUFON.

Additional MUFON responsibilities include;
  • Deputy Director of Investigations
  • Special Assignment Team Lead
  • National Director of Mexico
  • National Director Cuba
  • Assistant State Director Brazil
  • International CAG
  • MUFON Radio Assistant Producer
Chase is an Author of two popular books; Admissible: The Field Manual for Investigating UFOs, Paranormal Activity, and Strange Creatures (with Richard Dolan) and the first of its kind children’s book, Are Aliens Really Real?. Both can be found on Amazon.com.
As the Fate Magazine Radio Host, Chase features the best of Fate Mag with the true reports of the strange and unknown on the Global Radio Alliance, KGRARADIO.COM.
She also shares the microphone with “The 9”–the hosts of the popular radio talk show, Encounters, that includes, Richard Dolan, Race Hobbs, Micah Hanks, Lee Speigel, John Burroughs, Jill Hansen and Marc D’Antonio and David Mahler.
As a reoccurring guest in the media and a presenter, she is well known for her “Boots on the Ground” dedication to solving mysteries, one case at a time and lively interview exchanges.

Guest speaker: Elizabeth Saint

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Presentation: “Ghostly Gadgets: Engineering the Paranormal,” Sunday, Wisconsin Room

Elizabeth Saint has always demonstrated a sensitivity to the supernatural. The manifestations she first experienced at her childhood home in south Jersey are what initially led her to pursue a life trying to better understand the unexplainable. Six years ago, Elizabeth moved to the Washington D.C. area for an engineering job with the Department of Defense. The increase of activity that escalated in her apartment at that time pushed Elizabeth to deepen her understanding of the paranormal by starting to work with Maryland Paranormal Research® as a Technician and Investigator.

In 2015, Elizabeth was approached through her team along with Nick Groff (Ghost Adventures/ Paranormal Lockdown) and Bill Hartley (Greater Maryland Paranormal Society) by Chief Mike King of Shepherdstown, West Virginia to help aid explanation for the increase of paranormal activity occurring in town. Their experiences were documented and aired in 2016 on Destination America as a six-part series known as Ghosts of Shepherdstown.

Presently, Elizabeth is focusing on her engineered paranormal devices under the name Ghostly Gadgets to be made available to the public in 2017. The E-Box, as seen on season 1 of Paranormal Lockdown, is one of these designs.

Website: ghostlygadgets.com

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Ghosts of Shepherstown cast

Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Vendor of the Week 18: Cait May Illustration

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Cait May is an artist living in Baltimore with a BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She works primarily digitally, with a foundation in watercolor and brush ink.
Maryland born, Florida raised, Cait has always loved the environments around her. Whether the Catskills or the Gulf of Mexico, she finds inspiration in the flora and fauna. Cait returned to her home state for school (and because she desperately missed the snow). Raised in a crazy family of theater people, she knew from a very small age that drawing was something she was meant to do. Her work can be viewed at: http://www.caitmayart.com/
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She first became interested in the paranormal when her sister started seeing a “White Robe Lady” standing outside her window on a nightly basis. What began as a simple interest has integrated itself into her artwork – which, while whimsical, still has a grounding in all things unknown.
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Cait and her boyfriend Trevor write and illustrate a webcomic called “Irregular,” a story about six young cryptids trying to make their way through the human world, and learning together that family is not who you are born to, but who you find along the way. It can be read online at:  http://www.irregularcomic.com/
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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets available here: milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com

Guest Speaker: Celeste Contreras

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I am Celeste Contreras, I am Mexican-Mexica, Polish-Blackfeet Cherokee. Artist. Activist. Parade maker. Born in Dallas, Texas, raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founder of Milwaukee’s Dia de los Muertos Parade. Currently working towards a B.A. in Art Education at Alverno College.

Website: www.diadelosmuertosmilwaukee.com

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Milwaukee Paranormal Conference tickets here:  milwaukeeparacon.brownpapertickets.com