On July 2nd, I was in attendance of what I will admit to being the best panel I have ever been to in my 20 plus years of attending expos, cons, and shows. I am being honest here: I have never laughed so hard, learned so much, or have been genuinely entertained at any panel as I was at the one I attended last night. I must admit that going into a panel titled Nerd Courting I expected something completely different than what was presented. But after just a few minutes of listening to Adam Cullen (yes, Cullen) talk about nerds and dating, I am convinced that he has the nerd’s best intentions as he talked about the myths and mistakes nerds make when trying to find their way in the dating world.

To explain just a bit as to whom Adam Cullen is talking about when he refers to nerds, Adam has generally divided the world into two classes of people - nerds and jerks. Jerks are the everyday normal people who sometimes mock or ridicule nerds and nerds are people whose sense of imagination and the ability to use it often bring on the ridicule of jerks. He knows not every normal person is a jerk and that some nerds are jerks themselves; but to save time and simply the world, that is the general distinction he has given everyone.

His views on the dating world and our culture of anime, video games, and comic books don’t necessarily need to clash with each other and that the most important rule, and really this should be common sense, is to be confident in who you are. Why so many of my peers in those three fields lack that very basic trait astounds me. But Adam has a point when he speaks to the crowd. And that same crowd was quick to criticize some of his views with mockery and laughter to which he replied to with a very blunt “Fuck you.”

And I applaud that. Sometimes we will ridicule and criticize what we feel goes against our normal status quo. And you can tell that he hit a chord with many people in the audience when he went on to describe some of his experiences with dating being a nerd himself (he is a self described gamer, anime fan, and cosplayer). Adam described some very personal and sometimes very intimate details of his life. From his fist sexual experience to problems with his penis to the ruining of a friendship over a stupid mistake on his part, Adam was not afraid to show that he could relate to the audience, and they quickly realized that fact and many opened up to what he was saying.

Unlike other interactive panels, Adam does not wait until the end of his presentation to take questions from those in attendance. He had someone there who was running around the room with a mic finding people whose questions were directly related to what he was discussing. I really liked this aspect of his panel as it keeps the notions being questioned and discussed fresh in the audiences mind.

Personally, I found the panel very interesting and informative as Adam and I shared many ideas on what we as nerds perceive to be as dating and going about asking someone out. His ideas on approaching, dating, and eventually sex and possible break ups mirror many of my own thoughts and beliefs on dating and relationships. Many of it being bits of common sense that for some reason many of my peers have forgotten; and that goes for both men and women.

I wish I could go on more regarding to what Adam said, but to do so would give away a big piece of what he has to talk about. But judging by the response he received from the crowd once the panel was done, it seems like I was not the only one impressed with what he had to say and his delivery of the message.If you would like to know more about Adam Cullen and further appearnces, you can go to his official website and learn more.