About Queen City Steam

Queen City Steam started with a dream. A dream to create a safe, fun space where people could come together and celebrate Steampunk. Queen Bee, aka Jennifer Noran, started her Steampunk journey in 2018 when she attended The International Steampunk Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio. She Googled the genre, made a costume, and spent the day in awe of all the creative, kind people she found herself surrounded by. The next year she attended for the whole weekend, staying at an AirBnB with friends. The year after, Noran stayed the whole weekend in the host hotel and created the Airship Caduceus.

In 2022, when Jason Dean announced he was moving to Chicago with his wife and would be focusing on his event there, Noran, with the encouragement of her friend Michael, decided to try her skills at running the Symposium. Many of the original Symposium staff stayed on to help, and people reached out to provide support, lending their skills and advice. From that, The International Steampunk Symposium’s “Steampunk Under The Big Top” was born. It was an intense year of planning with Noran working a full time job, running a household, and learning the ropes to run an event of such magnitude.

The event time came and the weekend looked like a roaring success! People were having fun and the staff, volunteers, vendors, and entertainment really shone throughout the weekend with their hard work and positive energy. Closing ceremonies were challenging, though, as while Noran LOVED Symposium with all her heart, even with the help of staff and friends, she just couldn’t shoulder all the time in running a convention on top of everything else. Not wanting to stop, Noran formulated how she could host events and still have time to do everything else she needed to do. Reaching out to friends for their advice, it was decided that instead of one annual event, collaborating with other groups to have multiple events seemed like a better approach. Not only would planning events be easier, but it will give more opportunities for people to attend events all year round and in different locations.

Queen City Steam’s goal is to create events throughout Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, collaborating with different groups and people to host joint events all over the tri-state area. Through The International Steampunk Symposium, The Airship Caduceus and crew, Queen City Steam, and the wonderful genre that is Steampunk, Noran hopes that good deeds can be achieved, kindness and friendships can be kindled, and creativity can be cultivated while having fun. Queen City Steam is excited to see what amazing things the future holds!