This is what ‘geek’ really means (hint: You might be one, and it’s not a bad thing)

“Around the Corner” is a PhillyCAM show that offers local social impact leaders the opportunity to share what impact their work is having on the Philadelphia area. 

The producers of the Philly Geek Awards want you to unleash your inner geek on Aug. 26.

It’s the seventh annual event from Geekadelphia, a local entertainment website that covers everything “geeky” in Philadelphia, “from local filmmakers to local comic book creators,” said Mikey Ilagan, editor-in-chief of Geekadelphia and co-organizer of the Geek Awards. (Generocity and sister site Technical.ly Philly have co-produced the awards since 2016.)

“The site essentially started as a place to post videos of their [the founders, Eric Smith and Tim Quirino] cosplay,” said Ilagan. Eventually, it grew such a following that a live event was called for the celebrate local geek culture.

To clarify: Geeks are “anyone who is passionate in any given topic,” said Ilagan. “People can geek out over a variety of topics and that’s what we recognize at the Geek Awards every year.”

Alongside the award ceremony, the Philly Geek Awards team strives for diversity and inclusion among the award recipients and nominees, especially considering that many of these industries — technology, comics and the like — are male-dominated. They’re “looking for strength in diversity,” said Ilagan.

Learn more about the origins of the Philly Geek Awards in Ilagan’s “Around the Corner” interview below.

PhillyCAM is Comcast channel 66/966 HD/967 and Verizon FIOS channel 29/30 in Philadelphia.