Safer Spaces Policy

CAKE does not discriminate against any person with respect to race, color, sex, gender identity, age, religion, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, military discharge status, or source of income. CAKE is a safe space: actions or merchandise that is considered hateful or that makes any attendee, staff member, or exhibitor feel unsafe will not be tolerated. Offended parties are encouraged to approach CAKE organizers to mediate and resolve the situation. CAKE reserves the right to remove any party from our events. Participants agree to not hold CAKE, its staff, or the venue responsible for any lost, stolen, or damaged merchandise. The CAKE safer space policy is intended to make our event a supportive, nonthreatening, and safe environment. If you experience harassment, abuse, assault, or any other kind of violation of our policy during CAKE, or if for any other reason you need support, please notify CAKE organizers or CAKE staff; our on-call exhibitor services team will help resolve the situation.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

CAKE is proactive in ensuring that our show is composed of artists that represent a diverse range of lived experiences. Historically there is an underrepresentation of non-white, non-cisgender, non-AMAB artists in the comics industry, which is why we as an independent show take extra consideration when it comes to the demographic make-up of our exhibitors and programming. While applicants to CAKE will always be judged first on the content of their work, we are committed to fostering an inclusive community of artists. We strive to bring together artists who come from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, educational, religious, and language backgrounds as well as those who represent a wide range of physical ability and mental health.

ARTISTIC INTEGRITY (AI, NFT, crypto)

CAKE prohibits the sale of AI-generated content. If AI/Gen-AI was used as part of the creative process, it should be openly disclosed. We are looking for independently created art, not the result of stolen labor designed to replace artists. Similarly, CAKE feels crypto, NFTs (and Blockchain) are scams and we don’t want to be associated with vendors who utilize these in their projects. Vendors are prohibited from selling any products utilizing these technologies on our show floor. Violators of this rule will be removed from the expo and banned from exhibiting at all future CAKE events. No refunds will be offered to vendors removed from the expo.