PORTLAND — For the third annual International Cryptozoology Conference, Loren Coleman has packed the schedule with all things Bigfoot, beast and unexplained — and plans to announce he’ll lead an expedition in search of the Loch Ness monster in 2019.

The conference is being held Sept. 1-2 at the Brick South building on Portland’s Thompson’s Point.

Coleman, conference host and founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum, said he was approached by a tour group wanting to partner with the museum for an expedition in June 2019.

“We go to Loch Ness, go to castles, talk to eyewitnesses and go to some of the sighting areas,” said Coleman, who was last there looking for the creature in 1999. 

Announcing that expedition, which costs $6,000 per person, helps kick off the conference Saturday morning. Also on the schedule that day: Artist Stephen Bissette and writer Joseph Citro behind “The Vermont Monster Guide,” anthropologist and primatologist Dawn Prince-Hughes and Todd Disotell, the biological anthropologist seen on Spike TV’s “$10 Million Bigfoot Bounty.”

Among the speakers on Sunday: Katy Elizabeth from Vermont’s Champ Search will join Aleksandar Petakov talking about his film “On The Trail Of … Champ.” Michelle Souliere will talk about Bigfoot in Maine. Jeff Meldrum, an Idaho professor known for studying Sasquatch footprints and frequently seen on TV, will close out the day.

Brick South will be half crypto-related vendors and artists, half speakers. Entry to just the vendors is free.

Coleman said he’s expecting about 150 attendees.

The conference is going on hiatus next year because of the expedition. Coleman said the intention is to start moving the conference around to different states starting in 2020. 

“Last chance for New England for a while, but the musuem’s always there,” he said.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Loren Coleman, founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum, plans to announce at his International Cryptozoology Conference next weekend in Portland that he’ll be leading an expedition to Loch Ness next year in search of Nessie. (Sun Journal file photo)