Co-organisers of the annual Steampunk NZ Festival Weekend Helen Jansen and Iain Clark leave for the US on Sunday to take part in panel discussions at TeslaCon 7, in Middleton, Wisconsin, a pop culture event that runs from November 17-20.
Mr Clark said the duo had been invited before but this was the first time they had been able to take up the offer.
He said the invitation came after a visit from an American who enjoyed Oamaru's Steampunk festival and encouraged TeslaCon 7 organisers to invite the Steampunk enthusiasts.
''We're using this as an opportunity to promote Oamaru.''
Brochures and information from Oamaru's Information Centre and Tourism Waitaki were sourced and are ready for distribution to American festival-goers, Mr Clark said.
''This is a wonderful opportunity for us and we've got an opportunity to promote ourselves on a worldwide stage.''
The couple believed their panel talks would probably centre on how Oamaru built itself up as the Steampunk capital of New Zealand, how the different Steampunk communities in New Zealand supported each other, how creative New Zealand was as a country, and how to create Steampunk costumes without sourcing mass-produced items.
Ms Jansen called the trip a ''great opportunity to promote Oamaru and New Zealand''.
The couple would travel to the US in full Steampunk gear and were expecting border control to be a ''nightmare'' to negotiate, Mr Clark said. They would leave their ray guns at home to avoid problems with border officials. .
