Star Trek conventions?

[EnriqueH]

I went to a few conventions in the 1990s, and have not really been to one except one in 2009 in Miami (called Florida Supercon), but that one had all sorts of guests.

But do they still have Star Trek Conventions? Or are all conventions lumped into a Sci-Fi/Superhero/Multi-Franchise umbrella?

I would assume so since virtually all advertised conventions seem to have all sorts of media/comic guests, not just Star Trek, but I wanted to confirm.

 

[1001001]

Creation Entertainment still does Star Trek Conventions. We went to one in San Francisco last year.

 

[EnriqueH]

They used to have one in Miami called TrekFest, and another company, Vulkon, did them as well.

But those companies are no longer around. Actually, Vulkon is "dormant" so it may return, I don't know.

I got to meet George Takei, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Rene Auberjoinis and Michael Dorn. I also got to see Jonathan Frakes, though he didn't sign any autographs or take pictures with people.

This was back in the day where it was ONE guest and the autograph was included in the admission. Boy, those were the days.

One of the last conventions I went to here didn't have as many dealers, and the ones that were there seem to be out to price gouge everyone which was a big turn off for me.

 

[martok2112]

Even though I'm not a fan of anything anymore, I still enjoy conventions.
Down here in New Orleans, LA, they are mostly Comic Cons, but they've had tons of guests. When I lived in another state, they were mostly Trek conventions.

Over the years, got to meet lots of cool Trek stars (and those of other shows).

Met James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Marina Sirtis...all of them twice. Met William Shatner, Michael Dorn, Nichelle Nichols, and Gates McFadden once.

Two of the sweetest people I've met were from other shows: Claudia Christian from Babylon 5, and Anne Lockhart who played Sheba on the original Battlestar Galactica.

The list goes on, but....we'll keep it short for now.

 

[mythme]

I go from time to time - the Cherry Hill NJ cons. (Although I wish "Philadelphia area" actually meant Philadelphia! sorry, but I hate driving in NJ. The road system was designed by a madman). My only problem with the convention itself is that its a little stuffy. I always have the feeling like I did at Jr. High School dances with the teachers breathing down your neck, assigned seats, that sort of thing. I know its mostly due to the hotel, but I would really enjoy a little levity. Some Trek music over the intercom, a little decoration. Oh and every convention I go to, no matter what the theme, food is always a problem. Eat at the hotel and pay a bloody fortune (and its usually not great food), or venture out and TRY to find someplace to eat -which can be a little awkward if you're in any kind of costume and with traffic that usually cuts into the con's time schedule. It would be nice if some kind of catering was included in the ticket price. But then again, i'm sure that's something overruled by the hotel. (Oh BTW, any else also think they keep the ballrooms waay too warm? 500+ people gathered in one place makes an enclosed room quite warm)

The tension is often broken by good irreverent guests, but as soon as they're done speaking its right back to being a little tense again. Maybe its just me, but I'd like to "cut loose" a bit (as much as Trekkies can do).

But I don't mean to sound overly negative, for the most part I do enjoy them.

 

[Melakon]

I used to have a Major Kira standup poster that I bought at my last con, 20 years ago. I'd hide it in a closet, or a corner where it wasn't noticeable until you were looking in a mirror. She scared a lot of people. The dog I had then wasn't sure what to make of it when I moved it around, but he once barked at a plastic Santa Claus in someone's yard.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Admittedly, I'm in semi-rural South Carolina, so that may skew my perspective a bit, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the smaller, single show cons are dying out. The last one we had here at our civic center was supposed to feature Roxann Dawson as the major draw - small cons are like that, it seems, one big draw and maybe one or a couple of peripheral players or people involved in the production that people will like to see but wouldn't necessarily go out of their way for if it wasn't for that main draw. She cancelled for whatever reason, and Aron Eisenberg ended up ruling the day. Don't get me wrong - he did an awesome job - but Torres being out just kind of killed it. Another con we drove to the state capital for featured Doohan - and he was there, but the crowd to see him was so huge as to be unmanageable for the size of the hotel the con had booked, so we didn't even get an autograph. Coolest thing that happened there is that me and a friend of mine got into a heated discussion with one of the visual effects people from TNG and may have been at least partially indirectly responsible for DS9 and Voyager using more scenes that involved ships interacting with different references for "up" to one another. (We were making the point that it was weird that any time two ships met in space - even hostiles - they had their "up"s oriented the same way, when you know that wouldn't happen.) Another con down at Myrtle Beach had Robin Curtis as the main draw. She was entertaining, and hey, it was also the beach, but her as a headliner for the con? Really?

We went to Dragon*Con in 2011, and I think that's really more the way to do it. LOTS of cool people to meet and stuff to see and things to do, and Nimoy (one of the main people I went to see) even had to cancel that year, and while that was a little bummer when he did, in truth it barely impacted the 4 days at all. We still saw Shatner, Wheaton, Visitor, de Boer, Wang, Spiner, McFadden, Tony Todd, and James Darren, and that's just the Trek folks: Being in an entire auditorium sized room full of people standing and chanting "So Say We All!" with Admiral Adama and President Roslin leading it was an experience cool enough to make up for not meeting Spock right then, and that was only one of a bunch of neat things that happened.

 

[CaptPapa]

I haven't been to too many, and they've been spread out over time, but are a pretty wide variety.
Our first was a little one-horse show in Anaheim (Disneyland Hotel . . . I think) with Deforest Kelley - that was in the 80's. He read poetry and was very gracious. We've been to World Con in LA (about 2007 . . . ?), then EuroCon in . . . 2008?. Those two were very cool; we met Anne McCaffrey at Mysterious Galaxy before the con and then got to hang out for a bit with her at World Con. She was a guest at the EuroCon we went to also (Copenhagen) and we went to dinner with her there; she was a very wonderful lady.
Lately we've been going to San Diego Comic Con, but it's pretty crowded, no, make that jammed! But still fun.
I wouldn't mind going to DragonCon once, but I hear that's not the same anymore - I heard they had some serious trouble with a football crowd using the same hotels a few years back. I'd definitely like to go to a Shore Leave, but . . .
We're thinking about going to the big 50th Official Star Trek in Las Vegas in 2016. I think that'll round things out nicely, since we went to the big 25th at the Shrine Auditorium in LA. The entire original crew was there, on stage together, with Majel Barrett and Gene Roddenberry - his last appearance.

 

[Amaris]

I went to a few conventions in the 1990s, and have not really been to one except one in 2009 in Miami (called Florida Supercon), but that one had all sorts of guests.

But do they still have Star Trek Conventions? Or are all conventions lumped into a Sci-Fi/Superhero/Multi-Franchise umbrella?

I would assume so since virtually all advertised conventions seem to have all sorts of media/comic guests, not just Star Trek, but I wanted to confirm.

I went to a Star Trek convention in Chicago in 2010, and it's still the highest point of my life, so far. I believe Creation was the one that ran it.

 

[publiusr]

It just doesn't feel the same any more. The last one I went to was in the 1990s, and..even then things felt as if they were falling away

 

[EnriqueH]

I went to a few conventions in the 1990s, and have not really been to one except one in 2009 in Miami (called Florida Supercon), but that one had all sorts of guests.

But do they still have Star Trek Conventions? Or are all conventions lumped into a Sci-Fi/Superhero/Multi-Franchise umbrella?

I would assume so since virtually all advertised conventions seem to have all sorts of media/comic guests, not just Star Trek, but I wanted to confirm.

I went to a Star Trek convention in Chicago in 2010, and it's still the highest point of my life, so far. I believe Creation was the one that ran it.

Do tell!

It just doesn't feel the same any more. The last one I went to was in the 1990s, and..even then things felt as if they were falling away

Publiusr, I know what you mean. The Doohan convention left a bad taste in my mouth, (even though I enjoyed meeting Doohan).

 

[Captain Kathryn]

http://www.creationent.com/calendar.htm

 

[Tarheel]

I attended my first convention in 1987. I was new to Trek fandom (but not new to Trek) and I had a great time. The highlight was an extended preview of TNG a couple of months before the premiere.

I attended my second convention around 1995-1996. Although it was much bigger, I was very disappointed. It lacked any charm and my friends and I didn't stick around long.

However I've decided that I'm going to try hard to attend Shore Leave in Baltimore next year. I have more interest in meeting the writers than meeting the actors, so it looks cool. If actors are you're thing, then there are always the big cons like ST Las Vegas.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

However I've decided that I'm going to try hard to attend Shore Leave in Baltimore next year. I have more interest in meeting the writers than meeting the actors, so it looks cool.

I'd hoped to get to Shore Leave this year, but couldn't get away. It was my first Trek con - I went a few years before the group I belonged to started Toronto Trek. Now that Polaris (we changed the name from Toronto Trek in 2007) is defunct, I'm not spending every night in June and July glued to my email and programming software juggling a schedule every which way, so maybe next year.

My big convention trip every year is Dragoncon - I've been going since 2005. I also go to the occasional Worldcon, though I haven't been since Montreal in 2009 (which I also worked on).

CaptPapa, were you a member of the BBS during the L.A. Worldcon (which was actually in 2006)? A group of us met up and hung out for a few hours, but I don't remember you being part of that.

If I listed every celebrity I've met at cons over the years, I'd be here all night, so I'm not going to subject you to that. Though I did get a kick out of reminding Garrett Wang about the time he introduced himself to me at the end of a con I had just co-chaired.

I've had some good experiences, and have made a lot of friends all over the world from going to conventions.

 

[brandnewfan]

DragonCon is just a couple days away.

I've been going since 2007. Over the years, I've met and have autographs for Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, George Takei, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, John de Lancie, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Patrick Stewart, Wil Wheaton, Rene Auberjonois, Avery Brooks, James Darren, Nicole de Boer, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo...and that's just Star Trek actors; I've met tons more from other shows and films...all just at DragonCon over the years. Plus, there have been many more Trek actors to have attended in previous years, those are just the ones that I met.

I think Cirroc Lofton, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden have been my most memorable Trek actor meetings.

Cirroc asked me about myself and seemed really interested when I told him what I do. Marina talked A LOT about the show to me personally and seemed to be very appreciative of her fans. Obviously we're the ones who've made them what they are, and she seems to respect that. Gates talked with me about a discussion from a panel earlier in the day.

DragonCon is really a great convention, you should all check into it. Even if 2014 is a little "light" on Trek guests...all previous years since 2007 have been loaded with them.