Join our special guests John Krikorian of the Trek Profiles Podcast and Marina Kravchuk of the Shore Leave Podcast for an introduction to the upcoming Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.
In this episode we look at the layout of the convention space, the convention schedule, food offerings, autographs, photo ops and fan events. This is the episode to listen to if you're a first timer attending the convention!
[00:00:00] A Star Trek Convention Podcast, a proud member of the Trek Geeks Podcast Network.
[00:00:13] Here is your host, Ron Robo.
[00:00:16] Welcome to the Con Pod, a Star Trek Convention Podcast.
[00:00:19] I'm your host Ron and you can find me on Twitter at Trek Aron and the show at Trek Con Pod.
[00:00:25] Today's show is the second part in our series of an introduction to STLV.
[00:00:29] And today we'll be discussing the layout of the convention, looking at Vegas as a convention destination,
[00:00:35] and doing a bit of a deep dive into autographs and photo ops.
[00:00:38] We're joined by a fabulous pair today.
[00:00:40] Up first, the host of the Trek Profiles Podcast, and as a Las Vegas local, is a very familiar face at STLV.
[00:00:47] John Criccory and John Welcome.
[00:00:49] Hey Ron, what a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.
[00:00:53] So excited to have you as well as our second guest who is returning for her second con pod appearance.
[00:00:58] One of the hosts of the Shoreleaf podcast and an admin for the Star Trek Convention Experiences Facebook group, Marina Crafchek.
[00:01:05] Marina Welcome.
[00:01:06] Hi, great to have a good, great to be back actually.
[00:01:09] Fantastic for you know, visiting. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
[00:01:13] Always so much when they get together and talk about this Star Trek Convention,
[00:01:16] which as of this recording is a mere 94 days away.
[00:01:20] So coming very, very quickly.
[00:01:23] So we'll jump right into this.
[00:01:25] So our first topic is looking at the layout of the convention.
[00:01:29] And one of the first things that a lot of people dive right into is pre-registration when you get there.
[00:01:34] Your chance to get your ticket and information.
[00:01:37] Marina, let's go ahead and talk just a little bit about what the pre-registration line looks like and how does like your ticket type determine
[00:01:44] when you can get into pre-registration?
[00:01:46] What exactly does that mean to pre-register?
[00:01:49] As most things, everything is organized according to the tier.
[00:01:52] So the upper tier is so the gold we can take it, the cap and share ticket, the copper they go first, gold being the first.
[00:01:59] And usually they try to schedule it so that you put a registration happens some hours before they actually open the vendor room for preview show.
[00:02:09] And you literally everything is going to be posted online all the hours.
[00:02:13] You just make sure to keep track of that.
[00:02:15] And depending on what your tier is, you show up.
[00:02:19] And it actually feels a little bit intimidating if you've never been part of that huge queue, seemingly huge queue.
[00:02:25] Once it starts moving, it actually moves really, really fast.
[00:02:28] And the process is very easy.
[00:02:30] You should have your ticket on you.
[00:02:32] I believe they can scan it off your phone, but you know, I'm being the nervous, I actually usually print my PDF just to be sure.
[00:02:40] So they scan it.
[00:02:42] They basically you go through into the Rattanda portion, which is like the entrance area to the convention facilities of the hotel.
[00:02:50] And they will hand you while they will put the wrist bound in you and it's color coded depending on what your tier is.
[00:02:57] And a little envelope which will contain if gold captains or copper actually all of them, the general admission has one as well.
[00:03:04] So basically everybody who's there for the entirety of the convention all four days, there will be a badge.
[00:03:09] And then, you know, little extras depending on what your tier is.
[00:03:12] And I'm sure we're going to talk about this later when we talk about the admission tickets.
[00:03:16] So the whole thing is fairly straightforward.
[00:03:18] And once you through, well, gold's a down fairly early.
[00:03:22] You still have hours to go until the open-divender room or if you have something else planned for the evening.
[00:03:27] So basically, your boom and done, I'm going to say probably within the first 30 to 45 minutes.
[00:03:33] It really does once it starts moving fast.
[00:03:38] The general admission typically is done literally once things already like people are circulating in the area and things are happening sort of speak, the vendor room opens.
[00:03:48] And that I think, even though it's like it's pre, you know, this pre-fix gets play, it gets thrown a lot.
[00:03:56] But really, you know, the day before it's sort of part of the convention experience if you're coming for the entire weekend.
[00:04:01] So for those who do have tier tickets, meaning you're coming for all four days of the convention, I would recommend getting there early.
[00:04:07] So you do include Wednesday as part of your convention experience.
[00:04:10] Absolutely, I can vouch for that.
[00:04:12] The line goes by very quickly.
[00:04:14] I don't know that I've ever waited more than five or ten minutes in the pre-registration line.
[00:04:18] But John, how is your experience been going through pre-registration?
[00:04:22] Pre-registration, super simple.
[00:04:24] I think Marina had all the main points.
[00:04:26] The only thing I would say about pre-registration that makes it kind of cool is that, you know, you're getting in a line with some random trekkies.
[00:04:33] And just be sure to talk to the people around you.
[00:04:35] I know some people don't like to do that, but I think it's great just to meet other people and talk to them about star trekking all that.
[00:04:42] I usually treat it as kind of a little social event, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
[00:04:46] And I think the thing, the other thing that Marina alluded to, that's very important is of course you can get into the vendor room a little bit early on Wednesday night.
[00:04:54] And sometimes there's some good treasures that tend to go pretty fast, so you can find some interesting things if you're in the vendor room first.
[00:05:04] Really for those who already might be thinking, well, this is going to be an experience that I might want to repeat going forward.
[00:05:11] You of course don't know until you get there, but I suspect that a lot of people first time are kind of kind of eventually get bitten by that, but.
[00:05:21] The pre registration line is also a useful tool for those who are planning to move up.
[00:05:27] So if you do have to hear where you'd select your own seat and you're thinking, well, maybe next year if I go, I may be able to get a closer seat in, you know, maybe move up with your rows.
[00:05:38] That is like I said it is a tool if you show up early enough and those who do really do want to move up show up hours before pre registration stuff that's why when you arrive you tend to see.
[00:05:48] Definitely there is definitely a line there already.
[00:05:51] It mostly people at the front are those who are hoping to move up in, usually within the gold we can't hear.
[00:05:58] You know, I actually did that myself before the 50th anniversary.
[00:06:03] I really wanted to get as close as I possibly could and I managed to move up to third row, which is almost shocking because as we know.
[00:06:09] The front part is a valued real estate and those people who come every year they tend to kind of stick to those seats.
[00:06:15] That's awesome and just out of curiosity what ticket here are you both doing for this convention this year general admission.
[00:06:21] And I'm doing copper.
[00:06:22] Yeah, and I'm doing copper.
[00:06:24] Perfect.
[00:06:25] All right well, and as we look at once you're through the pre registration you do the vendors room you come back the next day the convention has begun.
[00:06:31] There are at least two theaters.
[00:06:34] I think there's a third theater that's been announced already for this year.
[00:06:37] How exactly does that work?
[00:06:40] Do you have an assigned seat?
[00:06:42] I know creations are big fan of saying that everybody has a seat.
[00:06:45] But John, how does that work in the main theater work with the seating situation look like?
[00:06:49] Yeah, so at the Rio they have a guaranteed seat in the main theater for each person.
[00:06:56] Now certain ticket tiers get a guaranteed assigned seat as Marina alluded to like those gold and the captain's chair.
[00:07:05] And I think even the copper they get assigned seating so that you're picking your seat when you're buying a ticket.
[00:07:11] Whereas for general admission like me and even the people who are buying day passes there is enough seating in the main theater that should it be the case that every single person who bought a ticket at an on a specific day shows up in the main theater on specific time, which is unlikely to ever happen but should it happen?
[00:07:26] Everyone could sit down and see something.
[00:07:29] And even if you're sitting way at the back they have these huge screens.
[00:07:32] So you won't miss a thing even if you're in the very back row.
[00:07:36] They really do a nice job of that so you'll be able to see everything no matter where you are.
[00:07:40] I've said I think I've done a great job with that like you said the video screens in the back of the theater.
[00:07:44] I know my first year I was copper on the side and I think I was like the third or fourth row really fantastic seat.
[00:07:50] And found myself more often than not coming in in the middle of a panel and still grabbing a seat in the far back because there was a lot more room to spread out and it was just with the cameras and the video screens.
[00:08:00] It's an easy way to see it.
[00:08:02] But Marina how does that work for events that happen in the main theater such as the gail galer or the rat pack if you have an assigned seat like you will this year?
[00:08:11] Yeah, the gaula is usually included.
[00:08:14] It's part of the ticket so it's automatically included in your ticket and you get to keep the seat.
[00:08:19] So with whichever you know copper wherever you're sitting that's the seat you keep full for for this special event.
[00:08:27] The general admission obviously comes in and what's more what's wonderful about the gaula is especially is that anyone who's not attending the convention actually can go to this concert as well.
[00:08:38] You don't need the admission to the convention you just need the admission ticket to the gaul itself.
[00:08:43] So if anyone listening and you're local enough and you think well, maybe I'll just go and check out the space and hear some well I'm assuming it's going to be something musical tends to be a some sort of concert for the gaula.
[00:08:53] You just need to buy the ticket for the gaul itself as far as rat pack.
[00:08:58] It's same same same same deal applies rat pack is open to everyone and that's the traditional clothes of the convention late on Sunday evening.
[00:09:07] And same deal, you know you keep the seats and I'm actually thinking that I believe it's it's accessible to all regardless so it's free you like you don't have to have a ticket for the general admission you just use to show up.
[00:09:20] I'm not sure how packed the place actually is because it's so late and a lot of people actually either in the process of leaving or leaving the following day.
[00:09:29] I personally have not attended the two last rat packs for that reason actually I had very early flights out.
[00:09:35] So but as far as I know pretty much anyone who's at the convention can just show up at rat pack and you definitely will have a spot.
[00:09:44] Yeah, I think that's correct. And I know like the first year I did one of these conventions in 2018.
[00:09:49] I believe the rat pack show was like at nine o'clock local time which is an east coaster usually when I get an convention I'm getting used to it, but the flight leaves at six a.m.
[00:09:57] They've gotten a lot better. I think the last couple years it's been a little bit earlier in the evening but still it's definitely later and if you're getting an early flight out it's hard to make it to.
[00:10:07] John, have you had any experiences with attending the rat pack? I know you're local so you're you're used to that time change already.
[00:10:13] Yeah, the time does bother me all that much because typically I'm taking that Monday off a work anyway and spending that Sunday night at the hotel so it's not it's not a big deal for me.
[00:10:22] I will say the one thing about the rat pack that's a little weird or not weird, but I should say interesting is that that's usually the only thing that is happening at the convention at that time.
[00:10:32] I mean, as far as official events so while you're in the rat pack they're breaking down everything else and it's really strange because you walk into the rat pack you walk out of the rat pack and everything is gone.
[00:10:43] I mean or there they're putting stuff in a crate. I mean it's it's literally you know it's a whirlwind change while you're in that room and you walk out and all of a sudden everything's gone so it is the very last thing that happens that at the convention each year.
[00:10:58] It's kind of a sad feeling when you come out and you see that all broken down to like where did everything go already it's there they're very fast.
[00:11:05] But at the same time it is a nice it is a nice ending to it so like a nice little you know exclamation point at the end of this whole experience and it tends to like even though those who have possibly.
[00:11:17] You know had the experience of seeing the actors who are part of the rat pack put on a show and you know maybe on the start to cruise or elsewhere.
[00:11:25] We do try to vary it they very often have special guests and that kind of changes the whole you know the dynamic atmosphere they changed the show pieces around all but.
[00:11:33] One year they had an offer example that was the first time that she was part of this and I have to say it just made the whole thing spectacular because she was just such an amazing part of like she just.
[00:11:43] You know put on her own pizzazz on the is I mean we all know and I did musical theater so it was it's amazing so it's definitely something to check out and if you've never seen them that is a must for sure because like I said it puts a nice exclamation mark on the whole show.
[00:11:56] Absolutely and that's so the main theater is enormous there I don't know how many seats but like John mentioned everyone's guaranteed a seat in that theater it's about 6,000 seats.
[00:12:05] It about 6,000. Yes. Yes. And especially when you compare that to the secondary theater or the third the tertiary theater those theaters it's important to know there are no guaranteed seats.
[00:12:16] I've never seen the secondary theater fill up but they have some really fun programming in there if they do a tertiary theater it's generally at the real attached to Jimmy's plays and that I have seen it it's much smaller be really standing room only oftentimes for some of the funer panels in there.
[00:12:34] So get to those panels early if you're planning to it and you want to see it's one of those things what kind of success that you have the main theater main venue which again just to reiterate it's a route about 6,000 feet which is the natural limit.
[00:12:47] You know that's they don't go beyond it that's why everybody gets a seat you know you don't get more basically daily tickets more than what the main theater can fit.
[00:12:57] The secondary theater in tertiary theater I feel extremely important they have developed the programming that actually it's occasionally you would be like well I have seen the Q&A with this particular guest many many times what else is going on and then for sure definitely the secondary theater and tertiary theory sometimes you have a fem programming which tends to be fascinating because you know the is a your fellow fans who are putting a foot talking about whatever subject of the you know passion that somehow relates to Star Trek.
[00:13:25] You can have science which is one thing that is a must you know and we we should probably you know mentioned that there will be science programming that's already announced for this convention.
[00:13:34] You know I have seen when Dr. McDonald for example had her show in the tertiary theater and it was one of those things at stem only people will literally spilling into the bar area of this space and it was just like what is going on here it's just it's it was a fascinating wonderful talk that she was doing and you know a whole lot of people wanted to do it and really probably.
[00:13:54] I mean it's really probably should have been in the secondary theater and not tertiary because there was not enough space they did be arranged it the last year before the pandemic it became I mean still that ill-shaped space that we have for for the.
[00:14:07] I mean it's a very interesting place but they moved to the.
[00:14:11] The stage in somewhat different area and it became a little bit easier to circulate with those people who are just trying to get a hot sandwich which is those were sitting down to.
[00:14:21] Here what I was going on on the stage so I'm kind of hopeful that now that we're coming back after the pandemic and after the you know experience the values.
[00:14:30] I'm kind of hopeful that you know the spaces the main theater secondary theater tertiary theater are going exactly the same places where they used to be so you know hope that.
[00:14:39] That.
[00:14:40] I mean it's a very easy to to basically you know and get out of your seat in the main theater walk over to the tertiary theater check out was there if you're not interested.
[00:14:49] This which are with the secondary run over have a photo open and come back to the main theater it was a nice nice organized space if you will.
[00:14:56] So I want to go back to something you'd asked about earlier on which is what level of ticket we bought and I want to explain my reasoning here because the ties into this discussion about the theaters.
[00:15:05] Which is that you have to be very clear when you're going to STLV and I guess all conventions would be like this but what are you going for and what do you want to do.
[00:15:14] Now there are people like goal ticket holders who will go to the convention and sit in the main theater from 10 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock at night and watch every single main panel which is great and usually these are the people you know there's kind of it's kind of a barbell shape distribution it's like the people who hold those seats who go to the sit and that like.
[00:15:34] First second third fourth row they're going to be there all day every day for every single thing in the main theater and like run out for lunch and go to the bathroom.
[00:15:41] Then there's like the newer people and it's their first time coming to this they're going to want to be in the main theater to see all the all the talent and all the big shows and all the big things then there's kind of the people like me like I have seen William Schattner.
[00:15:55] 15 times like I've heard all the stories I know how it goes you know and I'm and this is just for me.
[00:16:02] I'm less interested in seeing like the same people for the eighth tenth 12th 34th time so as I've gone to the convention more and more I'm spending less and less time in the main theater.
[00:16:13] And you I'm seeing for myself much more interesting and innovative programming in the secondary theater and in the tertiary theater which is not even a theater it's really the lunch room that has a stage in it.
[00:16:23] I mean we should really be clear about that it's it's not a third theater it's the lunch room cafeteria that has like a little stage where they do stuff.
[00:16:31] You're competing with the other people who are eating lunch buying coffee and sandwiches you know who are sometimes sitting and sitting in that theater space having lunch just because the shows on they're going to watch it so that's kind of why it fills up.
[00:16:44] But that's where you see the really wacky stuff and like the really interesting stuff so I just want to challenge you out there if you're coming to the convention for your fifth six seventh eighth time.
[00:16:55] I'm going to show you how it's done with the second very theater and in the third theater it's really weird it's really fun and it's just very different stuff that changes every year and I'm myself just speaking for myself only.
[00:17:08] I'm enjoying more of that stuff than I am the main theater of year which is why I don't even want to design seat anymore in the main theater.
[00:17:14] The John is absolutely right you know the everybody's looking for different convention experience and there's no wrong way to experience your convention everybody's looking for different things.
[00:17:25] And yeah as you kind of start going over and over and over again to experience most definitely changes this is going to be my 13th facility this year and.
[00:17:35] I still enjoy conventions so that's sorry conventions I still enjoy panels which is one of the reasons why I still keep a tear ticket so means I have an assigned seat anytime I need.
[00:17:45] I'm going to say it's probably.
[00:17:48] 60 40 is 60 percent you know second the retirees your theaters and other experience elsewhere during the convention versus 40 percent maybe even 30 percent in the main theater all depends you know it's a I looked at the old programs not so want to go and I realized that it was very strange I had there was this one.
[00:18:06] I was starting from the year that discovery premiered so from roughly like 2017 2018 and then three years in a row I had extremely different spread between what I was doing in the conventions there was one convention well literally.
[00:18:21] It was that exact situation that John was describing I said down in the main theater probably midday and then I spent all my time up until like when it closed like 5 p.m.
[00:18:32] 6 p.m. because they had all the you know introductory panels dedicated to discovery so they had the behind the scenes talent on the stage they have the actors on the stage it was this whole like a discovery day that we had for like the entire it was.
[00:18:45] I was the five day event so it was an entire Wednesday basically dedicated to discovery and then the following year I barely spend any time in the theater I think I only step finally step put in there like on Saturday morning otherwise I was doing stuff elsewhere because they were fascinating science panels in second year theater somebody was doing like maybe a treaty or something in the tertiary you know Larry Nemichick was doing it talk about whatever movie anniversary we had at the time.
[00:19:12] I think things change and you know we I'm sure we're going to touch upon things that pop up in the schedules we have all sorts of experiences doing this convention.
[00:19:20] But yeah absolutely you know whatever you're looking for you probably in the final.
[00:19:26] This convention but again just to reiterate there is no wrong way of doing the convention whatever you're looking for and if you do come back I'm sure you will finally zero in it which ticket works best for whatever experience you're looking for.
[00:19:38] And John touched upon the fact that the tertiary stage is very much also in the cafeteria for STLV and inside Jimmy's place.
[00:19:46] Which is a way to do.
[00:19:48] What's just cool.
[00:19:49] It's a it's a where the craft swap takes place which we'll be talking about another episode.
[00:19:54] But let's talk a little bit about Jimmy's place in what its function is other than being a host for that tertiary theater.
[00:20:01] John what is Jimmy's place.
[00:20:04] So it's basically the closest thing to like the the leftover room so it's got the cafeteria which by the way is probably if you want to buy food every day that's probably the most reasonable place that you can go.
[00:20:17] If you go out to the restaurants and stuff it's going to be way more expensive I mean if you just want like a sandwich or a salad and a coffee.
[00:20:23] That's that's probably your best bet because it's right there and if you want food on the go and you know that it's not it's not a bad option it's not great but it'll get you through.
[00:20:32] But they have a theater set up in there and as Marina said they kind of been changing like the physical layout of it so they have the stage they have the cafeteria and then they just have tables.
[00:20:42] And so what happens is people are using those tables for like fan organized events like you may reference to the craft swap.
[00:20:50] There's other things that are going on in there at all different times that they are night you know sometimes people will just set up and they're like I usually run a little card game.
[00:20:58] And so sometimes in the evenings I will set up in there and people could just come and play my Star Trek cards against humanity game with me if they want to it's usually a big hit.
[00:21:06] But you know it's just it's just general tables and then they usually have clips playing from Star Trek which tend to repeat.
[00:21:15] I wish they would just show episodes I thought that I think that would be great but they never do that they just used to have close by now it's not a licensed show anymore so I guess they're not doing that but I would I would love to see that come back if they ever get the license.
[00:21:28] They did that a couple I think the last year they had the license they were playing episodes and it was incredible you know you're paying all this money.
[00:21:34] To be at this convention and I found myself just plopping myself in a chair and spending two hours watching episodes of Star Trek and I could totally do it home but.
[00:21:43] For an environment and there's more fans there so it was a totally different experience that's right but in the evening too I know Chase Masterson has some happier festivities.
[00:21:52] I've seen her sing and there she has an incredible voice.
[00:21:55] Have either of you have the chance to pop in and see any of those evening events Marina.
[00:21:59] No, I have to admit I mean I when she just started doing that I did went to a couple of the first ones and then it just.
[00:22:05] I'm hoping that you know by that time I tend to have something else arranged there will be either a meet up somewhere or I'm going to dinner with my friend somewhere so evening's tend to be quite busy on the you know after the convention hours over.
[00:22:20] So I usually run away somewhere but in the beginning when she just started doing that I did attend I think two of her and.
[00:22:28] Concerts really the mini concert mini performances and I have to second and definitely check it out because first of all she's she's a wonderful person she's extremely talented she has a wonderful voice.
[00:22:38] And yeah, it's definitely something to kind of like even if it's you're thinking like well check mark just to check out what what what the convention has to offer but beyond that it's probably something to check out.
[00:22:51] Yeah, I think it's if memory serves she's there all like every day at five o'clock to do a set.
[00:22:56] Yes, it says a Thursday at a Saturday at every night correct. Yeah, the last thing I'll add for Jimmy's place as well as typically before the gala before the rat pack.
[00:23:06] It is the closest in only location in the convention facility where you can grab a drink right beforehand so if you're looking for some cocktails before either of those events that's the closest in best place to grab those.
[00:23:18] But we've talked about the main theater theaters the Jimmy's place beyond that the promenade area is that they describe it.
[00:23:26] This is kind of fancy way of saying the hallways.
[00:23:30] But being a Star Trek convention there anything but boring John tell us a little bit about what the promenade area is and what that includes.
[00:23:37] Yeah, it's really just the main corridor and if anyone's interested you can go to the rea website and download the floor plan for the convention area and the Star Trek convention takes up the whole thing.
[00:23:48] So it's just the main hallway, but they don't just let it be a main hallway. There are little things set up every so many feet.
[00:23:56] There are some of the extra rooms that they have are set up with exhibits and you know what that can be can change from year to year one year they had a Lego thing set up in there one year CBS brought a museum thing with some props from the show.
[00:24:12] So you can have who knows what kind of stuff, you know they used to have a triple thing. They had a balloon enterprise one year so there's all kinds of cookie silly stuff set up in there which is really fun.
[00:24:24] It's just a place to go and take some photos and hang out and talk with people one year they had a caricature person.
[00:24:30] I remember another year they had a gaming company that had made a really complicated like Star Trek empire board game like where you you know play one of the major factions and they had people coach you had to play it.
[00:24:43] I mean you never know what you're going to find.
[00:24:45] It's really great really fun and it's all just part of the convention you just go and enjoy it and see what they have.
[00:24:52] It seems to change from year to year but it's always a lot of fun.
[00:24:56] Fantastic.
[00:24:58] I mean, I think that it's a really big corridor and it's a huge plus especially for those who have attended comic cons of various sizes and who know how much the space tends to be at premium at various conventions.
[00:25:13] It's a nice thing to have because well I suppose on Saturday it feels pretty full especially for big panel.
[00:25:19] So it's outside out of mean theater we have you know full intensive purposes at traffic jam, but for the most part it's enough room to put people to actually circulate and move between the rooms fairly comfortably what's more like occasionally.
[00:25:32] When they set up for photoIups you can add some of the views filling out into the corridor and there's still enough room for people actually to stand against the walls and I'm not really interfered with people moving around
[00:25:42] So yeah that primarily a nice 10.
[00:25:44] And of course, you know, can just stand in the middle of it and just chat with your friends or you're, you know, you were quaint and sees it on just random stranger at Star Trek.
[00:25:52] Like John said, you know, so sometimes they set up in the court or itself not a not a random in the room outside like there was one year where Ron Barry archive actually had wonderful panels dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Ron Barry's birthday.
[00:26:05] And at the end of that particular year, they auctioned them off. So that was like, you know, one a fantastic thing to just kind of read about his life because it was like everything was photographs.
[00:26:16] It was like, you know, some quotes from him and so on. And then it, you know, there was a nice charity auction and all the money is willing to charity.
[00:26:24] So yeah, I'm looking forward to see what the what we will have, you know, this year feels a little bit. I don't know every time I think about it considering that it's like three months left,
[00:26:32] you know, and it's supposed to be the last event as specifically at Rio. So presumably next year we're going to
[00:26:39] We're going to be at the new venue. So I'm curious. I'm curious to see what what we'll have maybe Ron Barry will bring some new feature seeing how we have now this, you know,
[00:26:47] a little virtual archive being brought into existence and maybe something. Yeah, well, they had that couple years ago,
[00:26:55] they had that virtual experience star base room where you could, you'd walk in there and they put you in a VR setup
[00:27:01] and you'd be walking through the star base and could check it out. So Ron Barry had that. So you never know what you're going to find.
[00:27:07] I will say one thing though, which is last year were at Bally's, Bally's had a lot of issues, a lot of problems.
[00:27:13] But the one thing that Bally's had, which was very good, was the tertiary theater, was an actual theater that had plenty of seating and there were no issues.
[00:27:21] The tertiary theater was fantastic at the Bally's. That was the one nice thing I could say about it.
[00:27:25] Yes, I thought you looked the or is up in the air and a lot of people this that I actually tried to kind of engage people to see how, you know, did you go to see this?
[00:27:33] Did you go to the NN people like, no, it's on 26th floor, I'm not going. And like, oh god, you missed out all this fantastic programming, which is why I'm thrilled for those people who are going
[00:27:42] to get the first time, at least we're on that's why I was saying you're like, it's an organized thing that has worked for a decade where you, you know, there's a mean theater and on the same floor, you have all the rest of the facilities. So you can just very easily to move around.
[00:27:54] I think that's key when you look at if you've been to the Bally's convention, which I did not attend unfortunately, if you went to Star Trek Mission Chicago, the venues were laid out where there was a lot of walking back and forth to get things done.
[00:28:07] Not that you're not going to get your steps in because you will get some steps in at this convention, but realistically all the three stages are relatively close to each other where it's during one panel, you can get up and hop around and go to all three for a brief moment without losing your breath or needing a break along the way.
[00:28:26] Yeah, having said that so the problem out there's a lot to see and do in the hallways there. In the past even after they.
[00:28:32] Creation lost the license there was the enterprise bridge, which I don't think it was called the enterprise bridge, but we have seen photo ops with the performers there.
[00:28:41] Oddly enough three months that we don't see that on the schedule right now, so I'm not sure if the bridge will be there.
[00:28:46] There's been the ten four weeks set where you can get photo ops with some of the talent.
[00:28:50] So it'll be interesting to see what's there. There's always something new and exciting little pop up.
[00:28:54] A lot of this usage of the venue that's available to creation, it all depends on what kind of scheduling they have occasionally they try to add some of the rooms and sometimes they remove them like.
[00:29:05] Once we were in Rio for some years, there was definitely demand for you know a quiet room quotation marks basically a place where you can and.
[00:29:14] Especially those people who do tend to be you know a little bit uneasy with a lot of you know big crowds, a lot of noise, a lot of lights.
[00:29:22] You know there is a space where you can actually go to kind of like relax for a little bit or if you have small children with you that's certainly is a useful place to go to skits kind of like.
[00:29:29] You know the kids get a little bit too frazzled.
[00:29:32] Are we going to have something like this? Do they have all the usual spaces actually booked for the convention this year?
[00:29:38] We simply don't know at the stage because we don't have it's far too early to know we don't have the maps or anything else yet.
[00:29:43] But I'm sure we'll let some point and I'm really looking hopeful you know hopefully that we have you know things basically back as you know as close as they possibly were before the pandemic hopefully before the ball is at least.
[00:29:56] Absolutely.
[00:30:00] So yeah like we said looking at that there's the next big part of the layout is the vendors room which to hold to last as if it's not a big part of the convention is definitely not true.
[00:30:10] So Marina tell us a little bit about what people can expect to the vendors room who've never been to this convention before.
[00:30:16] But it's a nice place to check out stuff because you have a combination of both licensed that.
[00:30:24] So you will definitely see some like the weight team or fence sets and vendors who tend to the sort of people you probably will see at a comic on we have like a little bit of everything and it's all the collectibles.
[00:30:37] Newer collectibles you sort of like have everything arranged.
[00:30:41] And then you can figure some plates and pins and what have you and it's a fun place to just check out because you can find really nice deals you can come across some collectible that.
[00:30:51] You know maybe you've never even seen you haven't been on sale anywhere for decades for you know and yet you'll be walking through and there it is on the table and you might you know get it at a token then to them be super super happy.
[00:31:04] And then of course vendors room is also used as sort of you know part of well active experience because those actors who have their own tables that's where they will have.
[00:31:16] They'll that that's whether we'll be located usually against the wall they tend to separate and discover people tend to sit all together they change you people tend to sit all together.
[00:31:24] So you're going to have like mostly against the walls of the bat on the left and on the right hand side of the vendor room you will have tables of actors that you would just go up and you know grab a lot of graph do a selfie whatever it is that you're planning to do.
[00:31:39] Everybody who has their own table is identified on the convention website so check it out if you want to know who's actually going to be in the vendor room versus doing.
[00:31:47] official or graphing sessions or official photo ops sessions through creation and it's of the vendor room you know that's one of the reasons why I find the prestations so much fun.
[00:31:58] And then you know that it really is part of my own convention experience very much so exactly because I can go in and just be immersed right from the get go before the convention actually officially started.
[00:32:12] And yeah t-shirts sign things for those who are looking actually for something to sign you can probably find like an action figure or maybe a.
[00:32:21] You know ship model or something else.
[00:32:23] A by tens now there is a space creation will have a separate photo table with eight by ten photographs available of everybody who's attending the convention.
[00:32:33] So you can grab it there.
[00:32:35] something to be said, the actors who do have their own tables in the vendors room will have a selection of their own.
[00:32:41] And so if there is some role of theirs that is not Star Trek that you might be interested in,
[00:32:46] they would probably be the only ones who might have something like that.
[00:32:49] Perfect and John, where are the highlights of the vendors room for you?
[00:32:52] Well, what I think the vendors room, I think of really three different kinds of things that you'll see
[00:32:57] and Maria touched on some of this. So you'll have people who are selling essentially collectibles slash like old stuff.
[00:33:04] You know, so if you're looking for a certain playmates action figure that came out in 1996,
[00:33:09] like there's somebody who might be selling that there or their selling toys from the 80s or
[00:33:14] who knows what. You'll have other vendors that are selling newer stuff like brand new stuff.
[00:33:19] So you might have like the Star Trek, so you might have the Star Trek, why is people or the Star Trek
[00:33:23] crews people or people who are current licensees selling new things like books and so forth?
[00:33:30] You may also have fan-run organizations that are having tables there, so like maybe like a Star Trek on
[00:33:36] line group might have a table or the local USS Las Vegas fan club might have a table.
[00:33:42] I don't know if they're going to be there this year that they usually are. There's a
[00:33:45] cling-on group that's there sometimes or like some of the LGBTQ groups will have a thing.
[00:33:49] And then there's also vendors that I would describe as people who were just taken a flyer,
[00:33:55] meaning that they're not even doing any sci-fi or fantasy stuff. They just bought a table at the Star Trek
[00:33:59] and they might be selling jewelry or knives or just weird stuff that has nothing to do with anything,
[00:34:04] but they're there. And yeah, there was an iPhone case vendor one year. I mean you never know what
[00:34:11] you're going to find. It's really weird stuff. I remember one year there was a credit union
[00:34:16] that was trying to sign people up for accounts. You never know what you're going to get in the
[00:34:20] vendors room. One thing I hope that we don't see this year is that there was at least one
[00:34:26] arena is much more better with this stuff than I am with the recollecting of things. But
[00:34:30] there was one year where they actually had to split the vendors room at a two different rooms.
[00:34:33] And I think that the vendors who were in that secondary room, which was much smaller,
[00:34:37] did not get the foot traffic, which was kind of a great thing to have a lot of vendors. But
[00:34:43] those that were in that other room, they kind of didn't get as much exposure as the people
[00:34:47] who were in the main room. Yeah, that was the one that I was the 50th anniversary. And the main reason
[00:34:51] was that there was not enough room for them because we had this huge Mac, I don't know what to call
[00:34:57] this thing. This giant round podium that they had to advertise Star Trek themed Mac product.
[00:35:03] And because of that they had to move the vendors and the the signers into other rooms. So we
[00:35:09] had actually the one I think they were two rooms where some of the vendors and some of the
[00:35:14] signings were sitting. And of course, yeah, a lot of people did not realize that that was the case.
[00:35:19] They just thought one of a few vendors because some of the big guns took up the space.
[00:35:24] But yeah, that only happened one year. And thankfully, you know, the well, no, we had fantastic
[00:35:29] celebration don't get me wrong on 50th. But the following year, things went back to the usual
[00:35:33] vendors were layout, which is just one vendor room and you don't have any kind of like little
[00:35:37] secondary things other rooms were taken up by exhibits or other things.
[00:35:41] I'll add for the vendors room too that it's set up almost like a flea market. And that everybody
[00:35:47] has a booth and there's you name it. It's in there. But for me, I often find myself skipping
[00:35:52] panels and meandering around the vendors room for the 30th time. The merchandise doesn't change.
[00:35:57] But there's so much stuff in this room that you can miss it if you're not paying attention. So
[00:36:03] it's really it's easy to get lost in the vendors room and just get over one with the stuff.
[00:36:08] So definitely take your time. You're full of the week. Absolutely. What's more, I always, yeah,
[00:36:13] always suspect that there's who knows. Maybe, which of the other that came in. Maybe some
[00:36:17] unpack boxes still that they have somewhere on the table. Maybe this 20th time that I'm passing by
[00:36:23] maybe they will put out something that I haven't seen before. It hasn't happened yet. But I'm kind
[00:36:28] of always hopeful because you never know what you're going to find. Another useful thing about vendors
[00:36:33] room is you must stuff by on Sunday because that things were starting to wrap up and that's when
[00:36:41] the vendors whatever is remaining will start to offer discounts. Obviously it's easy for them to
[00:36:47] to sell more things rather than to wrap up everything they have and pack it up and move it onto
[00:36:53] whichever other next event that they go into. So definitely stop by on Sunday for some discounted
[00:37:00] things. Absolutely. So physically, we've talked about most of the layout. The only other area
[00:37:06] and we're not going to talk about it too much now because we'll be talking about this a little bit
[00:37:09] more detail is the photo op area. It's a room that's set aside where they do photo ops. We'll talk
[00:37:16] about what the photo op experience looks like and we're autographed a click in just a bit. But
[00:37:20] the next big chunk of our podcast this evening is talking about this schedule, something that
[00:37:25] it's the content for the convention. So Marina, I'm going to let you pick this off because I know
[00:37:30] you are a planner. So the first question I ask is when does the schedule come out? We're 94
[00:37:36] days away. We can get expect to see this thing at least a month out ahead of time, right?
[00:37:40] Yep. Now, well, the generic answer is roughly within a week before the convention starts.
[00:37:45] Now, realistically it's highly dependent on on a year because we've had quite quite a few,
[00:37:51] I don't know, well, the pandemic really threw in a wrench. So realistically, you can be as close
[00:37:58] as couple of days before the convention start. It could be as well. We everybody's already mostly
[00:38:03] in, well, not everybody. But the bulk of the people who are coming like the tear tickets are probably
[00:38:08] already in the city and we still don't have the schedule. I mean, last year was very last moment.
[00:38:14] The I definitely was already in Las Vegas and then, you know, like, oh, finally, this we have
[00:38:19] the we had their mind version of it. They didn't have time to actually print it properly. So
[00:38:24] but I'm pretty sure that the last year and the year before a sort of like stand out some kind of
[00:38:29] again, I'm hopeful that things this year will be a little bit, um, I don't know, more like things
[00:38:34] were before the pandemic where yeah, within roughly a week to a couple of days before the convention
[00:38:40] start, you will have either PDF or an Excel version on a posted on the website and then once you
[00:38:45] arrive at the company, you have a nice printed booklet which a lot of people keep as collectibles
[00:38:50] or use for signings when they're at the convention. So we have a four-day event. So all this schedule
[00:38:56] is precisely the those days, you know, the pre-registration is just mentioned as the hours in that schedule.
[00:39:03] And different days have different different schedules very much. I mean, you can start as late as,
[00:39:08] I mean, what's the latest start we've had probably like maybe 11-12 on the day? Well,
[00:39:13] that was mostly for the years where we had five days. So, you know, the first day would be a little bit
[00:39:17] sort of like not half a day but you would start later. Normally it starts around nine. I think sad
[00:39:23] at a being the earliest we have things happening close to occasionally you have very early panels
[00:39:28] like around the 30 or something. But typically it's around nine o'clock, nine, 10 and then
[00:39:34] end of the official hours is around between five and six and then of course, you know, you have
[00:39:40] we have the days where we have late events. So we have the get on Saturday and we have a back on Sunday.
[00:39:47] Otherwise everything that happens after hours on the convention days tends to be finalized
[00:39:51] events and they're planning. Perfect. And John, do you know the schedules? I didn't attend last
[00:39:56] year. But I know in years past they've had the printed schedule. They've had an app. Was that,
[00:40:01] did they do that last year? I don't recall if they had an app in particular last year. I know they've
[00:40:07] done it at certain times. And one of the good things about when they've had the app is that
[00:40:13] when there's been changes. They did it. Okay, so they did have it last year. But when they've had
[00:40:17] changes, you were able to see it right away which was great. You get some people who plan this
[00:40:23] thing out like the Normandy Beach landings and they've got this whole thing laid out. One of the
[00:40:27] problems that you're just going to have to contend with is that some of the people who are coming
[00:40:31] to this thing are working talent and it's in all of their contracts that if they get a call
[00:40:36] up for a job, they're gone. They gotta do that. So there are going to be changes in the schedule.
[00:40:40] So you gotta kind of be flexible with that. And you know it's always just a point in, you know,
[00:40:44] to hear people say things like, oh, I wanted to go to see Carl Urban. I fall all the way to Vegas
[00:40:50] and it turns out that he had to go for a job and he wasn't there. You know, when people got very
[00:40:55] disappointed. So that kind of stuff happens. It's very sad. So you know, just to understand that
[00:41:01] that can happen and don't get your heart set on any particular working talents being there.
[00:41:06] It's not limited to less Vegas. It's like never plan. And your convention experience around this
[00:41:11] single actor, because that's that's a recipe for disaster. You know, you have to be a little
[00:41:18] bit of no longer a simple comprehensive, you know, like, oh, I see everybody. No, but you know,
[00:41:23] those, especially if you have a long way to go to Vegas and coming for just a single actor,
[00:41:29] it's very, very risky. You know, with definitely not recommend coming for a single single
[00:41:35] guest, especially to that I'll say in 2021, whatever the first convention was after the pandemic,
[00:41:42] there were a lot of changes right up until the very last minute. I mean, especially if you were
[00:41:47] one of those gold ticket holders, I think maybe a quarter of the autographs were changed within a week.
[00:41:53] A few of them, like, literally during the convention. But creation does a very good job of trying to
[00:41:59] communicate this. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. If you're in the main theater, it'll be broadcast on the
[00:42:04] big, I'm talking with my hands that doesn't do any good. If you're in the main theater,
[00:42:08] it'll be broadcast on the big screens. And if you're not, I think follow in creation on Twitter.
[00:42:13] They do a very good job of tweeting updates in real time. So they sometimes struggle with
[00:42:19] communication, but in this avenue, I think following them on Twitter is definitely something that
[00:42:23] is worth doing if you're going to the convention. Yeah. The other way, if you don't use the app
[00:42:28] and you're not following on Twitter is their posting updates like in the lobby on your way in.
[00:42:34] That's about it. Yeah. Yeah. And I still see people going into the theater and being like,
[00:42:42] oh, I'm here for panel X, Y, or Z. They're like, oh, that was canceled two days ago.
[00:42:46] And they're just finding out. So that's always disappointing. So stay on top of it folks.
[00:42:52] So looking at this schedule, like we said a lot of the panels won't come out until a week before
[00:42:56] hand, but we do get a lot of information on some of the larger events that we already know
[00:43:01] are happening. So things like the Saturday night gala, which we've kind of talked about,
[00:43:05] is that something that you folks, you've been to these conventions a lot more than I have.
[00:43:10] John, what has been your experience with the gala? Is it something that if you're,
[00:43:14] if you don't have that gold captains or copper ticket, if you're going jail like you are
[00:43:18] spending the $65 to go to the gala typically? So I have been to the gala before and I think this
[00:43:25] is similar to something I talked about before, which is as I've gone to the convention over the
[00:43:30] years, my convention experience has changed a little bit. So it used to be that I was in for
[00:43:36] whatever was going on. So I needed to have my day booked with convention events. And so I was
[00:43:41] looking for the gala, I was going to the rat pack, I was going to all the things that the creation
[00:43:46] had provided. And I enjoyed it and I thought they were all great. And if it's your first second
[00:43:49] third, fourth, fifth time and please go to those things. You will enjoy them and have a ball.
[00:43:55] One of the things that I've noticed with a lot of convention attendees is that the more they go to
[00:43:59] STLE or the Comic Conzer, any convention really, is that you sort of fall in with a crowd. And then
[00:44:05] you start getting invited to these fan events or room parties or going out to dinner with other
[00:44:09] people or they're putting on a special event or you're a member of a fan group that's going to
[00:44:14] have a special event. And so I found that my evenings tended to be booked up with other things
[00:44:19] that were not in the convention schedule. They were things where people invited me. And so and sometimes
[00:44:25] those things, I was already stacked double and triple booked on a Saturday night with people
[00:44:30] having different events, especially on the big nights like Friday Saturday. So I have gone less to
[00:44:35] those things as time has gone on. So I tend not to go to any of the extras. And that's why I'm more
[00:44:42] of a general ticket go over this year. I'm going to go for all the days of the convention but
[00:44:45] I'm not going to go to the Gala or any of those, any of that stuff anymore. Typically because I just
[00:44:50] got some other thing that I'm invited to. And Marina, where do your thoughts on my Gala?
[00:44:56] Yeah. Older fans. What it is to be honest, the most frequent guest sort of speaking at the
[00:45:04] guest in quotation marks has been Nevada pop's orchestra. They actually play the music from various
[00:45:11] Star Trek series and movies. And they're often you have invited conductors who are the actual
[00:45:17] composers of the sad music. So we've had Dennis McCarthy, we've had Rousseau, we had, you know,
[00:45:22] it's actually quite amazing. There it is. That's the person who actually wrote this,
[00:45:28] conducting this in front of you. It's an amazing experience. Having said that I have to agree with
[00:45:32] John and I'm kind of been the same way. There are certain things that I stopped attending some years ago.
[00:45:37] Gala is a little bit different because again, it depends what it is. And we've had some
[00:45:42] variability to them. We've had one year when we had Anthony Rapsing and Gosh, who else joined him
[00:45:49] on stage. It was different. It was different from the usual just purely Star Trek music.
[00:45:56] We've had probably out of the sort of unusual ones. My favorite probably was Star Trek does Broadway.
[00:46:02] This is 2014 I want to say something thereabouts ages ago. That was tremendous because we've
[00:46:08] actually had songs from various Broadway musicals sung by those of the more musical of our actors.
[00:46:14] So Bob Piccardo was there. James Darren was there. She's Master, she did amazing, you know,
[00:46:19] speaking of she's Master and an amazing version of all that jazz that probably heard. But things like
[00:46:25] that rare. They haven't announced yet what we're going to have this year. In particular,
[00:46:30] I suspect it might be pops again. Simply because that's probably the most straightforward thing to
[00:46:35] arrange. But who knows, you know, maybe it's going to be Tim Ross and his band. You know, those guys
[00:46:40] are incredible. So we'll see, I something I need to point out because this comes up
[00:46:46] every single year when people ask, well, what exactly is the Gala? Gala is just a fancy name for it.
[00:46:52] It literally is just a concert, an evening performance. There is no dinner component to it.
[00:46:56] It's not, you don't have anything. You don't have to dress up for it. It's not, you know,
[00:47:00] like it's not a black tie that. So it's just a very nice musical evening performance that
[00:47:07] the configuration throws every year. And we'll see, I'm actually looking again, like pretty much
[00:47:12] everything about this year's convention, seeing how we're seeing the last two to Rio. I'm curious
[00:47:17] to see what they can announce. You know, I suspect it's going to be another symphonic concert,
[00:47:23] but maybe that who knows? You hit the nail round the head too as far as the entire goes.
[00:47:30] Gala, it sounds really fancy. If you're there in a t-shirt, ms shorts, you'll be in great company.
[00:47:36] You know, there are people in cosplay. There are people who do dress up. But I think that is very
[00:47:40] much to my nor any. It's a very informal, all of the events of this convention are very informal. So come
[00:47:46] as your dress. Absolutely. Yeah. We talked about the wrap pack. I don't know if either of you have any
[00:47:53] more to add to that event. I will just say that that the wrap pack for me is one of my favorite
[00:47:58] ways to close the convention down. It's just fun. It's lighthearted and it's really entertaining.
[00:48:03] All right, the main move on to karaoke. karaoke is held twice throughout the convention.
[00:48:08] Thursday night by Dominic Keating and Conor Trinier. Friday right now they've announced
[00:48:13] Robert O'Reilly typically. I think he's joined by JG Herksler as well. I'll be honest,
[00:48:18] I've never attended karaoke. So do either of you have the pipes to stand up and sing for
[00:48:23] karaoke? Have you ever participated a jump? I have been to the karaoke. I would not
[00:48:29] subject anyone to my singing, but the one thing I just want to say about karaoke, just for
[00:48:35] all the Star Trek fans out there which of course you are if you're listening to this,
[00:48:38] which is every time faith of the heart comes on, the crowd goes wild and nobody. And I mean,
[00:48:44] nobody is upset or annoyed or walks out. Everybody loves it every single time and of story.
[00:48:53] Oh, and by the way, and Marina, please check me on this. I don't actually believe you need to
[00:48:57] tick it to go to karaoke. I think it's free to everybody. I believe so. Yeah, it's one of the
[00:49:01] sedents sort of like, you know, yeah, just show up and enjoy it. And I have to have to admit,
[00:49:08] I am not a karaoke person at all. And this is one event that in my 13 years,
[00:49:13] I have never attended even once. Friends who are completely gone over, there was one year where
[00:49:17] I'm assuming that with some sort of schedule issues, you know what? It's going to be just one karaoke
[00:49:22] Thursday and fans rose, you know, raised a whole lot of stink about it online and they said,
[00:49:27] okay, I guess we're having two karaoke again. So but no, unfortunately, no personal experience.
[00:49:34] I know it's one of the enjoyable parts and more power to if this is your thing definitely
[00:49:39] go because again, it's yet another fan experience during this wonderful event. And speaking of
[00:49:43] events you don't need to tick it for, there's a movie screening that was announced this year.
[00:49:48] Creation sent an email out back. I want to say in February, maybe asking people to vote
[00:49:54] as to what movie they'd like to see screened and looks like Star Trek 4th of Voyage Home,
[00:49:57] the one with the whales, one. So this is going to be something that's exciting. They haven't
[00:50:01] announced when it will be screening yet, but a convention pass is not required to attend this.
[00:50:07] They've done this in the past. Did either of you attend in 2021? They did Galaxy Quest
[00:50:13] Anthony Montgomery doing commentary. One of the very best Star Trek films. How could you miss it so much
[00:50:18] fun, so much fun? Yes. So I don't believe this is going to happen. I had one of those
[00:50:26] conflicts which John mentioned that. Yeah. But it should be still fun, even though we've seen this
[00:50:33] that I don't know, a hundred times probably. It is one of my favorite movies with the original series
[00:50:38] get passed. There is something about sitting in the big room filled with other Star Trek fans
[00:50:45] and just watching this. And it doesn't matter which, you know, whatever it is that you're watching.
[00:50:50] It's still, it's so much fun to do this with other people. So yeah, definitely. If I don't have any
[00:50:56] any conflicts with other things that might be invited to, I'm probably going to go.
[00:51:01] Perfect. It is. It's fun. It's just watching these shows with other truck fans. You're
[00:51:06] all going to get the inside jokes. It's just it's a whole different experience. Let leads us into
[00:51:11] the cosplay contest, which is being held Saturday. I have not been a big cosplayer. It's something
[00:51:18] I would love to do. I don't have the talent for it. But John, I know you have done cosplay in the past.
[00:51:24] Have you participated in the cosplay contest? Absolutely not nor will I. And that is not anything
[00:51:31] against the people who do that. But I just want to say you have to think about what your
[00:51:35] convention experience is and what you wanted to be. Those who go to the cosplay contest as
[00:51:43] people who want to participate in the contest, what you have to acknowledge is that your
[00:51:49] Saturday is going to be spent waiting in lines and not being at the convention doing convention
[00:51:54] things. It takes a lot of time throughout the day. There's a lot of pre-judging and a lot of
[00:52:00] other stuff that goes on. So being in the cosplay contest takes a lot of time out of the convention
[00:52:07] for you. Whereas if you just want to go to like the final judging and see people in the outfits
[00:52:13] and whatever, that's great. Absolutely you should do that. If you enjoy seeing the creativity
[00:52:17] to people bring to that stuff and you want to go and celebrate that, you should. It's a great
[00:52:21] time. But for me when I do a cosplay and I've done some fairly elaborate things, I just want to
[00:52:27] go and be seen by people and interact with them because I tend to play a character like it's not
[00:52:31] just drawn in a costume. I tend to do a stick. So I want to go do that and that's what I want my
[00:52:37] experience to be and going out and getting my picture taken with people and hammered it up
[00:52:41] and having a good time. I do not like my convention experience to be standing in lines, which is why
[00:52:47] I tend not to do the cosplay contest and I tend not to be a photo up guy or an autograph guy. Because
[00:52:52] that to me is just too much standing in lines and waiting around. And that's not for me. If you like
[00:52:56] that stuff, it's great. No judgment. I'm not saying anything bad about that. It's just that
[00:53:00] I like to be social and be talking to the other people and doing this stuff. So you have to think
[00:53:04] very carefully about that because I've talked to some of the people who've been in the contest
[00:53:07] and especially people with their first time they're like, I had no idea what was going to be that long.
[00:53:11] They were going to be locked in a room doing the pre- judging and all that stuff. So
[00:53:15] it's all about what you want to go to the convention for, what you want your experience to be
[00:53:19] think deliberately about that and then go have maximum fun and just go in knowing what you're
[00:53:23] getting into. I could not agree more. What's more, I have some of the friends who are coming
[00:53:27] to conventions and it's not limited to Vegas. Strictly to do cosplay like cosplay, capital C
[00:53:33] that's all they do throughout the entire event. They don't do go to any panels. They don't do
[00:53:38] too many autographs actually probably not. Oh no autographs. Maybe some photo ops especially
[00:53:43] if they cost playing somebody who's a play to character that they're cost playing. But otherwise
[00:53:48] it's everything about actually having this experience with the costumes that they have created.
[00:53:55] Again, it's just one way of experiencing the convention. I've never cosplayed anything beyond
[00:54:00] uniforms and I actually stopped after the 50th anniversary because unfortunately I gained weight so
[00:54:05] I have to kind of beat myself back into shape and probably go back to it because I do enjoy my
[00:54:10] words or uniform a lot. So that is actually something that would not qualify. The cosplay contest
[00:54:17] at STLV is a rather elaborate affair. It is something that you can just buy a costume and
[00:54:23] think that you will get through pre-judging. They actually very strict about how you made it.
[00:54:29] What you made it out of, you have to have like a whole story about the thing that you created.
[00:54:33] And then yeah, if you do get through pre-judging and go on the stage, the judges will ask you about it.
[00:54:38] Did you make it yourself? How did you make it? What did you meet out of? They might
[00:54:42] call you up and actually ask for specifics about whatever feature of your costume.
[00:54:46] So cosplay contest, yeah for those who are just watching it, it's pure pleasure because
[00:54:50] it's fun to see the interaction between the folks who come out on the stage and the judges.
[00:54:54] And then of course yeah, you know, it's fun to see like who's going to win. We see some
[00:54:59] pretty incredible costumes out there.
[00:55:02] Fabulous. And then the last event that they mentioned on the website are auctions.
[00:55:07] I will say, I remember my first convention really it was excited for these. I'm like this is going to be
[00:55:13] great opportunity to bid on some screen-used items. Not necessarily the case. These are creation
[00:55:19] options. So you're seeing a lot of autographs going up. John Marina have either of you ever
[00:55:25] participated in the auction bid on any of the auction items? Yes. When I just started going,
[00:55:31] I thought it was easy. Same deal, I thought it looked maybe I will score some amazing piece
[00:55:36] for my colliding. And then I realized that well, some of the things I would not, it was just something
[00:55:40] that I was not interested in because I simply, I don't watch actually as much television,
[00:55:45] you know, beyond stuff, stuff, trick, I suppose. So yeah, creation will have a whole packet of,
[00:55:51] you know, like a combination of signed aid by tens from other series that they have
[00:56:00] connections for. So supernatural and vampire diaries and zina, that sort of thing. So yeah,
[00:56:05] if you're enjoying those things, it's a fantastic way to score like a whole packet, you know,
[00:56:09] like 10, 12, 15, yeah, well not 15. I'm exaggerating. Okay, so 12 to 20 maybe, you know,
[00:56:15] like a little packs of signed aid by tens by actors from a given series. I enjoy seeing
[00:56:22] banners. This is something that creation still does auction off. And that's the banner that
[00:56:26] they used to have as decorations, which if you do have an actor who's picture on there. So for
[00:56:33] example, you know, shatterners banners come up pretty often. And if William Shatterners at the
[00:56:36] convention and you win that auction for that banner, you actually have the ticket, the autograph
[00:56:41] ticket included with it so you can go to front of the line along with the VIPs of folks with mobility
[00:56:45] issues. And actually get your giant banners signed by William Shatternet during his autographing session.
[00:56:50] Occasionally did you get stuff something they call, you know, either things from creation's wall
[00:56:54] or run, run varies wall where something will come up where I don't know, somebody somewhere
[00:56:59] presumably opened the box and discovered, you know, those, uh, spocked the counters for example,
[00:57:03] something that was produced way back in the 80s I believe. And they no longer be installed. You can
[00:57:08] probably just only find them on eBay. And they will auction off a couple. There was one year where
[00:57:13] they did have, uh, Nemoys ears nicely framed in a, you know, nice little shadow box. I think
[00:57:20] those went for several thousands of dollars. So participating is an operative word, you know,
[00:57:25] it's fun to kind of sit down and see what people come up with. You know, are you going to actually win
[00:57:31] anything? That I don't know. I guess it depends on what you can afford. Last year, I actually got
[00:57:37] lucky. I managed to win a very nice 9 photo of, uh, Major Barrett, not in costume. It was just a nice
[00:57:47] headshot of hers. And the only reason that this happened is again because the room where they had it,
[00:57:52] and I don't remember if it was the secondary of the tertiary stage, it was on 264. There weren't
[00:57:57] that many people. I got the who actually showed up for the auction. So I got lucky. Because I'm sure
[00:58:03] a lot of people would have been interested in a lovely photo. So, um, yeah, generally I just go to kind
[00:58:08] of like to see what comes up and I don't know. It's just fun to see somebody else kind of get the item
[00:58:13] and be incredibly excited about it, which is always very evident. So again, just another part of
[00:58:19] the convention experience. So moving on to our next big topic, something very important to a lot of
[00:58:23] us myself included is food. Where are we eating during this convention? Um, just to look at the general
[00:58:30] layout, there are according to their websites, 13 restaurants at the Rio, eight restaurants at
[00:58:36] the Gold Coast right across the street and a brand new shopping center right across the street
[00:58:40] from the Gold Coast, all in which within walking distance. Um, if you're like me, I love
[00:58:44] Doritash and Rubhub. Um, I'll do a Walmart run when I get there. But just kind of round Robin,
[00:58:50] what do you guys do for food during the convention? John, I'm going to start with you because you're
[00:58:54] a local and you might know some of your places better than anyone. Sure. And so I'm actually
[00:59:00] this is an area where I'm trying to save money on my convention experience. I'm not really interested
[00:59:05] in spending money on the strip. Um, now it used to be at the Rio that with a locals ID and with a
[00:59:11] total rewards card, I got a discount at some of these places. But even then I still wasn't spending
[00:59:16] a lot of money in the restaurants. So typically what I do is I will go to the Smiths, which is
[00:59:23] our local grocery store here, which is actually Croger if people know what that is the same thing,
[00:59:26] but it just locally it's called Smiths, but it's Croger. And I will buy and put in my fridge in
[00:59:31] the room, which all the rooms in the Rio had fridges. Is I will bring my own breakfast and lunch
[00:59:36] every day. And so when you see me running around the convention, I usually have a little back
[00:59:41] pack on and my lunches in there in a little, uh, lunch box. And so I'm usually watching like the
[00:59:49] auctions that we just talked about and all that stuff, like in the back, like nibbling on my yogurt
[00:59:54] and a sandwich or whatever it is that I choose to bring with me. So I'm not going out for breakfast
[00:59:59] at hash house. I'm not going for lunch at any of those places. I'm bringing all of that and just
[01:00:06] spending one big amount of money at the grocery store and then eating all of that. Now,
[01:00:13] typically go out for dinner at night. Usually with a group or you know, one of my groups of friends
[01:00:18] or I have an event that I bought a ticket for, whether it's a creation provided event or something
[01:00:23] I'm doing on my own or with a group. And so I'm going out that way. So that's what I'm doing.
[01:00:30] I even enjoyed some of the food at the Rio from time to time, but they used to have the Indian
[01:00:34] restaurant. I don't know if it's still there anymore. I've eaten there. I've eaten at Guy Fieri's place
[01:00:39] also good. If I just really didn't have a place to go and didn't have an event, I used to just go
[01:00:43] to that American restaurant that was right there in the casino and just eat at the bar there
[01:00:48] and just strike up conversations with the people around me. So always had a great time.
[01:00:52] There's lots of food available. One thing that I remember used to be a pretty decent value,
[01:00:59] not as good a value as the tertiary theater was the sports bar, the sports pub had a little
[01:01:07] cafeteria kind of place that you could get something that was reasonably priced like if you
[01:01:10] want to slice a pizza in a soda, that's where you could go. If they didn't have what you wanted
[01:01:14] at the Jimmie's place. So I don't know how that's going to be this year. There's been a lot of changes
[01:01:18] at the Rio. So we'll have to see if any of that is still there. So that's kind of what I did.
[01:01:24] The grocery store is right up the road at Flingo Indicator. It's a really close
[01:01:30] Uber lift if you want to do that or if you want to go to Walmart, you can get of course anything you
[01:01:34] want there and also if you want to buy yourself some alcohol and save money that way you can't
[01:01:40] hear in Las Vegas. We don't have blue laws if people know what those are. So grocery stores sell
[01:01:45] beer-widen liquor and then includes Walmart and all the regular grocery stores as well.
[01:01:49] They don't shut that stuff down unless a particular store chooses to. They can, but that's
[01:01:55] that can be sold legally 24, 7, 3, 6, 5 here. So you can save some money if that's what you want to do
[01:02:00] by going to the store and that's what I do. In my days it's sort of a combination of saving and
[01:02:09] I don't know. Being as efficient with my time while I'm at the convention, I'm not sure
[01:02:16] of that's the right way to describe it. Basically once I arrived to Las Vegas I normally hopefully
[01:02:22] get an early check in at Rio which is where I will be staying this year as well and then I normally
[01:02:29] head out, well me and my sister normally we would head out to the strip to do whatever whether we
[01:02:34] go into a gallery somewhere or going to a museum or meeting up with friends for lunch, whatever
[01:02:38] and once we're done we normally would stop by either Walmart or Walgreens or elsewhere and
[01:02:43] stuck up on bananas and your job goods and juices and what we have. And that's going to be
[01:02:51] really that plus using Starbucks that we have actually two Starbucks in Rio, that's going to be the
[01:02:57] main thing that we would have like I normally when I go to the convention I don't leave the convention
[01:03:02] floor unless I have something specific with schedule and I haven't had that in all these years.
[01:03:06] So by the time the five six o'clock comes around and then finally done with the convention
[01:03:12] that's when actually would have any kind of outside food otherwise I will have you know my little
[01:03:16] bag inside my backpack that would have my juice and my banana I don't know the croissant that
[01:03:21] I wrapped up in the morning and I was just you know even my groceries during the day after hours that's
[01:03:27] when you know I'm no longer saving money that's when I'm going to actually go out and have a nice
[01:03:32] dinner someplace in a nice restaurant on strip or if there is a meetup that's arranged elsewhere
[01:03:37] in the hotel or in the neighboring hotel I will do and take and whatever is available there.
[01:03:43] So that's kind of like a sort of a cadule thing is a saving time saving money saving
[01:03:48] thing during the convention hours and then actually going out and having you know fun and unhealthy
[01:03:52] meals elsewhere in the city. Having said that you know I can recommend some very nice restaurants
[01:03:58] out there on the strip that are fantastic but it is something that really is you're not
[01:04:03] you're not going to do that during the convention hours because they're simply no time to do so.
[01:04:08] So my recommendation is definitely to look into some groceries at least you know like water
[01:04:12] and some basic things because it does save time and money if you kind of have that because
[01:04:19] you know the little shop that we have in Rio everything that they selling there the sodas and
[01:04:23] everything is kind of overpriced unless you like you really will strap what time and you just
[01:04:28] need it now then it makes that otherwise you know before before the convention starts make sure
[01:04:33] to stop by grocery store. Having said that I have to bring up something that the local Star Trek
[01:04:37] club, the USS Las Vegas arranges at least one normally two rides to Walmart.
[01:04:44] Ellie Ingman you know shout out she does a lot of stuff for STLV including a very nice
[01:04:51] basically a guide that she puts together with all the information about you know the foods and
[01:04:54] the medical stuff and the events happening. So she's the one who organizes this be sure to
[01:04:59] if you're on Facebook join one of the sister groups of Star Trek convention experiences and
[01:05:06] that is USS Rio because she would normally post the link advertising that this is when it
[01:05:11] is going to be a ride to Walmart and you can join in with a group of fellow fans and just stop by and
[01:05:16] you know stuck up on things with a week. One of my many saving tip I forgot to mention is
[01:05:23] and this might only be for me because I'm local I don't know if this makes sense for the people
[01:05:26] but I actually went out to the thrift store and I bought a small coffee maker a small drip coffee
[01:05:32] maker for five dollars that makes like four cups of regular coffee at a time and I bring that
[01:05:39] to the hotel with me and I make my own coffee in the morning and I buy those insulated cups with the
[01:05:46] lids and so even in the morning cycle drink three large coffee today. So I'm not spending any
[01:05:50] money at the Starbucks again because I don't want my convention experience to be by standing at lines
[01:05:55] and so this is a chance for like it to not stand in lines and save money. So I'm doing both of those
[01:06:00] things at the same time. I don't think it makes sense for other people to bring one of those
[01:06:02] little coffee makers but that's what I do. Oh Ed, that works actually perfectly and this act does
[01:06:07] come up because really used to have coffee makers in their rooms in their sweets and at some point
[01:06:12] I'm assuming there must have been something that happened. But there was like well for
[01:06:21] you know five protection, five security this isn't a lot you know coolers with refrigerators
[01:06:27] but the coffee makers are no more so you know I I don't know because I travel with a very limited
[01:06:34] luggage space I don't bring a little coffee maker with me but and I just get up really really early
[01:06:41] you know like like if you go up like 637 to clock there's usually nobody at Starbucks unless it's like
[01:06:47] people coming back from what I'm a really really really party but that's not the norm so usually
[01:06:52] I just go up really you know get up really early to get my coffee. I'm with John I own a coffee shop
[01:06:59] so coffee I will turn three cups of coffee before I leave the hotel room so you can get a five
[01:07:04] cup coffee maker warmer for 10 bucks and it is well worth it. You'll still see me in line of Starbucks
[01:07:10] because I like the ice coffee as well but you know be prepared that Vegas prices is not the same
[01:07:16] pricing as you have at home your Starbucks is almost double what you'll pay back home and the line
[01:07:23] is also going to be twice as long as you're used to that line for these Starbucks is crazy.
[01:07:28] Well let me just clarify that Ron Starbucks in the hotels is not the Starbucks that's out in the
[01:07:32] neighborhoods so it's it's very different it's just think of it like being you know Starbucks in the airport
[01:07:38] you know whatever city you're in it's not the same price that you would have out in the
[01:07:42] neighborhood. It's the same thing same thing is true here absolutely and to that point there is we
[01:07:48] mentioned the shopping center that opened right across the street from a gold coast a couple years ago
[01:07:52] in that shopping center which is within walking distance especially if you're at the gold
[01:07:56] coast if you're at the Rio it's not a bad walk there's a walkerines so if you can't make a right to
[01:08:02] warmer you can grab the case of water there it's going to be a walk back lugging that
[01:08:08] there's a Chick-fil-A and Del Taco a Denys on their fish taco place so there are affordable
[01:08:13] options right there as well one of my breakfast hacks because I love breakfast I like to
[01:08:18] think it's the best way to start the day being on East Coast time I'm usually up by 5 a.m.
[01:08:23] So Door Dash will deliver breakfast to the hotel and it's cheap it's fast I can get ready
[01:08:30] well it's being delivered it gets there I can watch a star trek on my iPad well and eating it
[01:08:34] make it down to the convention before anything starts but there's definitely ways out there to save
[01:08:39] some money and I'm with you both I think it's once your their Vegas has some incredible restaurants
[01:08:44] but we're all in convention mode so it's really hard to get away and do these really great
[01:08:49] dining experiences on the strip but yeah it's all how you choose to spend your convention.
[01:08:55] yeah so the last piece we're going to talk about on this episode is talking about photo
[01:09:01] wops and autographs something that I know I am a big fan of as both of them will start with
[01:09:07] photo ops and just kind of how exactly do photo ops work so Marina tell us how the creation
[01:09:14] photo ops work if I buy a ticket through creations website what does that look like.
[01:09:20] very straightforward thankfully it's a matter of fact it's not very unlike any other
[01:09:25] comic-on if you've ever been to a comic-on although it tends to be smaller simply because
[01:09:30] you know start your class Vegas is smaller compared to a typical comic-on.
[01:09:35] You saw you buy a ticket PDF or you buy one physical ticket at the door doesn't matter
[01:09:43] and quite literally just make sure to show up roughly about 15 minutes before your schedule time
[01:09:49] the official photo ops will be you know all outlined in the printed schedule and
[01:09:54] you know just queue up you can up and now I have to put like a little estrus here to
[01:09:59] to kind of like I will be talking about a one photo opera because that has been the norm
[01:10:03] all you know ever since as Sylvie started there was an interview that Gary Burman from creation
[01:10:09] did earlier this year actually sorry the time perception is a little bit off he did it last year
[01:10:15] what he was you know after the last year's convention was done where it was mentioned that
[01:10:18] this year is where he did it be the last he mentioned something along the line of possibly
[01:10:22] doing a second photo opera precisely because you know the photo op area in valleys was extremely
[01:10:27] strapped for space and people were standing on each other's heads you know it's a bit of a
[01:10:34] hyperbole but yeah it was extremely tired it wasn't working so they could kind of suggest it
[01:10:38] possibly they might be looking into two photo operas as it is we don't know if that's going to be
[01:10:42] the case maybe that's not going to be the case if they something changed but usually it's been one
[01:10:48] room so it's not like you're going to be lost somehow it's just one place that says photo
[01:10:53] ops on it and there's a sort of like a sneaking space for one out of tables where people just line
[01:10:58] up you go in there's a table with a staff member where you drop off your bags you go up
[01:11:03] and flash there you are and you have a couple of seconds usually just say you know hello how
[01:11:08] are you I love you but that's really if you can't have you know any kind of lengthy conversations
[01:11:12] or can't gifts or anything like this it's not exactly time of a place to to have lengthy interaction
[01:11:19] with the guests and that's it you know so you had the photo taken grab your bag and leave
[01:11:26] now photographer fantastic photographer the company that he travels with they usually will do some
[01:11:32] color correction and make sure that the photo is actually you know you don't see I don't know any
[01:11:38] wires or anything else that could be on the wall also on the floor so they will color correct
[01:11:42] and adjust the photo before getting it printed which is why we don't have instrument test
[01:11:46] utility it is something I know a lot of people wish for especially if you have people the guests
[01:11:52] signing almost exactly after the photo up where the hopes I guess opposed to have the photo to
[01:11:57] have it signed sadly for the most part that does not work and the biggest this way you will have
[01:12:02] roughly about an hour hour and a half before you get the photo in your hands there's normally
[01:12:06] an area set up in the backs of the this photo up room with big tables where they lay out the printed
[01:12:12] copies and you just you know getting there through a separate door who had your photo and go
[01:12:17] there is a way to get a jpeg of the photo and they will have printed directions available in
[01:12:22] that's the same tables and that's normally you know involves sending $10 to progress with the
[01:12:30] number and you know which event that you went through in this case started well yeah it's normally
[01:12:34] also email they sent you a link to a Google I almost said Google Docs sorry but basically
[01:12:41] they sent you the link to download the photos after the fact that's usually happens after the
[01:12:45] convention for that piece too I know I like the jpegs I think the quality is fantastic and they
[01:12:52] email out two copies of each picture typically they yeah they they sent out the original one so you
[01:12:58] can sometimes see that oh I actually I can see that the photographer probably leaned maybe
[01:13:03] to inches to the side so it's not exactly vertical which is why they corrected the photo
[01:13:07] and then you have the final version which is where it's color correct it and arrange suits actually
[01:13:15] looks like a nice printed e by 10 and a prototype for that typically at the end of the convention
[01:13:21] is when you'll hand in that paperwork to get the jpegs it's at the end of the convention and he's
[01:13:26] oh cash only so I actually usually yes if you present at the convention if you decide to get a jpeg
[01:13:33] afterwards you can just pay payl him it's more or I know I had one convention where I was actually
[01:13:42] done with photo ops earlier like so I stopped by on Saturday and they still took the the page for
[01:13:46] me but typically yet typically they prefer like once you definitely don't you have all the numbers
[01:13:49] which is the numbers usually printed on a 8 by 10 that's how you know it typically they do
[01:13:55] prefer that you stub by at the end with a little bit of cash and it's actually very reasonable
[01:14:02] I'd say out of the events that I normally attend the average tends to be 15 dollars and
[01:14:08] it creates this little charging you only ten for the jpegs but definitely save cash for the
[01:14:13] other convention I had when you were at nine photo ops I got to the end I was like I don't
[01:14:17] ever carry cash on it's like oh my gosh but the last thing you want to do is hit casino ATM
[01:14:22] machine because sometimes those fees are like ten dollars to use the 8 times there. John do you have
[01:14:27] any experiences doing the creation of photo ops? I will typically buy a photo up only if I want
[01:14:33] to directly support the talent if it's like one of the actors that I'm really a fan of. I'm not a
[01:14:40] big collector, I'm not a person that has like a huge Star Trek collection of things. I actually have
[01:14:46] very little stuff considering how long I've been a fan. I'm very judicious about what I
[01:14:50] spend money on in that regard so I will go and do a photo up just to say like you know once in
[01:14:57] a while or I tend to do more of the ones that are in the vendors room if it's just like someone who's
[01:15:03] setting up a thing and I just want to support them directly I don't do anything with those they
[01:15:09] just literally sit in my phone or in my in my photo library and it's just because I wanted to support
[01:15:15] the actor and just just be a part of that. I will say that like the photo up that I have the
[01:15:21] proudest of is it wasn't even paid for? It's when Ron Moore showed up to the Star Trek
[01:15:26] invention like 10 years ago and just walked into the vendors room and sat down at an empty table
[01:15:31] and was like does anyone want a photo or would have me sign anything and this immediate line
[01:15:36] and there was no handlers, this was not prepared he wasn't part of the convention he just showed
[01:15:41] and I was able to get a photo with him it's probably my most cherished one and even pay for it
[01:15:45] and so I think like I'll never get to that level again so I'm just I'm just not a photo up slash
[01:15:53] autograph guy that might think. So you did mention the vendors' photos so how how does that work
[01:15:59] how is that different from the creation photo opposite puts the how do those also proceed on?
[01:16:04] On one hand you have greater ease of getting it meaning it's not exactly scheduled you know
[01:16:10] when it's scheduled you kind of you know okay I'm gonna have a conflict right there and there is no
[01:16:15] way of like redoing it or anything you have to if you bought a photo up ticket you have to show
[01:16:20] up otherwise you just lost your money whereas with the vendors room the the actors set their own
[01:16:26] times and so they can be you know two hours there in the morning then have lunch and then spend you
[01:16:30] know another four hours there so you actually have much greater chance of catching them
[01:16:34] sometime when you don't have a conflict with with the autographing or with another panel over
[01:16:38] anything else you might be going so in that in that way it's a little bit easier. The sort of I
[01:16:44] suppose a little bit of a con of it is that if somebody else takes a photo and you know it doesn't
[01:16:50] come out very nice it's not a professional photo that sort of like could be a turner of what's
[01:16:55] some people. I actually I'm I love of the fact that can get selfies because that for me that's
[01:17:02] the perfect way to avoid conflicts when there's multiple things going on at once and I know for
[01:17:06] fact if I show up I don't know the falling dead 10 o'clock I can still catch the person and grab
[01:17:10] that selfie because I couldn't do a photo up any other time that it was scheduled. So it's sort of like
[01:17:15] it's it gives you another chance of of doing a photo with this person if you can do a photo up
[01:17:19] a some full for some reason. Another thing is of course the money the official photo
[01:17:23] ups tend to be more expensive than selfies you know you can get a selfie I don't know $40 maybe
[01:17:29] 60 that depends who it is not everybody does selfies I know that some of the people sitting in the
[01:17:36] I think 10 g tends to be just autographs but it depends. It has very years or years so like like
[01:17:43] like like like like here I definitely saw Jonathan Freaks doing both the official photo up
[01:17:48] and doing selfies in the independent bedroom. So just stop by the table and see you know
[01:17:52] is there a little note you know saying when they're gonna be there if not maybe ask the handler
[01:17:57] and there should be a little sign saying how much selfies are and you can sort of like between
[01:18:02] you know your times your schedule whatever you have and the money that you have you can actually
[01:18:06] see you know does it make sense to do the photo up the official photo up there is or just
[01:18:13] spring for selfie. I just want to say one of the things that surprised me the most was when Joan
[01:18:18] Collins came to the start track invention she didn't she set up a room table in the vendingis room
[01:18:24] and you could just walk up there and you know get an autograph or a photograph it was just it was
[01:18:29] wild you know that I mean Joan Collins of all people was set up at the vendors room and was doing
[01:18:33] her own thing and I just thought it was fantastic and glorious and incredible. And you know to that
[01:18:39] point too in Marina kind of touched on it if you want to do the selfie and save a couple of bucks
[01:18:44] I love the selfie photos the only way to tell if they're going to typically be in there unless it's
[01:18:49] Joan Collins making a surprise appearance on creations website under the autographs it lists who will
[01:18:55] have a table in the vendors room and it's typically those folks that have been there a lot
[01:19:00] Ed's Beliris is coming this year I do not expect him to pop up in the vendors room and do selfies
[01:19:06] if they have a scheduled autograph time typically they're not going to be in the vendors room
[01:19:10] but if their name says vendors they'll be in the vendors room on and off all weekend and to that
[01:19:15] point I know like Chase Masterson has a table in the vendors room she's there with the pop hero coalition
[01:19:22] but she's busy through the convention so some of these folks you will have to kind of
[01:19:28] hate to just determine kind of stock them a little bit to make sure they're there. Yeah exactly
[01:19:31] it can be hit or miss if you find them yeah I know Michael Dorn is a really hard one to nail down
[01:19:36] so if you're doing that just make sure you're you're popping in there frequently. So Ron I'd like
[01:19:40] to say one thing though about casual interaction photos before we move on which is that one of
[01:19:44] things you all everyone should remember is that the actors and any of the talent really they're
[01:19:49] making a living right and they're being paid for their appearances so if you see some of the talent
[01:19:53] walking around you can ask them for a selfie but be respectful if they decline because some
[01:19:59] of them are there because they're they're trying to make a living and so you just have to acknowledge
[01:20:03] that I can say though that I remember and I want to say it was 2016 when the discovery cast
[01:20:10] was coming to the convention I was like 2016 or 2017 marine would probably remember better than me
[01:20:15] but we didn't know anything about the show really at all the first year they came. The only thing
[01:20:21] we knew was like here's the actor here's their name in the show and here's like a sentence that
[01:20:28] might be like five words to say what they are that's all we knew about them and they were walking
[01:20:34] around people didn't even really know who they were for the most part and I think I got casual interaction
[01:20:39] photos with all of the Mary Keefo and you know everybody just because you know I think they were
[01:20:43] just happy to be there and we didn't even know anything about them really you know and it was just
[01:20:48] fantastic and I really enjoyed it but just be prepared that you have to respect the parameters and
[01:20:53] the boundaries that the talent's going to set up so just be respectful. Yeah very much so I have to
[01:20:58] second that and to that effect so that was 2017 when we had Mary Keefo and Wilson Cruz and San
[01:21:05] Bethel Meaus and I forget who the fourth person was at that point like yeah we knew the names of the
[01:21:13] characters that was really it because we're an August discovery hasn't premiered until September
[01:21:20] and Wilson Cruz and Mary Keefo were all over the place I'm sure their handlers probably wanted
[01:21:26] to pull their hair out because they were very much they were both everybody was excited everybody was
[01:21:32] like ready to you know welcome to the family and engage them and do everything and they did that
[01:21:37] they chatted and they did I don't know if they did any kind of you know selfies or any other things
[01:21:40] they probably did the following year once discovery was in and once they were official guests of
[01:21:46] the convention so their names were on the website a bump into Wilson Cruz into in in vendors room
[01:21:52] he was visiting with one of the other actors and we just chatted actually about something theatrical
[01:21:57] completely unrelated to Star Trek and I said can I have a selfie and he said you know what had this
[01:22:02] been last year we bump like this into each other easy peasy no problem whatsoever this year
[01:22:07] I can no longer do that so it's aside from obviously you know again like you said they
[01:22:12] it's their professional appearance they're earning money for this they're also limited but what
[01:22:16] they can do by the contract I'm sure so that's an additional thing and of course if you bump into
[01:22:21] somebody outside of convention you know on the street be walking down in something you bump into I don't
[01:22:25] know there's Mary Keefo or something I would actually be very careful we like the kind of like
[01:22:31] you know yeah approach say hello I'm sure that's going to be fine but starting to ask like
[01:22:35] do you mind doing photo ops and autographs I would say that that's a big no no usually outside
[01:22:39] when you know they're not working they're not there to entertain us 24 seven so you know be polite
[01:22:45] that's you know be polite and kind because I've heard I've heard stories where some of the actors
[01:22:50] had to leave restaurants they were in because you know they were having dinners with their
[01:22:55] whoever was accompanying them and you know some fans kind of decided to insert themselves in this
[01:23:01] so that's that's not a good thing to do something else I wanted to mention as far as photo
[01:23:06] ops and autographs something that happens and they're free again sort of like what happened with
[01:23:11] Ron Moore we do have some of the behind the scenes talent that is listed their official guests of
[01:23:16] the convention but they're not part of official photo ops official autographs they tend to do that
[01:23:22] after their panels where I mean they would normally kind of mention it somewhere in the description
[01:23:27] that after the panel the guest is very happy to meet the fans you know you can chat with them
[01:23:31] ask questions and they will do autographing and they will do selfies over the years that's how I
[01:23:36] actually managed to actually you know bump into several of the composers and of course and you know
[01:23:41] beloved acudos the drugs are they all happily engaged into this and I would very much you know
[01:23:46] recommend meeting these people because they're amazing and be yeah if you are into doing
[01:23:52] selfies autographs that's a wonderful way to actually do that just meet them after the panel
[01:23:58] yeah quite quite right arena I was referring to more of them walking around the convention space
[01:24:02] and the walls and stuff like that yeah you see people haven't dinner leave them alone for crying
[01:24:06] out loud perfect uh into kind of piggyback off of the behind the scenes folks too um their interactions
[01:24:12] are just always so much fun and if you're listening to the con pod a Star Trek convention podcast
[01:24:19] I'm gonna assume that you're like a lot of us where you will recognize a lot of these folks
[01:24:23] but your general fan doesn't necessarily recognize the acudos even at the convention
[01:24:29] so I remember my first convention texting my husband and be like
[01:24:32] I am standing five feet from microcuda and my husband who who he's a fan he's not a
[01:24:38] a die hard and it's you know if you do interact with these folks it's fantastic they are
[01:24:44] passionate about the work that they've done and they appreciate that recognition
[01:24:48] but definitely if you see them at dinner leave them alone I
[01:24:51] you know listen I was standing talking to Rick Sternbach this is I want to say 2015 2016
[01:24:56] almost positive 2015 was the Voyager's anniversary because I remember I was you know talking
[01:25:00] his ear of about Voyager he designed it and somebody said but would you like to kind of go there
[01:25:07] there's that I'm like I'm talking to Rick Sternbach and the person looked like me like I wasn't saying
[01:25:12] he didn't know who it was so yeah I would just add one thing on to that which goes back to
[01:25:20] an earlier topic which is talking about the main panels and stuff like that is that there's often
[01:25:25] time for fan questions and one of the biggest I don't know if folk pause the right word but
[01:25:30] I think one of the biggest errors that especially newbie fans will make when they go to ask a question
[01:25:36] is that many times I see people asking questions of the actors that they have no ability to answer
[01:25:41] not because of NDAs or privacy or anything like that it's just this person in their role but not
[01:25:46] know that and so many times the person you really want to ask that question to is that behind the
[01:25:51] scenes person it's the person who wrote the episode or the person who designed the ship or the person
[01:25:57] who actually made the set those are the people that are in the secondary and tertiary theaters many
[01:26:03] times and that's where you can get those questions answered so if you're going to ask a question
[01:26:06] of an actor make sure it's a question they can actually answer. I appreciate that for sure the
[01:26:12] last thing I've added about the photo ops because we'll talk about autographs in a second is that
[01:26:15] the photo ops you can have a photo up with one actor in 15 minutes have a photo up with another
[01:26:21] one lined up the lines for the photo ops especially the creation ones this is really random but
[01:26:26] they fly right by these photo ops yeah don't if you've been to Disney world and you've met Mickey
[01:26:31] most and you've had that moment of interaction it's very different at these conventions a photo up with
[01:26:37] these guys especially some of the bigger talent it's love and shove you're standing there it's
[01:26:42] two or three seconds tops I've had friends that buy autograph tickets like I'm going to bring this
[01:26:47] and have them sign it I'm going to talk to them about this you might get a handshake you rarely
[01:26:52] will get a hug now after COVID they're very fast so don't worry about the long lines if you get
[01:26:59] into the photo opera when there's a thousand people in line they'll be done in 20 minutes it's
[01:27:03] really something else but that kind of leads us into autographs so autographs are fun
[01:27:12] having talked about the lines I'll start by saying the autograph lines can be a lot longer
[01:27:18] especially if it's a headliner if it's somebody who's never been to an convention I'm going to use
[01:27:22] Ed Speliers as a good example here there's a good chance he'll be signing for a few hours while
[01:27:27] he's there because it's never been to a convention his characters popular and it's it's a big event
[01:27:34] but let's talk about that a little bit are either of you autograph collectors
[01:27:39] I am yeah you're no so you know I never used to be and then I got some gold tickets for free
[01:27:47] I love autographs and all of a sudden I have a wall of autographs
[01:27:50] yeah I actually started out with more autographs and I slightly regret that because I have some
[01:27:57] autographs in my collection where I was like I was right there with that person they autographed it
[01:28:01] for me and I never did a selfie and I never had a photo op of them and now they're gone
[01:28:06] so that's sort of but yeah just you know again that's an example of how you convention experience
[01:28:12] changes I was doing more autographs in the beginning now I'm more into photo ops and selfies these days
[01:28:18] but yeah photographs is there are three three ways of getting it to get an autograph well one we
[01:28:24] actually already mentioned when you have behind the scenes or creative staff that would be
[01:28:29] doing the panel and then they would just meet the fans afterwards and do some signing
[01:28:33] that's a wonderful way and yeah you run run more Brandon Braggah has done this
[01:28:39] they had Jerry Taylor one of the one of these years and she did a very nice
[01:28:43] pretty lengthy you know like signing for like an hour after after the her panel so
[01:28:49] wonderful way of doing this and of course of the main ones is you have the actors were
[01:28:54] already mentioned some will have tables so you have to stop by and see where they are
[01:28:59] they paid directly to them mostly cash some started to do that you know that
[01:29:04] apthing that either you do the stuff via Venmo or they just swipe your credit card with that little
[01:29:09] square thing but I still you know if you do this I recommend make sure you just have cash
[01:29:14] with you because that's the easiest way of doing it the pricing ranges the nominal used to be
[01:29:19] $40 and then about I'm gonna say about within the last four to five years prices have started to
[01:29:25] go and up so for a main character so say we're talking about somebody from TNG expect to be like $60
[01:29:33] an average the autographs that are done through creation that's again if like official photo ops
[01:29:41] it's a scheduled event so that's gonna be something that will be listed in the schedule and uh
[01:29:46] you just well you show up and depending on what the number of your tickets is because that's the
[01:29:51] main feature of the official auto graphing they go by groups of numbers called out so first it's
[01:29:57] the PDF tickets everybody who bought tickets online they will just say group one through 25 for George
[01:30:02] the K and that's when you go and line up at his uh at the table usually they will put tables in the
[01:30:08] main theater on either side and just they will put an ounce if they can if there is a panel running
[01:30:13] they will actually flash the the names and the numbers on the big screens at the bottom of the big
[01:30:19] screens and then just go on like this and tell no more PDFs and then they go move on to the same
[01:30:24] thing for the physical tickets the ones bought at the convention um the two things to mention here
[01:30:30] those people who are signing complimentary to golds the golds will go first by by row
[01:30:37] so they will just say yet George the K suppose he's signing for the golds uh gold row eight
[01:30:43] and then you wait until they announce and this can drag on unfortunately that's probably the longest
[01:30:48] if you have a headliner whose complimentary to golds that's probably gonna be one of the longest
[01:30:52] lines of the weekend um the second thing to mention is that I already actually brought it up earlier
[01:31:00] the guests who have their own tables will have a selection of photographs for the all graphing
[01:31:05] you'll of course you'll free to bring your own item that's perfectly fine you'll bring a book
[01:31:09] bring an action figure ship model whatever you have um with a graph artwork whatever uh and of
[01:31:15] course creation will have a selection of eight by tens at their photo table in the vendors room
[01:31:19] those actors were signing at the scheduled event where you have the physical tickets or the PDFs
[01:31:25] you must bring something so whether you buy a photo at creation stable or you have your own thing
[01:31:30] just make sure you have something because if I show up at Jonathan Frank's table he will have
[01:31:35] something so if I didn't bring anything I have a selection if i'm going for William Schatter who's
[01:31:40] always you know a ticket or a graphing session uh and I don't have anything then you know I'm kind of
[01:31:46] in trouble because I don't have anything for him to sign and I have a ticket so make sure to bring
[01:31:50] something for those who do scheduled ticket or a graphing sessions and one thing I would add onto
[01:31:56] that too is if you want to bring something that's not a Star Trek thing that's totally okay uh but
[01:32:02] if you want them to sign something because you're a fan of something else that the actor has been in
[01:32:07] you had best bring that so let me just use an example here as believers right if you're like
[01:32:12] the huge is down nabby fan in the world and you want a photo of him signed from down nabby you are
[01:32:18] I think you're taking a big risk if you think you're going to buy that at the convention they may
[01:32:22] not have anything for you there um they're probably be tons of jack crush or stuff but if you
[01:32:26] want to dab nabby think you'd want to bring that with you I'm not a big autograph getter but I always
[01:32:31] look at the autograph lines and I have kind of this thing that I do if I have a few minutes
[01:32:35] at the convention and I don't have a place to be I love to go to walk where the autograph line is
[01:32:42] and you both because you've been to the conventions a bunch will know this there is always some guy
[01:32:46] in line with some gigantic thing on a dolly that he's wheeling around or he's got like
[01:32:52] three people helping him carry something into the convention and it's like I always want to stop
[01:32:57] and I do this I stop and I talk to those people and I say what what is this thing and they'll
[01:33:01] say oh this is actually a piece of the screen used set from the problem on the use-based
[01:33:05] nine and I've been collecting autographs on it for 15 years you know and I've even got a re-prox
[01:33:10] you know and these people are so happy in my experience to share with you whatever this thing
[01:33:16] is that they're real in and out of dolly um so I always look for the people carry really heavy
[01:33:21] large objects in the autograph line and I stop and I ask them what their what it is or where they
[01:33:26] got it from and how long they've been collecting autographs on it because it's usually a really
[01:33:30] good story and a really good interaction with another fan. To that end too I'll say I've done a
[01:33:36] fair number of photo ops I prefer the photo ops but the autographs I think you'd get better interaction
[01:33:40] with the talent you know I had iris even bearers there one year and I had him sign a copy of
[01:33:45] the Star Trek magazine from the first episode of Deep Space Nine and he saw it and immediately
[01:33:50] this is in the documentary this is before the documentary it came out one. Can I borrow this for
[01:33:54] a second like I'm going to say no to iris even bearer so he took it and showed it to a few of his friends
[01:33:59] and it was like this is so cool um you will get a little bit more interaction that's why the
[01:34:03] lines move so much slower um George to K I saw him in 2021 I had autograph like number 200
[01:34:11] and I expected to get in there and just have him signing away and he wasn't he was signing but
[01:34:15] he was trying to engage with every single fan you won't always get that I have to more like that
[01:34:22] up to this the variation in how different actors sign is actually quite amazing it's a huge range
[01:34:29] you will never get the same kind of like what I would but I'm trying to say is I do not expect
[01:34:35] yes technically speaking you have more time so a lot of people actually going into autographs
[01:34:40] expecting that they will have interaction that's not a given not at all a lot of actors might
[01:34:45] just literally sit there and try to get there because they know that there is literally a thousand
[01:34:50] people that they have to do signing for in the next hopefully couple of hours some of them may not
[01:34:57] even look up at you exactly and this is nothing personal it's like it's not the person like
[01:35:01] ignoring your existence it just the fact that the matter is it's it's it's it's it's it's it's
[01:35:05] it's a situation like this so in that regard you know they just hello how are you fantastic to meet
[01:35:10] you and then they you know maybe they will say thank you maybe we'll just not at you but you know
[01:35:14] at least you you you you if you had that moment together as opposed and then yeah if there are smaller
[01:35:19] lines definitely you will have some sort of a conversation and some of the guests oh boy do they
[01:35:25] love to engage with the fans and actually uncle George is one I I noticed that he tends to have
[01:35:30] actually multiple handlers because they try to kind of keep him on time because if you had his way
[01:35:35] he would literally spend there and he will talk to you he would like to know you and you know what
[01:35:40] you're doing and what is this thing that you brought him and everything and unfortunately they
[01:35:43] have to keep it on time because again you know with him and actually for pretty much everyone from
[01:35:48] the original series that tend to be really big lines but yeah but I just wanted to kind of point out
[01:35:54] that you know do not go into an autographing expecting you gonna have like a you know you can tell
[01:35:59] the story of your life and everything else that's that should not be the expectation did expect
[01:36:04] a brief interaction which hopefully you know involve so if you were expressing just how much you
[01:36:07] appreciate this person coming to the convention then that sort of thing and getting the autographing
[01:36:12] yeah to that point too I'm going back to I keep back tracking um it's always bringing things
[01:36:20] for them to sign as well if you are doing any of those complimentary autographs for the bi-missing
[01:36:24] spokes creation has a table that has eight by tens but typically you're not gonna find eight by
[01:36:29] tens of the behind-the-scenes folks so that's where my suggestion for something with you something
[01:36:35] you it's always good a good idea to have something kind of generic to have signed because you never
[01:36:40] know who you might be able to get an autograph from the you're not expecting and it's just
[01:36:46] to have something with you but they have their pens they're ready it's a I know photo apps
[01:36:52] and autographs it's a great way to just be near the talent get a photo and say yeah I'm at this person
[01:36:58] it's fun um there's one of the reasons why I uh the bulk of my autographing collection is actually
[01:37:05] inside the starter conceclip media granted it's the encyclopedia the 1999 edition so pretty much
[01:37:11] everything past Voyager season five is not in it so I do have all the enterprise actors in it
[01:37:19] except for joling play luck because she's no longer unfortunately on the convention circuit
[01:37:24] so it was very you know tricky to like where do I find a spot for them to sign
[01:37:29] because they're not in it but it is a one it is sort of that kind of generic thing where yeah I have
[01:37:37] I have a good as in it I have all sorts of people behind-the-scenes the writers and the composers
[01:37:42] and some of the directors you know the in-the-inceclip media's actually pretty good
[01:37:47] think that's what I think I would not recommend the new one the the two to monster that we have
[01:37:54] because that's 11 pounds you don't want to carry that with you unless you really want to of course
[01:38:01] I have that I'm thinking about bringing the case because there's two big hardcover books
[01:38:04] that fit inside this case and like you said that thing weighs a ton but if I was to bring the exterior
[01:38:09] case and have the accrued design yeah but how many can you have in there like the the the
[01:38:12] 1999 edition that I have I have just over 200 autographing it right now so and it's yeah it's
[01:38:19] like most of it it's under the entries for their characters and some are you know like there's
[01:38:24] definition for Starfleet captain so that's where I actually had this god back at the side because
[01:38:28] that's really the only place I could think of um and but yeah the big one that's a trick you
[01:38:34] about somebody says like I'm gonna start over I'm like I'm not doing that without 11 pound book
[01:38:41] the last thing I'll add for autographs to there is another type of autograph we didn't talk about
[01:38:45] and that's there are a lot of folks you mentioned jolly and play luck who doesn't do conventions
[01:38:50] in the vendors room you will find booths that have autographs for sale I'm thinking Patrick Stewart
[01:38:57] hasn't been to a convention year Scott back you'll know if you really do want to get one of
[01:39:01] these autographs it's a I think it's a safer place than possibly buying an autograph off of eBay
[01:39:08] oh yeah there's there's more people there and you know what's happening you're gonna get the
[01:39:12] certificate of authenticity too if I refer to you yeah and you you you also should mention that
[01:39:17] with some of the higher antikets you also get an autograph photo with it that's correct yes the goal
[01:39:23] yeah so well I not not just that but I mean I've done captain's chair and as part of captain's
[01:39:27] chair you would get two signed autograph photos that you know they were pre-done you're not meeting
[01:39:34] the talent right but you're getting the certificate of authenticity and the way it worked was one was
[01:39:37] always a trek thing and one was from something else so what one year I I think the last year I
[01:39:42] did captain's like got uh I think it was a conner crineer and then and then I got one from vampire
[01:39:48] diaries from which has a show I've never watched from an actor I didn't know and I was like well
[01:39:52] this is going right up on eBay they did the same thing for golden it's the same set up so
[01:39:58] they actually they you know if you're doing gold or a captain's you will have like a little thing
[01:40:03] that says you know to to get your complimentary signed photo you show up after that time on a Friday
[01:40:10] or on a Saturday with some specific day and yeah one is is a you know basically you the photo is
[01:40:17] inside of a bride brown bag and they have a whole box of it then you just randomly pull it out
[01:40:22] one is purely trek as John mentioned and one is anything else that is with in sci-fi
[01:40:27] slash fantasy genre and there was one year where uh this was not my first biggest it must have been
[01:40:34] fourth to fifth by that time and I forget who I got out of these Star Trek box but out of the sci-fi
[01:40:40] box I pulled out Michael Shanks from Stargate now at that point the number of Michael Shanks
[01:40:46] they have been pulled out in the previous a couple of years and that year also like I saw
[01:40:50] literally two people in front of me pull out also Michael Shanks it was like how many others it just
[01:40:54] entire box of Michael Shanks and one of the wonderful ladies from the the I call it the art table
[01:41:01] that's sort of like it's a separate table the creation has that has signed autographs and it's not just
[01:41:07] track but it's more special things you know like you can you can get things by people but things
[01:41:11] by folks will pass away or it could be something unusual with you know like old Hollywood history
[01:41:17] it's usually against a different wall than than the photo table um and she was like she's like
[01:41:23] no it just it's it is a coincidence that a lot of people pull them out yes there's a lot of them
[01:41:28] in the box but they're also other ones including actually some random track she's like like we
[01:41:31] stop like and tell you that this sci-fi box actually has two Jerry Ryan since she hers is pretty rare
[01:41:36] and she's like just stick your Michael Shanks in there and just pull another one and who'll guess who I
[01:41:40] pulled out and that was a big thing I was like tailed me under my legs I just quickly just bailed
[01:41:46] out of there because I felt very guilty that I'm basically forced her into giving me another chance
[01:41:51] of pulling up another sci-fi autograph and it just happened to be one of the rare ones so uh go figure
[01:41:58] but that's fine I thought you're gonna say you got another Michael Shanks and I give of course
[01:42:04] no I did exchange actually I pulled out somebody from Stargate universe something that actually
[01:42:09] I have to admit I have not seen specifically Star Trek universe so I had no idea who the actor was
[01:42:14] and I was sitting in secondary theater just chatting with a random person and she saw that I'm
[01:42:19] pulling it she's like oh it's this whoever it is and you know I literally told him like do you want it
[01:42:24] because I have no idea who it is it has no value to me because I don't know who it is and everything
[01:42:29] and she's like oh fine she's like let's swap I'll just give you whoever I pulled out of the box
[01:42:32] because I've been going to these conventions for five six years whatever it is and we did and she gave me
[01:42:38] a row and it's in row and Michelle Forbes hasn't done a specifically a Trek convention in ages
[01:42:45] I don't even know when the last one was when the last comic comic was that she was at
[01:42:49] so it was actually a fairly rare orrograph and yet she really wanted that Stargate one so who
[01:42:54] knows ask people around you maybe somebody will always want to swap it there are a couple of vendors
[01:42:59] in the room who actually will accept signed autographs like this out of the the brown bags
[01:43:06] and they will actually give you credit for their booth so who knows if there's somebody you picked
[01:43:10] out then you don't know anyone you can actually stop by and say like would you like to take it
[01:43:15] usually I think it's to give you 15 or 20 dollar credit for this thing and you can pick out
[01:43:19] something out of their booth for that autograph photo that you don't want awesome
[01:43:25] Johnny you feel sad about photographs not a grass no I think that's it I think that's it
[01:43:30] but just I want to reiterate go go talk to those people in line carrying something on a on a
[01:43:34] dolly you'll be amazed with whatever story you hear well that wraps up everything I had on our
[01:43:41] list for this evening marine is there anything else randomly that you'd like to add about the
[01:43:46] upcoming convention um but we haven't really spoken to other fan events that that are going to
[01:43:52] be happening there are certain that are we still pretty far out with three or three months between
[01:43:57] now and in the convention but there are certain events that are given um we definitely know that we're
[01:44:02] going to have uh well the craft swap again there is now uh no actually made event on Facebook or
[01:44:09] something but it's something that happens uh all five days of the convention usually around five
[01:44:14] a clock a gymist place one of those community tables gets used by people to bring something that they
[01:44:22] crafted or at printed or just have I don't know extra stickers of pins or something and they
[01:44:27] would like to swap with somebody it's not a sales event it's not something you can just shop
[01:44:31] and say oh I'd really like that they'll give you five bucks no you we can't do that actually so
[01:44:35] but it's a nice thing there's a lot of engagement that something that very successfully has
[01:44:39] transported into transplant it I should say to start your cruise which which it's not what
[01:44:44] thing they're also uh it's a fun event just stop by check out if you don't have anything maybe next
[01:44:49] year you will participate um usually the night before when we have the pre-registration they're
[01:44:54] traditionally at least two get together's for fans one is a organized actually by our uh
[01:45:00] start-check a convention experiences group on Facebook and that is the newbies and solar travelers
[01:45:04] sort of like an icebreaker event and it's usually uh slightly overlapped or happens right before
[01:45:11] the landing party which is organized by Larry Namich, a Kent track movie and Roddenberry
[01:45:17] network which is great fun and definitely something to check out again sister group uses real
[01:45:24] traditionally has the walk slash run on the strip and then the pool party those a kind of
[01:45:31] became fixtures we're now already like I think the run has been going on for seven years the
[01:45:36] landing party for at least 12 so it's kind of like those things that fans have created and
[01:45:42] it became very popular way of kind of getting everybody together and then of course all sorts
[01:45:47] of podcasts and other fan groups have their own things they get organized all of this tends to get
[01:45:52] posted on the um online as we get closer to the convention. Marine I'm glad you mentioned that
[01:45:58] I wanted to plug the fan geeks party as well that was just announced this week um we're recording
[01:46:03] this with 94 days until the convention on April 30th take it's going live this evening. It's a huge
[01:46:09] party this this thing is in it's I think third or fourth year um this year will see a live
[01:46:14] recording of the trek geeks with Bill and Dan there's special guests that will be there including
[01:46:19] John Billingsley from Enterprise Bonnie Gordon from Prodigy and oh there's a lot more that are still
[01:46:24] to come and then a lot of giveaways from fan sets um they're actually saying the party it's Friday night
[01:46:29] it starts at 8 p.m and it's running until there are no more pins so there's a good question
[01:46:36] I just wanted to end it'll be taking place in a lenium fandom bar and more details can be found
[01:46:41] at fan geeksparty.com and the pins all come from fan sets who of course is the official sponsor of
[01:46:47] trek geeks and our podcast but we will be having Bill Smith on later on I'm hoping to talk about
[01:46:53] this party um we're going to have years any talk about the craft swap so having another episode
[01:46:57] come on as we get close to a some of these unofficial events but they are definitely a lot of fun
[01:47:03] all of these events as many as you can make it to John any thoughts you want to add about the
[01:47:08] upcoming convention? No it's going to be exciting I think the first announcement I'm actually going
[01:47:13] to be looking for the very first piece of news that I'm going to be checking out at the convention
[01:47:18] is the dates and location for the next one after this because we know it's not going to be the
[01:47:23] absolutely. I beat. Yeah well I would like to thank you both so much for joining me this has been
[01:47:30] a fun episode I'm so excited for this convention it's it's I miss the Vegas one last year and this is
[01:47:35] going to be a lot of fun and like John said this is the last one at the Rio so for those of us who
[01:47:38] have been going for a few years and I've not been going for nearly as long as you guys have um it's
[01:47:43] it's gonna be emotional I think the Rio it's it feels like we're going home after being at values
[01:47:48] last year but we're home for a little bit and it's terrible but it's it's us it's ours exactly.
[01:47:57] So Marisa people want to stay in touch with you before the convention how can they find you online?
[01:48:05] I am on Facebook as you already mentioned I'm one of the admins for this Star Trek convention
[01:48:09] experiences group that certainly is the best way and especially as far as the Star Trek
[01:48:14] Las Vegas is concerned that's a great place to to join because we have plenty of vets anybody
[01:48:20] can answer pretty much any question at this point and I'm also on Twitter at Dragorex DRA KKO
[01:48:28] REX and same handle on Instagram and yeah that's basically it. That'll those three.
[01:48:38] Fabulous and John if you want to stay in touch with you before the convention how can they find you?
[01:48:42] Sure the best place to find me is Trek profiles and I am most active on Twitter at Trek profiles
[01:48:48] and you can also check out my website where I have a lot of information about my podcast including
[01:48:52] where you can listen online uh Trekprofiles.com and what I do is I interview delightful Star Trek
[01:48:58] nerds about why the show is important to them and both Ron and Marina have been guests on the show
[01:49:03] so check me out at Trek profiles everywhere you get your audio.
[01:49:08] I have to add to your most recent episode was a lot of fun to listen to.
[01:49:12] Oh with the first Tik Tok yeah it was so much fun. So definitely check out the podcast.
[01:49:18] Oh thank you for that yeah so I just recently got on Tik Tok and I'm not really doing a lot of
[01:49:22] Star Trek stuff but I'm viewing a lot of Star Trek stuff so I'm being introduced to a whole new
[01:49:27] group of fans that I did not know we're out there. A lot of cosplay happens on Star Trek Tik Tok too so
[01:49:32] I met Christyney had a very interesting point of view on Star Trek so I really enjoyed interviewing
[01:49:37] him so if my first Tik Tok interview and there will be more to come.
[01:49:41] Fantastic well thank you again for joining in and we will see you all in 94 days.
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