Star Trek Continuing Voyage Convention Atlanta
The STAR TREK Convention 2016 50th Anniversary
It really does seem like yesterday when we were running the 20th Anniversary of STAR TREK and here we find ourselves three decades later getting just as excited, excluding those who we've lost over the years who were an active part of our earlier events.
To say there has been extra pressure on our little band 23 people to produce this event is an understatement as not only are we trying to produce the best possible vacation for our attendees, especially the long term ones who have been with us for "generations" this 50th Anniversary event and the one leading up to it have garnered super-extra attention from the licensor CBS. Our goal is always to win one of the attendees, but we do come up short sometimes when others are calling some of the shots. Still it isn't our baby, though we were dealing with it even before Paramount itself had a licensing department, so we are doing our best to maneuver between all fronts. The folks from CBS have in general been incredible generous and as fans have seen and will definitely see this year, they have contributed some stuff that no one else could. We are especially indebted to the special folks there who understand the importance of the loyal Trek fans as opposed to just throwing it all at San Diego where it is mixed in with a hundred other properties. Still a tough game for us, but the fact that San Diego has been sold out for months and the that our show is likely to get more publicity for the actual new Trek TV series has been helpful. With the new move coming out, beyond the guest or two we could get, I'm sure San Diego will feature more as well as generate a lot of publicity closer to the release date.
We're really happy with the amazing 101 guests we have so far, that stretch from the beginning to the present of the franchise. Many fans don't seem to realize that there are stars that just won't do conventions, as money means nothing to them. But we don't give up, as evidence by the fact that literally after 20 year we are so happy to welcome a personal favorite Whoopi Goldberg and the enormously talented Kirstie Alley. On the classic TV series it hard to believe we still are able to find guests who have yet to do appearances for Star Trek and Elinor Donahue this time certainly fills the bill and has been warmly rewarded already via purchased photo ops and autographs. Having grown up watching her on sitcoms, this is a mighty landing for us.
Karl Urban, who we first discovered upon with our Official Xena Conventions so many years ago is now doing such an amazing job as Dr. McCoy in the films. As we often say, as good friend of the late beloved De, Karl really brings the character back in a tributing way, but with his own touch. It's been great to watch the trajectory of Karl's career move the years, much the same way we met Ryan Gosling at one of our first Hercules/Xena Conventions. Those things are enormous fun to look back upon just as watching all the producers, writers, show runners and special effects artists we had so early on who made connections at our shows and moved onto their own "arenas". It's incredible that we first introduced Kurtzman and Orci to an audience as new Hercules: The Legendary Journeys writers: look what happened to them? And of course we've known masterful geniuses like Ron Moore and Brannon Braga forever and those they hired went on to create much of what is the best of television today.
The fact that this year we were able to bring Bjo and John Trimble to the big convention is an honor for us. Some fans wrote us asking about them getting the honor of being the 100th guest. My feeling is those folks don't know their Star Trek history because without them it is highly unlikely any of us would be going to Las Vegas for the convention, nor would there have been so much additional output. What better time to honor these early heroes of Trek history (and so many more that will be with us).
I'm sure there is more to add about the Trek convention in Vegas, keep tuned!
Source: https://creationentertainment.tumblr.com/post/147394728276/the-star-trek-convention-2016-50th-anniversary