Creation celebrates the Next Generation in Seattle and San Francisco this weekend

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Love them or not, one can’t deny that Creation Entertainment has built an enduring calendar of annual events. If you’ve never been to a convention put on by Creation, they are indeed a bit different than most pop-culture conventions. The first thing to strike a visitor is that these events are fairly low-key affairs. That’s not to say that they’re not very well attended; there’s a healthy crowd, but it’s not shoulder-to-shoulder, and definitely once you’re past picking up your registration badge, not the typical bumper-car experience. They tightly control the daily number of attendees to make sure that every person at the event can make it into the main session rooms to enjoy the experience.

After my experiences at events around the country, watching people stand in multi-hour lines only to wind up not making it into a headliner panels, this kind of approach was a tremendous relief. In short, if you have a ticket, you know you’ll have a seat. The general admission is unassigned seating, but they have a range of additional VIP levels that secures holders a particular reserved seat for the whole of the weekend. Knowing that you can up and leave and come back after grabbing some lunch and that seat is still there waiting for you greatly reduces the stress and hassle.

This weekend they’re doing a marathon combination of holding events in both Seattle (at the Meydenbauer Center) and in San Francisco (at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport) from December 12th – 14th. With some of the myriad Trek talent jet-setting from one city to the other in a single weekend. The event will celebrate all of the various Star Trek incarnations, and will also be featuring special a special evening event of the Next Generation Reunion Show (Friday at 6:30pm in San Francisco and Saturday at 6:30pm in Seattle).

Seattle

Friday: Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather of Enterprise), Jeffrey Combs (Commander Shran from Enterprise), Rene Auberjonois (Odo from Deep Space Nine)

Saturday: Jeri Ryan (“7 of 9” on Star Trek Voyager), Walter Koenig (Chekov from Classic Star Trek) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek Voyager). In the vendor’s room Saturday will be Brent Spiner (Data) on hand to greet fans and sign autographs.

Sunday: Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), Michael Dorn (Worf of The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Tim Russ (Tuvok, Star Trek Voyager) and John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox of Enterprise). 

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Click here for the official schedule

San Francisco

Kate Mulgrew, George Takei,James Darren, JG Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly, Dominic Keating, Connor Trinneer, Chase Masterson, Garrett Wang, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Sean Kenney, and John de Lancie.

In addition to celebrity appearances, the non-stop auditorium show will include behind the scenes presentations, costume and trivia contests, no minimum bid auctions of unique collectibles and one-of-a-kind items, and special salute videos and previews of upcoming sci-fi television shows and motion pictures.  Also there will be an exhibit hall on Star Trek and sci-fi collectibles, and autographs and photo ops.

The convention’s co-founder, Adam Malin, can often be seen moving around the event, checking on attendees, vendors, and guests, each with the same effort to make sure everyone is having a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Online ticketing is not longer available this close to the event weekend, but tickets will be available for purchase at the door.

creation_con_SF
Click here for the official schedule

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These types of conventions are a lot of fun and help fans renew their connections with the franchise. I’m glad to know that they’re still going strong.

So with Disney announcing a Star Wars theme park, do you guys ever see a Trek themed park or attraction like what was planned before? What would YOU want to see there?

ahh, of all the weekends to be out of town! Feel like we never get good ST cons in the PNW, so sad to be missing this one.

It would be nice to have a Trek theme park , when the Las Vegas Hilton had the star trek experience, that was spectacular and ahead of its game. Now with JJ and company in charge of the franchise, it would be amazing as well to see

3… nice last name , I’m a Kesler as well, but with one, S

Creation Star Trek Conventions are pretty much Paramount run conventions. The dealers room is filled with products that can be found online anywhere and since Creation has interest in keeping out non-licensed products, its all pretty sparse. Adam and his team have always reminded me of Kivas Fajo, pretty slippery they are….

Something I’ve been wondering a long time: we’re in the middle of a an amazing time for quality on television. We’re also in a big resurgence of genre shows (sci fi, fantasy, comics). So why don’t shows (many run by Trek fans) put some of these Trek actors in more roles, even guest spots?

Sure, I know some do get the occasional guest spot.

Are they simply just known as not being particularly great actors? Bad to work with?

It has to be about more than typecasting at this point — as geek street cred has helped a lot of other 70s, 80s and 90s actors thrive?

I mean, Bob runs 36 shows and has said he’s a big TNG fan. So why haven’t TNG folks been on his shows? Just wondering… :)

“The convention’s co-founder, Adam Malin, ”

That’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time…

Creation sucks. I remember attending a con near LAX in the 1980s that featured a “special event” that turned out to be performing dogs and a magician. Everyone was pissed. Adam Malin was justifiably booed that evening.

The conventions in NYC in the 1970s were awesome, so was Equicon in LA back then, These were fan-run and less commercial. The dealer’s rooms were creative and interesting. Those were the “Woodstock” days, now we have commercialized photo ops.

My fave fan convention ever was the Boston Bash back in [I think] 1983.

Creation’s professionally produced and expensive, but they get lots of the stars, with commensurate fees. Back then you could get special seating up front for even more money. I enjoyed their Cons in the early 1990s on the West Coast b/c they got the really prime stars. Ahh, but those were the moneyed days of my youth ….

Does anyone remember the days when you didn’t have to pay an additional fee for autographs? Back in the ’70’s, the admission price included autographs! I think it was Creation that changed all that.

@10. Finnigan –

Yeah, I hear you. Nowadays money is sometimes like pollution, endangering creativity.

It simply boggles the mind that so many people continue to spend thousands of dollars just to go to a convention run by CREATION. They charge folks exhorbitant amounts of money simply for the privilage of walking through the front doors. Then you have to pay additional money for each event, and autographs cost a fortune.

No thank you.

I was at the Seattle conventions yesterday (12/13) with my son and nephew. It was was my first since 1998. Things have certainly changed in those 15 years. First off, the main stage has improved quite a bit with the big screens helping with those of us sitting in the back. When we arrived Jerri Ryan was just getting on stage and I can’t say enough about her. Smart, funny and really took and interest in the questions asked. Next up was John Billingsley who was entertaining but was frankly a bit odd. Three hours later Ethan Phillips was to speak which is where the disappointment came in.

Back in 98 you could spend a great deal of time looking at the multitude of vendors which was great when you had those long breaks between speakers. Yesterday there was maybe 10 and several had nothing to do with Star Trek. There was simply no way you could eat up enough time without wondering what you could do next and in the end we left. I would like to see Creation do a better job of engaging people and setting up their schedule or it will be another 15 years before I go to another one.

#12: Ahhh, I miss that. I think the very last Creation convention in which the autograph came with the admission fee — as well as the opportunity to take a snapshot with the celebrity guests with your own camera as you were going through the autograph line — was the one I attended in Portland, Oregon, around 1999 or 2000 when the guests included George Takei and Robert Picardo. I wish most of the actors these days would lower their autograph fees to a more fan-friendly price so they’re not only more affordable but makes economic sense for a fan so (if they choose to do so) they COULD buy more signed items in bulk and go ahead and try to make additional money for themselves if they so choose to do on eBay or their collectible show or wherever. (That way, the celeb/promoter gets to profit, and so does the attendee, if they want to try reselling. If someone was able to take the time to attend an event, go ahead and allow the fan a little bit of a margin to “get a deal” on an in-person autograph if they want! I’m not talking just Creation shows here … I’m talking about ALL of those pop culture ones these days! Went to a comic con in Portland a few months ago where a couple of the guest actors rarely had anyone in their lines because they were charging $30 or $40 for an autograph that simply did not have anywhere near an actual market value of that level. Whether its a comic con, Creation, or Hollywood Collectors Show, a lot of celebrity guests would make more money in bulk by reducing the price if fans can think they’re getting a deal … just like the comic con vendors that have the “25% off everything” signs.)

On the plus side with Bellevue (“Seattle”): ALL the guests were VERY fan friendly! I think everybody not only personalized if the fan requested it, but I saw several attendees with photos on which Jeri wrote “Resistance is futile!” if the fan asked her to. (I got that, PLUS I got her to add her character name!) Richard Arnold was very informative and engaging as always, and any Creation event is better when he’s emceeing things on the stage. Was pleased to see the crowd numbers greatly improve Saturday and even Sunday (a Seahawks game day) for an almost-Christmas event after only about 100 attendees were there on Friday. Ethan Phillips even showed up wearing a Seahawks cap!

Wish they could do something with the photo ops where a signature could come with it without additional charge. (You know … without just doubling the price on the photo op.) After all, an autograph on a photo with a fan has absolutely no resale value to anyone else anyway.

Other big request: I wish the promoters would clamp down on the incessant “Can I have a hug” waste-of-time-for-the-rest-of-us-sitting-there moments during the Q&As. The printed program — justifiably — asks that attendees not engage in when they get to the microphone. However, that stuff went on too often during the 3 days in Bellevue.

David / Kevin, I couldn’t agree more. I’m going to keep my Trek dollars focused on the Vegas Con from now on, personally. Three days in Bellvue (I reside in Belltown, across the street from the Space Needle) is insufferable when everything around the convention was closed for the weekend, and there’s nothing else to do when there’s a two hour autographs intermission! In Vegas, there are so many events going on concurrently, you couldn’t hope to attend them all. I realize it isn’t Vegas, but everyone who obtained their autographs on Day One, or people who wouldn’t want an autograph at those prices, is to do what, while they shut down the convention for what should be going on in a separate place, behind-the-scenes, while the stage plays on for those who aren’t getting photo ops / autographs. Then, to walk outside and see nothing open but a handful of restaurants attached to a shopping center? Ugh. I’d’ve given my eye teeth for either of those Starbucks by the Transit Center to’ve been open. It was waaaaay too much of a time-suck to drive back to Belltown for the two hours, so I just sat and waited.