Conventional Wisdom: TrekMovie Guide To Summer 2009 Conventions & Events

Summer 2009 is shaping up to be a great convention season for Star Trek fans. In addition to the official Star Trek conventions, there are a number of other events (both big and small) which are all about or include Star Trek. As we do each season, TrekMovie provides an easy guide and schedule to all the activities around the world.

 

OFFICIAL STAR TREK CONVENTIONS

This summer Creation Entertainment has two planned offiical Star Trek conventions, with the larger one being, as usual, the Las Vegas convention.
 

July 31-August 2
The Official Star Trek Convention – East
Parsippany, NJ
Guests include: Kate Mulgrew, Leonard Nimoy, Connor Trinneer, John Billingsley and more
creationent.comcal/stnj.htm

August 6-9
The Official Star Trek Convention – Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
Guests include William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, Christopher Lloyd, and 70 other guests
creationent.comcal/stlv.htm

NOTE: TrekMovie will be reporting from the Las Vegas Convention.

 

OTHER CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS

June 26-27
TrekFest
Riverside, Iowa
Guests: Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei
trekfest.com

June 26-28
Trek Expo 2009
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Guests include: Leonard Nimoy, Avery Brooks, Marina Sirtis, John DeLancie, Garrett Wang, Cirroc Lofton, Anthony Montgomery, Chase Masterson, Tony Todd, Denise Crosby, Bobby Clark, Star Trek authors and artists
trekexpo.net/

June 26-28
Supanova Pop Culture Expo
Sydney, Australia
Guests include: Karl Urban
supanova.com.au

June 27
Dan Madsen Star Trek (and Star Wars) Sale (Presented by Starland Conventions)
Denver Colorado  
Dan Madsen, former publisher and president of the Official Star Trek Fan Club, will be selling items from his amazing collection of Star Trek and Star Wars memorabilia, including rare and unusual items.  
starland.com

July 3-5
Supanova Pop Culture Expo
Perth, Australia
Guests include: Karl Urban
supanova.com.au

July 10-12
Shore Leave
Baltimore, Maryland
Guests include: Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Clifton Collins, and basically every Star Trek Pocket Books author ever (well, many of them anyway!)
shore-leave.comguests/

July 18-19
London Film and Comic Con
London, England
Guests include: Scott Bakula, Jacob Kogan, Sean Kenny, Tom Baker (Dr. Who), Paul McGann (Doctor Who)
londonfilmandcomiccon.com

July 18-19
Hollywood Collector’s Show
Burbank, CA
Guests include: Stephanie Beachum, Catherine Hicks, Clifton Collins
hollywoodshow.com

July 23-26
San Diego International Comic Con
Guests include: Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Nicole deBoer, Garrett Wang (all at the Lightspeed Fine Art Booth 3745)
comic-con.org/

August 22-23
OzTrek 09
Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
Guests include: Levar Burton, Paul McGillion,
cultureshockexpo.com

August 28-30
SFX2009
Toronto, Canada
Guests include: Leonard Nimoy, Avery Brooks, Walter Koenig, Robert Duncan McNeill, Len Wein, Keith RA DeCandido, IDW artists
hobbystar.comfanexpo/index.php?/scifi/guests/category/special_guests/#SPECIAL

September 4-7
Dragon Con
Atlanta Georgia
Guests include  Kate Mulgrew, Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, Dwight Schultz, Anthony Montgomery, Robert Duncan McNeill, Garrett Wang, John Billingsley, the cast of Phase II, Rick Sternbach, authors including Alan Dean Foster
dragoncon.org and trektrak.com

 

MUSEUM AND OTHER EXHIBITS

Until July 1
"Where Many Have Gone Before: Relaunching Star Trek" (The University of Iowa)
Iowa City, Iowa
lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/about/exhibitions.html

Until Sept 9
Star Trek: The Exhibition (Detroit Science Center)
Detroit, Michigan
startrekexhibition.com

Until Sept 20
Star Trek: The Exhibition (The Franklin)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
startrekexhibition.com

Until September 25
Fascinating: The Fan Expo (Museum Eberswalde)
Eberswalde, Germany
myspace.comfaszinierend

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I’ve been to one, with my ex-wife. Was kind of like taking a Klingon! lol Hope to take my current wife to one soon.

Hope to see many of you at DragonCon this year!

I’d love to go to one. Never been. I’d probably fall out to see Leonard Nimoy in person.

I might have a fan boy moment when I see Patrick Stewart at DC. Just thought I would mention that he will be at DragonCon this year.

Man it sucks, I live in ohio and there is nothing close to where I live not even anything in indiana, michigan, or Western PA

Ohh! I love going to conventions!! Too bad there aren’t any coming to chi-town any time soon. :(

#5 I feel your pain. I live in Illinois (near Chicago) and there’s never a convention anywhere near me. All the conventions are in the West & East Coast and down in the South. Why can’t anybody produce a Star Trek Convention in the Chicago area or least in the Midwest somwhere is beyond me???? They are Star Trek fans that do live in the Midwest.

It’s all about Dragon*Con, yo!

GOT MY GOLD PASS TICKETS FOR LAS VEGAS! AT LEAST 70 GUESTS! AND TREKMOVIE.COM IS COVERING IT! I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT IT!

@BPS–Las Vegas has more guests.

Why aren’t there any conventions in Oregon? Ever?

There are tons of “Sci-Fi” conventions in Illinois and Oregon. They are great places to meet Trek fans. If you are searching for Trek only cons you will probably be out of luck as the majority of conventions have gone mainstream and welcome all walks of fandom. Google sci-fi OR sf conventions on google and include the name of your state to find events that may be happening near you.

Was about this time last year I was preparing to go to Wondercon.

I still think it’s a hoot everyone’s at the Riverside one except Shatner.

@11

Granted, it has been a few years (7, or so), but Creation Ent had done conventions down at PDX, as well as in the Seattle area.

I’m guessing that the cost of bringing the cons to this region, and huckster room rates of usage (i.e. the number of dealers renting space) didn’t make it worthwhile with the number of tix sold.

Has anyone been to any of the past TrekExpo’s in Tulsa, OK? It’s not that far away for me and I was thinking about going down there this weekend. I looked at the website, sounds like a good time, but I wanted another opinion…is it worth a 3 hour car ride?

All I’m going to is SDCC this year.

I know that DragonCon is aparrently a little wild :-)

Anything for the UK? =[

Off Topic, but Obama mentioned Spock at the press conference today. We should start a drinking game.

#18 In what context?

#15 – I have not been to the one in Tulsa but my friends have and they say it is a good con.

If you haven’t been to a con, it is worth it. Some of my best friends are people I met at a convention in the bar or waiting in line for an autograph.

Dragon Con is the granddaddy of all cons; just don’t plan on getting on sleep and your liver will hate you by Monday. Takes me 3 days to recover from that trip. :-)

Las Vegas was the best (obvious) choice when the Experience was open. My guess is Creations had to keep it at the Hilton anyway because they had a signed contract as these conventions have to book way in advance. The Hilton is not bad venue and it is large enough to hold it all. I am sure other hotels could handle the size of the convention. When ST:TE opens in Downtown, there should be some thought to moving the convention down that way. I just wonder what or which hotel can handle some thing of this size, not to mention parking. We shall see what 2010 brings…

Thanks Larry Spock and Trekker chick!

I know there is Orycon, but I attended a lot of Trek conventions in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s then they just quit coming… I never heard the reason why. I met George Takei at the Hilton in Portland for my first con in ’88 (I think) – what a guy! I also saw Patrick Stewart and William Shatner here too.

Hmm… I guess I have a new mission – bring a con to PDX…

Any suggestions?

SFX2009! Woo! And we’re getting Nimoy too! That’s something, considering this is the one event in all of Canada that can somewhat compare to the conventions in the States.

Just a clarification regarding OzTrek here in… Well Australia (oddly enough), LeVar Burton and Richard Arnold are the confirmed guests for that event.
Paul McGillion will be appearing at the Armageddon Expo in Melbourne October 17th & 18th (Michael Welch is also appearing at this event).
They’re put on by the same company, but under different banner names… Slightly confusing.

I have the same question as Bengal9 @15. Can anybody give a personal account of a past Trek Expo in Tulsa, Oklahoma? It’s about a 4-hour drive for me, and I haven’t been to a con/expo in at least 15 years, so I’m tempted…

Can anyone give feedback on the Tulsa Trek Expo?

#5 & 7:

As I recall there was a Trek con in Cleveland not too long ago (maybe three years back; it was a Vulkon I think), and same with Chicago, Creation had a 40th anniversary convention there in ’06. There is hope!

#7,

Yeah I remember some great conventions in and around Chicago (mainly Rosemont) over the past 15 years, but there hasn’t been one since Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis were in town back in October 2007, since then Star Trek’s been almost eliminated from the area. Thank goodness for Indianapolis from time to time, but yeah, all U.S. Trek fans do not live on the coasts, especially after the many I’ve seen over the past 6 weeks in theatres in Chicago. Maybe one day The Exhibition will make it to Chicago, heck I’m pushing harder for Trek to come to Chicago than the 2016 Olympics.

I’m not nerdy enough for this.

You know if any of you plan to wear costumes (and its not Halloween and your not a kid [like below 17]) then don’t because it makes you look like an idiot.

I am attending Trek Expo in Tulsa. I am going with a friend from work and neither of us has ever been to a Con.

I’m mainly going because of Leonard Nimoy and Avery Brooks.

Hi-Res convention photos and 360 panoramas from last year’s Las Vegas Creation Con:

http://www.digitalproperties.ca/creation

#28 – I disagree. The costumes worn by the fans at San Diego Comicon Con, Dragon Con and others around the country make the convention more fun. People spend alot of time and effort and I have seen some amazing alien make-up and costumes that equal what you see on TV or at the movies. Costuming is a form of expression and it does not have to be Halloween for people to want to enjoy themselves.

Chicago and Indianapolis * used to host a couple good cons a year… what happened?

* we members of USS Magellan, a fan group based in the Chicago area used to help out with many of them… one of our best run community efforts was staging a blood drive… we/they still do great things (I cannot take any credit since my participation has been pretty limited since going on three tours to the Middle East).

I’d be curious to know what other groups are doing around the country.