FEDCON, Dallas, TX (June 13-15, 2008)

[blacknblue]

Well, that bites.

But on the other hand, you did get to meet and greet. Everyone had a chance to either get stoned or act like they were. You met the two most important guys on the show (I said GUYS Asso, don't skin me please). And we got some nice pics. Coulda been worse.

[enterprikayak]

You are absolutely right BnB...it coulda been a lot worse. We still got 1.25 sorta days, and I got all the pix and autographs *I* wanted, so that's good for me. But I really pity everyone involved in this. However, like true stoical Trek fans, we took our kick-in-the-crotch with dignity, moved along, and went for autographs.


PICTURES!!!!

(then descriptions of the day).


Distracted and hubby Eric....a dem fine woman....


Meeting Richard Jefferies, who is a super cool old dude, author of this amazing book, and the brother of Matt Jefferies, of Jefferies Tube fame.


John Billingsley and his wife Bonita doing a GREAT and really funny job onstage....
until......

TPTB cut him off 20 mins early and got on stage and told us that the con was cancelled.


This is a severely disgruntled Klingon a few minutes later who probably went to his room, peeled off his rubber head, and had a good cry.


Me'n Dis hamming it up. Her abs are much less rotund than mine.
Everyone thought she looked so good, that after the big cancellation, tons of befuddled fans milled over and asked for a photo with her. Tons. It was great.

THE CONNOR SHOTS, FOR ALL YOU CONNOR SHARKS OUT THERE:





ME! Still got my photo-op baby! You don't cancel *this* bitch.




TOUCHING MENINA.


ALSO...TOUCHING MENINA.


....and Dis, touching Connor.

Elessar and Priso just went off in the car to get treats from the grocery store. We're gonna have a picnic in Johnny's theatre tonight. Room 331! Woohoo!

[Asso]

...(I said GUYS Asso, don't skin me please)...

No. I don't.

[Jedikatie]

^
Elessar, I have been part of a first-year con before, and I can tell you that they had far too many guests for a new show. They were hoping to use the Fedcon name to parlay that into a bunch of people coming, without realizing that Fedcon, while it might be popular in Europe and in certain circles in America, is not exactly well known in this country. So they got more guests in the hopes of drawing more people in.

As for 'one or two cancelling'--um, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis cancelled last January, and so did Adam Baldwin in about March. There were also removed (or cancelled by the show's organizers in a rather poor fashion): Shannon Sylvia (from Ghost Hunters International), Jaimie Alexander (from Kyle XY), James Callis and Aaron Douglas from nuBSG, Dirk Benedict from the original BSG, the two Ninja Babes from Space people, Mark Lutz, Anthony Montgomery (who never received an airline ticket, like several others on this list), James Cawley (that guy who plays Kirk in some internet fan version of the show)... Richard Hatch likewise backed out or didn't get an airline ticket, depending on who you listen to.

However, if you want to know why they didn't sell more tickets--the whole debacle with the nuBSG guests had a great deal to do with that. They pissed them off and they posted nasty things about the con everywhere and how the con organizers were lying, etc., and the actors themselves (and this includes Dirk and that Jaimie lady from Kyle XY as well) knew nothing about having been cancelled, because they were not even told and were expecting to attend.

Not to mention how the whole thing with Connor last November went down.

So yeah, there were more than a couple of incidents which gave them a bad name long before the con started and the word spread not to come because of it.

Quite honestly, had they started with 10 guests or so, three of them headliners and the rest as bonus guests, then it quite possible that the convention would have succeeded, and they could have had another convention next year.

The fact that that Aaron guy from nuBSG basically fanned the flames this past week (after learning he was taken off as a headliner), prompting them to add him and James back, and then when they didn't get their airline tickets, the nuBSG fans went ballistic over the past few days at their forum, pretty much guaranteeing that the ones who would have come didn't, thereby reducing the number of walk-up ticket sales.

[blacknblue]

So what was the deal with Billingsley?

[enterprikayak]

The organisers only found out during John B's Q & A, apparantly, that the con wasn't to continue, and so they came in and cut him short and got on stage and apologized, but said that the con was cancelled.

Everyone just kinda sat there, waiting. Y'know, good joke and all.

But then the guy just kept apologising and explaining, and soon we're all sitting stunned and silently like, um, okay, not a joke then? You mean, wait, like seriously??

Wait.

Okay, but seriously????

And the guy who was telling us the bad news had very little info about refunds and all: he was being pretty vague about everything. (Poor guy: none of it was his doing)

SO:

John Billingsley got the mike and said a few words about how FedCon would never have messed up and thus it was wrong of FedCon to leave their name on the bill since they backed out in January, and this was really a Tim Brazeal convention, and that Tim "did not have the skill set to pull this off" and that he should never ever try it again.

He went on to assure us that this sort of thing doesn't turn him off cons at all and that he loves his fans and looks forward to doing more cons. (Probably not with brazeal though ).

The next thing he did was to address the organisers very sternly from the floor, and said that he was most definitely NOT trying to be antagonistic, but EVERYone in the room deserved clear instructions about how refunds were going to work exactly, and that they deserved this info RIGHT NOW.

And when the guy continued to waffle a bit, John made him go and get the guy who did know what the deal was, and politely badgered him until he had given satisfactory refund info.

THEN, John personally ran around the room with the mike, taking it to each and every con-goer who had a question about this whole thing. He was very adamant. "These people need to have their questions answered, and they need them answered bluntly." He said this several times. He literally ran all over the room for 15 minutes, making sure everyone who had a question got the mike.

THEN he said again that this SHOULD NOT have happened, and that ANYONE who was having trouble getting their money back should email him thru his site johnbillingsley.net and he said that he WOULD get your letter and he WOULD make SURE everyone got their money back from the ticket sellers.

He was so AWESOME. Like, he just took total control of a confused messy, potentially riotous situation in a way that not 1 in 100 could do. It was so much more amazing and gratifying to watch him at this than watching a simple Q & A, (though of course, I would have rathered the con NOT be cancelled, but...)

SO, let it be known:

JOHN BILLINGSLEY IS ONE OF THE COOLEST GUYS YOU'LL MEET.
AND SO'S HIS WIFE.

CLASSY. CLASSY. CLASSY.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

My, this puts a whole new perspective to the TrekUnited and Brazeal's efforts to revive ENT, if you remember that!? Glad that didn't pan out. What a mess!

Good thing about Billingsley taking charge like that!

Oh, and Distracted, very nice abs!

[Lady Rainbow]

Kudos to John Billingsley. I'd hate to wonder what would've happened if he HADN'T been as blunt as he was (makes me wishing even more that I'd meet him in person just once! He's one of my faves!)

Sucks that the con was canceled and the way it was canceled too! But I'm glad that you guys still had a good time and STILL had the photos w/JB and Connor (and Garrett Wang too!) Like the blue shirt on Connor (no Hawaiian shirt?) Dis, you look good in the MU outfit!

[Drogna]

I don't know where to start here. I've been without my computer for the last two days so I'm very behind with everything that's been happening. Wow.

Okay, I'll begin with the good stuff. You all look great, guys.

I love the outfit, Dis. You make a great MU T'Pol.

Elessar, did you make a different T-shirt for everyday?

It sounds like you managed to have a good time even though the con was cancelled halfway through, and you got to meet Connor and John. They both looked well. The photos are fantastic. Thanks for posting them.

[justTripn]

D., YOU look awesome. enterprikayak, wonderful you-and-Connor pic, although (Trip-lovers, don't burn me at the stake) you almost look better than him in the picture with you both. His picture above with the scruffy beard however is perfect. Enjoy Star Trek theater and the most important thing: Triaxian Silk togetherness. That is supposed to be "group hug smilie." Bonding through adversity!

Those Reptilians!!!

[enterprikayak]

To Jennifer and the Baby, JB

Awesome pic, non? JB organized the shot when they were filming "A Night in In Sickbay".




"To Jennifer, Nice Work, Connor Trinneer"


'Sall I wanted to hear.


(I gave Connor my extra photomanips when we saw him today and he liked them....or perhaps he was planning on destroying them....)

[Lady Rainbow]

To Jennifer and the Baby, JB

Awesome pic, non? JB organized the shot when they were filming "A Night in In Sickbay".




"To Jennifer, Nice Work, Connor Trinneer"


'Sall I wanted to hear.


(I gave Connor my extra photomanips when we saw him today and he liked them....or perhaps he was planning on destroying them....)

Those are GREAT eK!

Like the first pic. The guys look really sharp, esp. Scott Bakula (he's the only one not wearing a longcoat??)

[Alelou]

Wow. I missed a lot today while being grandma. I'm glad you guys got in most of what you were looking for before the plug got pulled. John Billingsley is something else. HE should be captain!

And thanks for sharing all the great photos.

[Bether6074]

Weren't you guys going to do a skit? That must be kind of disappointing, but I'm glad everyone seems to be trying to see the best side of the whole adventure. You got to meet! That's always the most special part anyhow. Thanks for the pics.

[Elessar]

Elessar, did you make a different T-shirt for everyday?

Yes. Yes I did . Actually D made them for me. You made the images and she made the shirts! She's a wiz. They all look great, and we did some great advertising.

Several people came up to me and asked me about the site or said they had heard of our site and were planning to come join the boards. I told them about all the new fics going up, how we're busier than we've ever been on what's essentially a dead show and they were impressed. We should see a few new and old faces soon. We get 15 submissions a month now, which makes us most likely the busiest Star Trek: Enterprise fanfiction site still in existence.

These cons are great for getting us together. Both at Cherry Hill and today I am just reminded of why it's such a terrific idea for us to keep doing this. After Vulkon, everyone thought that we'd never get a big group of us together at a con again and that the fandom was dying because HoT was closing. But Connor and Dominic know of us, of our fandom - they recognize us, the Not.Dead. shirts at cons, starting with Vulkon, and then Cherry Hill, and now here. I think we should keep doing this because not only is it such a blast but it keeps the fandom spirit very much alive in those that go.

Before you've been to a convention with your fellow Triaxian Silk members, you can't imagine how much it transforms the board/member relationship