Friday 21 June 2013

New York New York. Part 1


A couple of years ago during one of my periods of attempted world domination I set off with my then partner in crime to launch a project at New York Comic Con. Now I had been to Las Vegas and attended the Creation Star Trek Convention, so I was pretty sure I knew what to expect.

I was wrong.

In my various roles I am an Event Sales specialist my then partner is an event management specialist so between us we were confident that we knew what we were doing to establish our site on the convention floor and present our concept.

This is where the universe reeled back and with enormous amounts of laughter said  "puny humans" and proceeded to show us the error of our ways. We had organized everything and timed things perfectly from our arrival and set-up to the delivery of our AV equipment. Many emails between us and the event coordinators and the contractors had our schedules  set and ready to go to maximize our time in New York and deliver our message.

I just didn't realize how long both coffee breaks and lunch breaks take.

The entire operations of the floor shut down during these periods, whilst people continued to work on their stands nothing was delivered, nothing could be connected and nothing could be done about it. If not for large amounts of coffee I would have gone mad.

If you have ever stood in line waiting to be served, inching slowly forward waiting for your turn with your deli number in hand, then you're next and the person serving goes to lunch. That's how it feels.


I had rung the av supplier, our equipment had been delivered a hour ago a quick check with
the operations coordinator  and I found it was at the loading dock, but it couldn't be delivered because the loading dock staff were on lunch. I was then informed that the crew that were doing the delivers to the sites on the floor would be on lunch after the dock team came back. This meant a av set up that I could go and carry back to my stand myself would not be delivered for over two hours.

This is just the way it is. We thought we were ready for anything but we weren't, so all of you planning to set up in the USA, go for it, but talk to someone who's been there first. We sorted it all out, I missed getting to go to a museum I really wanted to go to, but the adventure was now only beginning.

The doors were about to open with 120,000 fans arriving . What happened next?

More to come.  


Friday 14 June 2013

Life in the Dark Times




Too many young readers of this you will find it difficult to believe that there was actually a time when there was very little science-fiction or fantasy on TV or at the movies. To many of us this is known as the "Dark Times".

Star Trek the next generation didn't arrive until 1987, and that was only in the USA. For many of us in other countries we would rely on friends to tape episodes and send them to us by mail. I can hear the horrified screams of the none believers now, "you had to wait how long to watch things".  I remember my first viewing of a Next Generation episode here in Australia, to convert it to the Australian system someone had played the tape back on their US compatible equipment and then recorded it using a video camera that had framed the tv, it was all very high tech.

We were of course with out any Doctor Who after 1989  and the only English sci-fi was Blakes's 7 that ended in 1982. Yes  this was the time that produced the original Star Wars 1977 and then the first Star Trek movie 1979, plus we had Alien thrown in there for good measure, but it was still only every two years or so that we saw any new product.

So what did we do to keep the faith, to hold onto our fandom and dream of the heady days that were to come.


We would have club meetings. In Fan clubs around the world people  would get together and discuss their favourite shows and episodes, talk about conventions,  a rare thing to attend a convention in those times. Write new stories using, a typewriter and publish them using photocopiers or other ancient technology. 


It was called costuming in those days and not cosplay, as the concept of performing as your character was still in it's infancy, and if you came wearing a costume that had only a passing resemblance to the character or in a full Marvin the Paranoid Android outfit you were applauded for your efforts.

But those days did have their perils. I remember being at a small convention in Melbourne, where a well known costumer had arrived in is Marvin outfit  only to discover that the elevator to the convention floor was out of order and he had to walk up stairs. So he promptly removed the costume.

It was a sight not soon forgotten  to see several men carrying bits of Marvin into the convention floor and one fellow in is underwear then proceeding to climb back into the suit.
We are blessed today with such variety of product and activities at our disposal. The ability to communicate easily, but every now and then take the time to just get together for no other reason than to say hello.

It still fascinates me that the fan community is one of the most inclusive of groups world wide welcoming all comers,  perhaps that is the greatest legacy of the Dark Times.



Thursday 6 June 2013

The Blue Hat Blogs

So what are the Blue Hat Blogs and who am I writing them. In recent years the blue hat has become my trade mark whilst hosting at the Supanova Pop Culture Conventions, if you want to know more about them go here and have a look, www.supanova.com.au. But before them I was a fan, a promoter, a guest and of course an MC over the past 25 years.

The hat is here.


I attended my first convention in 1988, it was held in the Tower Mill Hotel in Brisbane Australia. The tower Mill had two interesting features, one being its revolving restaurant and the other the fact that the building was round.

The restaurant will feature later in a story of terror and amazement, but let’s talk about the hotel being round. The function rooms were located on the ground floor and had curved walls; this meant the further back you were in the room the less you saw of the main presentations. It also raised some interesting issues regarding static displays as the tables didn't quite fit properly.

But considering Brisbane was in the grip of Expo 88 at the time it all seemed perfectly reasonable.
Back to the restaurant.

I have long had a love affair with the works of Gerry Anderson, one of my favourite characters being that of Captain Scarlet, most likely because my acting is just as wooden, so for my first convention I went all out and arrived in costume as said puppet. I ventured forth to meet with others where I had been told.
Excuse the photo it is the only one I have

When you step out of the elevator doors at the restaurant our table will be directly in front of you. Do you remember I said it was a revolving restaurant? So there was a table in front of me but not full of people i knew.

This is where the terror and amazement comes in, I promptly wandered around till I found them. Terror on behalf of the other diner’s, amazement on behalf of those I was meeting.



That was my introduction to conventions, and I shall elaborate more of the good the bad and the amazing journey I have had in further blogs.