A letter about Creation Cons
David Pipgras
has been operating its business and treating is customers--namely me. The
below text is a letter I sent to Bjo Trimble for publication in her news
letter "Space Time Continuum" and also for publication in any other Star
Trek fan publication that wishes to print it. I only ask that it not be
edited beyond maybe a spelling error, etc. I am the sole writer and neither
Bjo nor the crew of the USS Courageous has anything to do with this.
A Letter to Bjo about Creation Conventions
March 17, 1993
Dear Bjo,
Well, well, well. I got the latest STC newsletter recently and while reading
through it, I came upon a leter from Eric Stillwell, of Creation
Entertainment. In his letter, he was saying that Creation Conventions has
gotten a bad reputation for stomping on fan produced conventions, and went
through the details of what they go through to produce a convention in a
particuliar city. Well, I would like to put forth some rebuttle on that
letter, and a story to go along with it.
FIrst, I will say up front that I have only been to two Creation Conventions,
both held in the Portland, Oregon area. The first, which featured Johathan
Frakes was OK. DonUt get me wrong, Mr. Frakes is a wonderful speaker and I
would welcome the chance to see him again, but the convention itself was, well
OK, but only OK. The dealers room was sparse, and the video presentations were
so-so, more of a commercial for tapes than anything else: "Well, if you want
to see more, you can buy the tape for only $24.95..." which, well, what more
can I say about that. The music videos were somewhat interesting for the ones
I saw (about three).
The second Creation Con I attended in January with Michael Dorn was not even
as good as the first. Michael was an OK speaker, and had a nice wit. The video
presentation was virtually identical to the previous show, and the dealer room
was at least half empty, including the Creation tables! Overall, the second
creation was a total waste of time and money.
As for Creations seeming policy of treating its patrons as little more than
cattle, and charging them an average of $15 and up for the honor of buying
things in the dealers room for slightly more than you would pay for them at
various stores. The idea of paying $35 for Rreserved seatsS is a mistake we
would never make again.
When he started complaining about having to distribute commercials to local
radio and telvision stations, and needing to print thousands of flyers and
calendars, well, in our area, there is only one television station that shows
Star Trek, and the commercial is the same virtually every year, with the
exception of a differnt bit of text and voice-over by some announcer detailing
the speaker and date and location of the con. There have never, to the best of
my knowledge, been radio advertisements for any Trek convention in our area by
Creation. The printed flyers, likewise, with the exception of the front
describing the guest of honor, the backside list conventions for everywhere
Creation is going, so printing thousands of flyers is a mute point. And
whoever does the layout of the flyers needs to be talked with, as every flyer
is somehow screwed up with wrong guest names matching the pictures, or wrong
dates, etc.
Now for the stories of Creation coming in on fan-produced conventions. Well,
this one is a real recent story, as it has happened THIS MONTH. A fellow
chapter of STARFLEETQThe International Star Trek Fan Association, the USS
Courageous, which is based in Seattle has been advertising a convention in
Seattle since at least July 1992, with George Takei as the Guest of Honor,
over the weekend of April 23rd, 24th, and 25th. At the January Creation Con,
we got the updated listing of conventionsQand guess what? Yes, you guessed it!
Creation is listed as having a convention in seattle on the weekend of the
24th and 25th.! Wow! what a coincience!
Now, for the fun stuff. I was recently contacted by our Regional Coordinator
of Starfleet, and found out that George Takei is no longer going to be at the
Courageous Convention, as Creation had apparently offered him more money up
front to do their Seattle show. Now excuse me, but there are seven major and
at least five or so more co-star actors from the original series, in addition
to about ten actors from The Next Generation, and at least seven more from
Deep Space Nine. Now, out of the over 29 possible guests, that they should
just happen to want and book THE guest that the Courageous has been
advertising for over nine months. Just a coincience ? I THINK NOT. And
Creation says that when this happens that it is never intentional ? Ha! Excuse
me, but you canUt get any more intentional then that!
Mr. Stillwell also announced in his letter that he congratulates Rob Lerman on
his winning the Starfleet election and that he gave him a jacket and wants him
to announce an end to the Starfleet boycott of Creation Conventions. Well, not
that Creation held any special place in my heart as it was, but after this
incident, I, and the 40+ member of our chapter will probably NEVER attend
another creation Convention again. In addition, I am encouraging everyone to
avoid Creation cons, and am starting a fleet-wide letter writting campaign to
Rob Lermen to not only not lift the ban, but to enforce the ban even more.
Not for a long time have I seen such a dirty, underhanded, deceitful act ever
pulled, and with the majority of most Starfleet members already holding
Creation in high contempt, this just seals my, and I am sure a great deal of
others, opinion of Creation.
----
ProLine: pip@pro-freedom
Internet: clark.edu!pro-freedom!pip
UUCP: clark!pro-freedom!pip
ARPANet: clark!pro-freedom!p...@nosc.mil
==============================================================
Chuck Carroll
fan cons. Until I went to a Creation Con, I didn't know how good I had
it.
This past November, Starbase Indy, (a fan-run con) held its fifth
annual convention. Every year but the first (1988, when it was held
in March or April) they've held their conventions over Thanksgiving weekends.
I'm from Indianapolis, but I currently go to school in Illinois. Since
I'm home in Indy for Thanksgiving weekend, I always go to Starbase Indy.
Imagine my surprise (NOT) when I found out from others there that Creation
had held a convention the previous weekend!
Since this was the fourth year Starbase Indy held a convention over
Thanksgiving weekend, it's not as if there was any question as to when
they would have it. I am pleased to report that the Creation Con
did not cause any attendance problems for Starbase Indy--their
tickets sold out all three days.
In early January I went to my first (and probably only) Creation Con
in Chicago. The differences between Starbase Indy (SI) and Creation Con (CC)
were remarkable.
SI was a three-day convention, while CC was two days. More importantly,
SI offered a significant discount for a three-day ticket, while
CC did not offer any discount. As a result, many people at SI had three-day
passes, and the guests accordingly tried to say different things each day.
At CC, most people only bought tickets for one day, and, as a result,
the events and what the guests said were essentially the same both days.
Moral: if you *must* go to a creation con, only buy a ticket for one day.
At CC, there were only two rooms: the main room and the dealer's room.
To get to the main room, you had to go through the dealer's room.
Registration was simply a table outside the dealer's room. Naturally
there was a long line when the convention opened. Fortunately [sic]
there was not a problem with traffic in the dealer's room, as there was alot
of wide open space.
At SI, there were several rooms: the main room and the dealer's room, of
course (and you didn't have to go through any one room to get to another),
not one but *two* separate viewing rooms showing Trek (and occasionally
other SF) movies and episodes, a gaming room, a room featuring Tom Wibben's
work (he makes models of ST ships from scratch), and several others.
Registration was a separate area.
CC had only two guests: James Doohan, and a woman on the crew of TNG/DS9
(whose name escapes me at the moment). As I indicated before, they said
the same thing both days, although they were good. When they were not
on, they either had one of several things: Creation's music videos, a woman
from Creation giving upcoming news of TNG/DS9 (much like listening to
someone read news from the r.a.s groups), or some videotapes: they had
a promotional package for DS9, and an episode of Space Rangers. But often
the main room was empty.
SI had more guests: Leonard Nimoy, Eric Menyuk (The Traveler) (who is now
working with Virtual Reality) (also Lurch in the Addams Family movie),
Guy Vardaman, who is an extra on TNG and in STVI:TUC, Brent Spiner's body
double, and does some graphic work for TNG; and also Dave McDonnell, editor
of Starlog, who brought news and clips of upcoming SF and Fantasy movies.
When these were not on, they had other speakers in the main room, often
talking about the sort of science that ST fans may be interested in:
nanotechnology, or the future of the ex-Soviet space program. I almost
forgot--how could I forget?--they also had Bjo Trimble. We were never
relegated to watching videos (without a speaker, at least) in the main room.
A final note: The last day of CC was also the night DS9 was premiering in
Chicago. While cons generally end Sunday afternoon or evening, I suspect
that a fan con would have stayed open late in order to show the premiere of
DS9 to a large group of fans on a big screen. CC, of course, did not.
--
Chuck Carroll cec3...@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
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"In my experience, most people wouldn't know reason
if it walked up and shook their hand." --Constable Odo
Debra A Orelup
to make money off of fans. I have attened many wonderful fan cons, and the
first CC I attended, here in Omaha, featuring Nichelle Nichols was a
complete rip-off. Everything is as described, they jam everyone into this
huge room, bore you with videos, sell zines in the dealers (translate CC
outlet) for outrageous prices and then, then they insult the fans.
They don't love Star Trek, they only love MONEY!! They saw an opportunity
to make some easy money and they intend to have a monoploy on Star Trek
conventions.
The "host" was this guy (I don't remember his name) from New York, in a
Italian silk double-breasted suit. His entire pathetic gag was to make
fun of fans and people in the midwest.
Please everyone, I know how desperately we all want to see the stars; but
don't support CC, look around for small fan run conventions, give them your
time and money, at least they won't sneer at us as they count their loot!!!
David Lillard
Convention 'just for the money'. He has always been one of the most honest,
honorable and caring people I have ever had the pleasure to meet - inside
or outside of Trek. There *must* be something more to it.
Other than that, I can find no fault with your letter. Well, maybe some
typos. 8*)
Take Care, Dave (organizer of the 1st STAR-CON).
Thor Iverson
>The "host" was this guy (I don't remember his name) from New York, in a
>Italian silk double-breasted suit. His entire pathetic gag was to make
>fun of fans and people in the midwest.
Sounds like Janis Cortese...
Thor Iverson
David Pipgras
Chuck,
Thanks for the reply! I am officially starting a letter-writing campaign to
tell creation and Paramount that people do not like what they are pulling.
Please encourage everyone you know to write both...
Dave
David Pipgras
Yeah, well that is what I always heard and beleived. I still give him the
benefit of the doubt, but the fact of the matter is that Creation lured him
away from a convention that had advertised him since at least July 1992...
Yeah, typos are my trademark :) :)
Dave
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E-Mail : clark.edu!pro-freedom!pip
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00lg...@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu
> In article <1993Mar18.1...@news.unomaha.edu> dor...@cwis.unomaha.edu (Debra A Orelup) writes:
>
>>The "host" was this guy (I don't remember his name) from New York, in a
>>Italian silk double-breasted suit. His entire pathetic gag was to make
>>fun of fans and people in the midwest.
His name is Adam Malin, and he IS a bit condescending........
Just saw the Creation Con in Indy, and the guest was Patrick Stewart.
HE was great, but the rest of it was somewhat unimpressive...
>
> Sounds like Janis Cortese...
Hey, that's my SEFEB sister, and she usually starts making fun of people
only when they really NEED it!
>
> Thor Iverson
Lisa Beard, Chief of Ops, SEFEB
Jeff Sicherman
Correction, people only make fun of other people (myself included) when
the *maker* needs it, not the object.
--
Jeff Sicherman
up the net without a .sig