The ST universe encompasses various series, movies, books, comic books and even cartoons. When all this comes together in a ST fan convention are specific areas set aside for various divisions of the universe or are they all mixed together? Do original ST actors sign headshots next to STTNG, DS-9 and Voyager actors?
How do they work all this out?
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Star Trek convention so we’ll see what I can remember. No, they don’t separate TNG stuff from DS9 or TOS stuff. You can find actors from different shows sitting near one another signing autographs or speaking to the audience on state one right after the other. In short, it’s all pretty much mixed together for the most part. The last convention I went to over ten years ago even had actors from non-Trek shows. I think Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer was there along with Leonard Nimoy.
Most conventions are divided in the following way.
Vendor Area: This is where you can find all sorts of businesses hawking their wares. You’ll usually find science-fiction/fantasy related merchandise including DVDs, books, toys, models, prop replicas, autographed photos, etc., etc., etc. In my experience this is usually the largest area of the con.
Auditorium: I use the word auditorium in a very loose sense. This is where the special guests will stand in front of the audience and talk about something. At the last convention I went to, Leonard Nimoy talked about some of his experiences working on Star Trek in the 1960s as well as his contemporary photographic work. Typically they follow this up with a Q&A session with the audience.
Specialty Rooms/Areas: These might include a media room to watch movies, a snack room of some sort, the area where the guests sign autographs, or even a place to just rest for a while and get your bearings. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in these places so I don’t remember what they had to offer.
The same holds for other fan conventions - such as anime, comic, and general sci-fi cons, which all cover much broader media than simply the various incarnations of Star Trek.
Star Trek Wars?
“You mean the vast migration of Star Wars fans?”
“No, that was the Star Wars Trek.”
Futurama
Are you talking about panels or autograph signings?
Panels tend to come in two flavors: solo/duo and group.
The solo/duo panels will have one or two stars answering questions and usually focus on his/her/their careers as opposed to any one particular show or movie they were in. The Scott Bakula/Dean Stockwell panel I attended at Dragon*Con last year, for instance, had as many questions about Enterprise and Battlestar as it did about Quantum Leap.
Group panels tend to be show/movie- or at least franchise-oriented. I went to one giant catch-all Start Trek panel two years ago where cast from DS9, Voyager, TNG, and even Generations all conglomerated. It just depends on who’s available when. If Malcolm McDowell and Marina Sirtis and John Billingsley are all free at the same hour, you make it work however you can. 
For autograph signings, they just put them wherever the expected traffic flow dictates. Richard Herd gets a small table over to the side. Patrick Stewart gets a big table with lots of room for a line to form.
Some pics from panels, if you’re interested.
Untrue. There are two general types of conventions: media cons and science fiction cons.
Media cons are usually an excuse to sell you things. The dealer’s room is the central point. There are panels of fans (maybe), but mostly you hang out in the dealer’s room and buy things (usually just media-related memorabilia). The guests (who are all paid a fee plus expenses) appear for two hours – a one-hour panel/presentation and a one hour of autographing. It is rare to see an author present, and there are few special events.
A science fiction con (like Boskone, Lunacon, Westercon, Albacon, Readercon, Philcon, Windycon, etc.) is run by fans, who are just trying to break even (many are run by nonprofits). They concentrate on authors, not media guests. There are dozens of them (we used to get 60 at Albacon). The authors are generally there the entire weekend, so there’s plenty of ways of interaction.There are two or three tracks of programming going on at any given time, as well as video, gaming (in some), readings, etc. Only three or four people are paid to attend; these are the guests of honor, and their expenses are covered. The other guests get free memberships; they pay their own hotel and travel expenses.
There usually is an art show/art auction. The dealer’s room features a wide variety of goods, ranging from books, to buttons, to jewelry, to t-shirts, to swords, to Chinese coins. Many cons have a masquerade. Every night, there are parties. There is a con suite with free food for all attendees.
Panels range from single presentations to group panels of up to maybe eight (the largest I’ve seen). There is a wide range of subjects, ranging from writing advice, discussion of SF and fantasy as a genre, SF movies and TV shows (including many cult shows and obscure films), costume making, other conventions, anime, and Hamsters in Science Fiction.
Media cons are just a weak imitation of an actual science fiction convention – some of the characteristics, but with most of the fun removed.
My fave? LosCon!
They lurk right next to the force field so they can make a break for it if the power goes out.
We keep them pretty segregated. I remember one time Kate Mulgrew refused to give up her seat for Walter Koenig in the ConSuite. It got pretty ugly pretty fast. Then there was the time that there was the big brawl between the TOS Klingon cosplayers and the TNG Klingon cosplayers.
Now, William Shatner and Patrick Stewart ending up in a fistfight, we sold tickets to that once.
(I’m joking, obviously:D)
Never give up, never surrender!
I think I was [del]screwed over by[/del] at that one. Was it in Richmond, Texas?
Applies mostly to commercial (media) cons, e.g. Creation Cons. (Creation was an organization IIRC owned by Paramount, the Star Trek owners, who threw these “cons” as the official Star Trek events. They are just excuses to stuff as many people into a room as possible and shake as much money out as they can.)
Maybe not the same event. The one I went to, out of his 2 hour presentation window, he spent the first 45 minutes showing a video of some old radio show scripts that he was involved with them digging and reading through. They were running a whole video segment, not excerpts. That’s when I bailed. No idea if he actually got around to doing anything else.
Your descriptions are consistent with the commercial media cons, not fan-run cons.
Clarifying remarks in brackets, agreeing with your breakdown.
How much each guest does depends upon the convention, and the interests and willingness of that guest. Many of the media guests are trying to earn a living by their appearance, and selling photos/autographs. At big SF cons, they may appear in a panel event for Star Trek as a whole, a Panel Event for their particular show, a single event for them specifically where they talk about other things besides that one show. It may be a moderator question, or them giving a talk and taking questions. Whatever they are more comforable with.
They may also tie in to other programming as emcees, hosts, judges, etc.
General SF cons tend to have more creative panel discussions that are exclusive to just one show or book set or whatever. They will try to make creative ideas and cross-pollinate several panelists. These may be various authors, artists, or other contributors. If a media guest is willing, they can be involved in some of these.
Because the fan run conventions are on tighter budgets, they typically focus more on authors, artists, and maybe editors, and limit the number of media guests - perhaps 1 if you’re lucky. It takes a big venture (like Dragon*Con) to be able to afford multiple media stars.
I have seen a couple of smaller cons have a media guest as a main guest and use them well, but it is very easy for a smaller con to blow their budget and not recoup it that way. Having a “star” present has to create a substatial increase in membership just because that person is there that wasn’t already showing up. This is difficult to do without heavy advertising saturation, something I haven’t seen smaller cons do (in my limited experience).
I’ve been behind the scenes for the past 2 years of a local sci fi con that averages around 1500 attendees. This year we had 6 media guests (including 2 ST actors), about 50 sci fi authors, an artist alley and a dealers room.
Most authors are required to be on at least 3 panels to be a guest. The rest of the time they are free to roam the con or man their booths to hawk their wares/sign autographs. They do not pay us and we do not pay them.
For media guests, we usually have a budget and who we get depends on what kind of fees they are charging to appear and how many panels they are willing to do for the price. Usually we try to work in some kind of autograph/signing rider (If their fee is $5000 to appear, they might be willing to waive it if they sell $5000 worth of autographs).
Some guests require special placement and handling and other niceties (like us flying out their agent as well, or their SO, or their assistant). Others are very easy going and are a joy to work with. The one thing I’ve come to realize is that your reputation is your bread and butter, especially on the smaller con circuit.
If you are a pain to deal with, other cons won’t want you, and then you are practically begging for opportunities. Then there are others who love cons and it shows, and they get invited back again and again, even if it’s not a good fit (Like James Marsters).
Yeah. You’d think Phoenix Comicon would be focused on, you know, comics. They had plenty of that going around, but their guest list was more the usual geek convention: Nimoy, Takei, Stan Lee, Adam Baldwin, Wil Wheaton, Elvira, Bruce Boxleitner, freaking Ernie Hudson. Even Scalzi showed up despite it not being a standard SF con.
I didn’t interact with all the celebrities, but aside from Nicholas Brendon, who I hear is kind of a tool (didn’t see any of that, though), all the guests were awesome. Wheaton is the God King of Conventions and frankly he struck me as the coldest one there.
Sorry, taking the opportunity to mark out a little, since it was my first con.
I’ve helped out at a few science fiction cons(my first was Rustycon 1 in Seattle, and I co-chaired Orycon 30 in 2008(here is a link).) We would generally have an author Guest of Honor, a publisher GoH, an artist GoH, a filk GoH, and occasionally a media GoH. We would pay for their(and a companion’s) travel, hotel, and daily food expenses, take them out for a nice group dinner before the con, and give them a gift basket when they leave. They would agree to do a minimum of three panels, But almost all of them would volunteer to do at least twice that many. beyond that, we would invite a long lists of guests that had a proven track record over the years and send them a list of panels we were doing, and they would tell us what they were interested in. Then the juggling begins-who is doing what where, and when can we schedule the panel to make it possible? Panel scheduling is, in my humble opinion, the hardest part of the biz, and I won’t go near it unless I absolutely have to.
As has been said before, fan cons are the real thing. The guests are usually more approachable, there is a wide variety of panels and other things to do, and(unlike Creation Cons and their ilk) the people with the staff badges are their to make sure you have a good time, not spent every last cent you have.
Bosstone, I hear that.
Some of those guests have also co-written comic books or had their likenesses used in them - that’s probably part of their justification.
As a member of the ConCom (convention committee) for the one I helped at - I would often see also a conversation about potential draw, diversity, loyalty, as well as budget be part of the guest-signing conversation. Sometimes it could be something like they worked out a package deal because they all worked with the same agent . . . it’s crazy how it happens.
What mean “filk”?
Humorous songs related to some aspect of the fandom, usually (but not always) in the style of “folk” music.
Thanks.
Here is a classic example from one of my favorite filk singers, Leslie Fish.