TacehT’s First Vegas and Star Trek Convention Adventure

TacehT’s First Vegas and Star Trek Convention Adventure

Just a small background information on my conventions experiences, I have been to a lot of conventions, horror con, Dallas cons, mostly people know me from Dragon-Con, though I thought I would take this chance to go to Vegas for the first time and check out all the cool stuff Star Trek Con had to offer, so the drive from Seattle, WA to Vegas, NV started!

Wednesday 8th

Once there in Vegas we had to check in, put my car into valet and asked the bellman to bring up my stuff to my room. So I met up with all the SSR crew. Then went to the hotel room, Set up My equipment did a few sound tests to make sure we had the right setup for the room. While dealing with the technical side of things the Subspace Radio Crew Me, DJ Creamy, DJ Jhen, DJ Kim, DJ Yumene, Kirk, and Loyal listeners Pantheons and MightyBOB wanted to go check out the pool. Then later it was time to check out the Masquerade bar, where I got to meet Terilynn from Massively and even Rod Roddenberry and his lovely wife Heather. So many people there meeting and greeting and having a few drinks. Then a little later we all had a private party in the hotel room, lit up the decks and mixed danced till early morning.

Thursday 9th

This was the first day of the convention, let me say I have never seen more panels going on at once, this made it little hard to manage but with the Subspace Radio Crew we were able to cover a good amount of them. I made my way down to the vendor tables, getting the full layout of who all would be around for autographs. I have to say the layout for the vendors room was not too bad for being one room. It was easy to move around and work around the whole room to be able so you didn’t miss anything. From buying items making sure you had everything for your Star Trek needs to speaking with actors of choice, easy access. The lines were not as bad as I have seen in other conventions, but then again this was the first day. I did have the pleasure of spending some time with Natalija Nogulich (Admiral Alynna Nechayev) I have to say very lovely woman she is very into supporting the Military and got to speak with her on more of a personal level. She is a very graceful woman. When speaking with her about her character playing (Admiral Alynna Nechayev) she stated she really enjoyed being able to play a character that is completely opposite to her and what role she would normally do and who she is personally , not only it changed her frame of mind but also gave her a chance to be on the other side of the spectrum of acting took her to a new level. She is very personable and easy to approach and loves to speak with fans I recommend if you ever get a chance to go to a convention she is at try to stop by and say hello.

The next person I had to stop by and say hi to was Arlene Martel(T’Pring of classic Star Trek’s Amok Time) I had spent a lot of time with her in Chicago’s star trek convention back in 2011, She is one of the most spiritual and loving woman I have ever met, now most do know have a soft spot for the Classic Star Trek and she is one of my favorites from that time, also being a huge fan of twilight zone and other TV shows she has been in. She is a great person to speak with and is very willing to speak with fans. When talking to her I asked her how she enjoyed Vegas, well she said it was very hot but she was having a great time and really enjoyed the fans like last time Chicago con eating her vegetarian meal with her drink and just having a great time! It was a huge pleasure to sit and speak with her again. I recommend stopping by to say hi to her and getting one of her autograph because even to this day she is just as beautiful as she was back then.

So by this time needed to meet back up with the Crew. Before dinner happened we had an distraction. I had seen Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating. I had met them in the Chicago Con, so I decided hey guys let’s do a shot! So we did a shot with Connor and Dominic It was good to see them again and chat them up, but off to dinner. We had dinner plans with DJS plus listeners. Pantheons and MightyBOB came with us to dinner, a small Dine with the DJs. The adventure didn’t stop. We were going to go to the strip however a lovely sandstorm came blowing into town so we decided to stay at the Rio. We walked around looking for a place to eat, then all of a sudden a show happened in the middle of the casino. People started running and dancing tossing beads… it was almost magical! Thanks Rio for the interesting show.

Convention was closed so it was time to do what SSR does best, have fun! I lit up my decks and we had a small little party and were broadcasting live with video to our lovely and loyal listeners of Subspace Radio.

Friday 10th

Now today was really filled with a lot of panels. They had 2 rooms for these panels so a lot of them were going on similar times so the crew had to split up and choose and pick what panels to go to. One of my goals was to get to listen to Ira Steven Behr’s panel since I am fan of the 4400. It was a very interesting panel. He spoke a lot about TNG and the ideas that they had while in production. Ira also gave a nice inside to the idea on his personal views about TNG and how he wanted to run with the TV series. The end of the panel he was giving complimentary autographs, however the line was a bit too long for me so I had to book to the next event. I did attend the Trek girls panel. It was an interesting panel, very girl power, I only caught the last of it but it was very interesting with the community becoming more female based. I’m looking forward to see what will come of it for the next convention. As the day set to night we all joined the karaoke party and oh wow what a lot of fun that was. I was very surprised on how people were signing up no one had any stage fright, a lot of great entertainment, even our own DJ Creamy got up on stage. Video and Photos were taken. I have to say it’s too bad the karaoke wasn’t as big as I thought it was. A lot of people showed but there could have been more… maybe even less chairs and more of a dancing area to encourage everyone to be active in all of it?  Maybe next year? The last party was the captain’s chair party at the voodoo lounge, however without the Captain’s Chair pass you couldn’t get in but from my sources who had one told me the party was really awesome. Now I did visit the voodoo lounge before that and from the layout I can tell you it had to be a site to see, so next year you get a chance I would get the Capitan’s Chair pass. But after that all the SSR crew and loyal listeners again headed to the hotel room to hang out, listen to awesome tunes, and end the night. Because well Saturday was the biggest day of the Convention.

Saturday 11th

So many panels going on as well as VIP parties, Cryptic Panel, and Hang with the Devs. So the morning starts. I stumble myself out of bed. Everyone was waking up getting ready for the Dev Panel.The night before I had some technical issues with my sound setup/decks so I had to stay behind for a short time to fix those issues because the party had to go on. Once the issues were fixed I was able to catch the last part of the Dev Panel, I have to say if you never been to one of the panels before I recommend it. I learned more about the STO game and how things are working and also what is to come in such a short time. Well worth it. So after the panel we went back up to the room made sure the party we were going to have for the Cryptic Devs was all set. It was then time to go hang with the Devs at the IBar. I was able to meet mostly everyone. I met the crew of Priority One With TerriLynn (such a doll) Massively Crew, And Of Corse the Cryptic Devs, and even mingled with some STO fans and other players from the game yes we all got our drink on! But it was about time for Me to get ready to continue the party, I spoke with Brandon let him know that well this party SSR is having is for the Devs why? Well because they work so hard to bring us so much content in the game make sure we are all happy even though it’s all F2P now and still work as if it’s a paid game. I wanted to give them something back, let them enjoy Vegas, and have a good time. So the Cave Rave party started. WHAT a turn out! Close to about 50 people showed up including all the Devs but Dan (he had his Fiancé’s birthday). We also had Priority One and some Massively peeps show up even the lovely Risa from Trek Radio. I was mixing live making sure I had the UNF-UNF going for all the people who were dancing and hanging out. You wonder what happened with the party? Yes hotel shut it down. Seems that having 10x the amount of people and music hitting 2 floors up and down and all out the halls tends to disrupt the hotel, “RIO HOTEL sorry for being so loud!” but that didn’t stop the party, I stated “ITS TIME TO GO THE BAR” So everyone from the party even others walking up to come to the party all went back to the Masquerade bar. We all hung out till early morning. This made for a great night to sleep and reflect. Just a shout out, to Pantheons for the sound system that was provided, and MightyBOB for all the lighting effects, also SSR DJs for helping with bartending, Creamy, and Kim for the extra effort getting fans! And also help keeping the party in order and helping make it an awesome Cave Rave, Thank you so much!

Sunday 12th

Last day of the Convention. It was a pretty slow day. SSR Crew and Loyal Listeners did have little sleep after Saturday nights Party Extravaganza . I went back down to one last panel, FOUR CAPTAINS, and wow this has to be my favorite one of all, listening to everyone on the stage, WILLIAM SHATNER (CAPT. KIRK), AVERY BROOKS (CAPT. SISKO), KATE MULGREW (CAPT. JANEWAY) AND SCOTT BAKULA (CAPT. ARCHER).

This was really neat for me because I grew up watching the Classic Star trek with William Shatner but I also was a huge fan of Scott Bakula because I love Quantum leap, I have to Say it was really funny seeing Scott run all the way around the convention hall room saying hi and high fiving people before he started speaking, then regretted doing so he was so out of breath but it was a funny sight to see. Shatner everyone knows how he is. He is still very interesting to listen to talk however I kept just seeing him in the Price Line TV Ad. The really interesting surprise though was listening to Avery Brooks, Wow that man is just full of Zen. He has to be the calmest actor I have ever listened to. He has this really open and positive outlook and when speaking about DS9 just made it a whole new experienc. He also has a Jazz album out I recommend it if you enjoy jazz. Kate Mulgrew was much more than I expected. She was much lighter than her character but I learned much more about her role than I really knew. This panel was really a good one.

I will have to say my overall experience for my first Star Trek Convention and being in Vegas was very exciting and I had a great time. To get to hang out with SSR Djs, Creamy, Jhen, Kim, Yumene, Kirk, and loyal listeners MightyBOB and Pantheons. Then having the pleasure to meet Brandon “Bran Flakes”  Thomas “The Cat”, Dan, Jesse, and Tumer Boy from Perfect World. Even more people I had the pleasure to meet, Priority One, the very lovely Adrianne Grady, Elio “Elijah” Lleo , Elliot Tan, and even more! From the Massively crew, the ever so lovely Terilynn Shull. Met Some of Gates of Sto’vo’kor , Ross and Michael, Even Trek Radio was there and I finally got to meet Risa which was a pleasure. Even met more and more people, oh my so many. I however was able to get most of them on my Facebook and I am looking forward to keeping in touch. I have to say it was a pleasure making new contacts and even friends. To my Subspace Radio crew it was a honor being able work with you guys in such an exciting environment and I am looking forward to be able to do it again at future conventions.. Don’t worry guys my tables come with me wherever I go.

I’m looking forward to next year, yellow shirt and all!

TacehT