Some good ideas...

    Hi.  Just wanted to tell you I really enjoyed the Starfest--I met the Jawa!!!and got an autographed picture which I spent a bundles on by having it framed with small Jawas around the frame in little "shadow-box" circles--it looks great and I love it and I'm sure Randy would be pleased to see how much someone likes his Jawa image. I really do wish the restaurant there could act like they believe that we are giving them money and not just bothering them by insisting we want to eat! We did have a great waitress from NY at one seating and actually got waited on without feeling like we were bothering her!!! I loved the whole weekend--out hotel room was very nice too! Thanks for a great time.

-- Joan Lambert

    Hello Everyone!  I really enjoyed the convention, especially because it had been years since I had been able to attend.  Had most fun in the artshow, where I bought two items, and really enjoyed the much higher quality than I remembered from the past, especially in the model competition.  Also enjoyed the dealers room as usual, but missed the presence of the small fan-run tables.  Are they no longer interested, or is the competition from the commercial folks too hot?  Was glad to acquire an item from each of the SF TV shows I watch and enjoy, except for Stargate SG-1.  There was very little there about Stargate, and nothing I cared to buy.  Why is there so little interest, not only commerically, but also from the fans.   I enjoy the series very much, but it is shown on Showtime, so I guess that keeps some from viewing it.  I believe KDVR is about to start showing re-runs on Saturdays.   I urge everyone to check it out.  I also wonder if Starland has anything?   I've tried to locate the paperback books, but except for the original novelization of the Kurt Russell original feature film, I had no luck.  Thanks for a fun weekend.

-- Judith Brownlee

Sorry Judith, we don't have any Stargate items - at this time.   We love the show too and look forward to seeing it on broadcast TV.  As soon as it is we plan to start inviting people from that show to the convention.  I would guess that there are less fan dealers at the conventions because the table prices are too high for most of them.  We are starting to get some back though - they are banding together to share the cost and I'm happy to report are doing very well!

    Just dropping you all a quick note to thank you for the chance to do an anime room at your convention. My staff had a great time and we are looking forward to doing StarFest next year.  BTW: When do you decide the theme for the convention? I'd like to know as soon as possible so that I can assemble a schedule to reflect the theme if possible.  Also: Anything comments, complaints, suggestions?  Thanx again.

-- Ja na, Roger Morse, AWOL-Denver

    OK everyone.  Here's your chance to make some suggestions.

    Hi its me again.  I have a sugesstion for the VIP line or Ticket autograph system... DON'T.  The reason is simple, those who cannot afford to may not be able to get an autograph...this year I was forced to buy my own ticket, and provide my own transportation (the last two years my dad bought the tickets and drove us there) and since I currently have no job, I could only afford one day at the convention and a few purchases and activities....  Adding this only puts certain people higher than those who simply cannot afford to pay more to get what we all have a right to recieve.  I had to stand in line for 2 hours to get Alysons signature, but I believed that it was worth it, and I was VERY happy that she did not have any surprise fee's...   Perhaps a better way to go at the problem is, instead of one 2 hour block of signing, how about several signing times during the course of the day?  There are better ways to go about solving this problem than to make us pay more than we should....

-- Justin Huling

Some guests are more than happy to sign all day - most are not.   Unfortunately, the guests that seem to be the most popular are the ones who are the least likely to sign for more than an hour.

    I have read of the complaints of the autograph lines and I have been in a few.  One show promoter of sports autograph shows distributes numbered tickets for autographs that indicate your position in line.  Then someone states which numbers are allowed to be in the autograph line.  This has always worked very well and will eliminate the long winding lines forming hours ahead of time if the number system is properly enforced. Thanks for listening.

-- Sean

Hmm, perhaps we can do something like that, however, unlike a sports show, our guests usually will only sign for an hour.  I guess it would force people buy their tickets to the convention real early if they want an autograph.

    Is there any possibility of a MST3000 member being invited to a future convention?  If not could plans be made so that one will be?

It happened before when we had the whole cast, it could happen again.

    This was my first convention ever and I had a great time!  What a super group of people, from the convention staff, the guests, the hotel staff to the convention attendees.  I really enjoyed the bloopers reels and just wish there had been some from Babylon 5. By the way, I caught some of Jason Carter's Saturday night "late show".  I guess he overestimated the effects of that Klingon concoction at this altitude!  I am looking forward to attending Starfest in April and hope that you  will have B5 bloopers by then!

-- unsigned

    We haven't gotten a copy of the bloopers yet.  I'm sure we can ask one of the guests to bring a copy.  We've shown them before, but they belonged to our guests and we promised not to copy their copy.   Maybe we'll just get them out of the Dealer's room.

    This was the best convention so far, I have been to all since 1992 and I have met a great bunch of people.  The more you get to know, the more fun you have.  Thank to the Admiral for Klingon 101. That class was the best so far. Can't wait for Klingon 102 in April. The casino needs some rules on how much you can win or spend, but the Ball just gets better and better. Thank again for all the work the employees do to make this possible. Keep up the good work.

-- Sonja

    Hi- I wondered when you will have the video of the StarCon '98 for sale?

-- Melissa

Wayne (our photographer) usually gets the highlights tape done just before the next convention.  He uses the sale of the hilights tapes to offset the cost of his equipment.  He tells me that he might break even some day if he could quit having to buy new cameras and VCR's.  Our guest coverage on the tapes is minimal, by their request, so don't expect to see the guest Q&A sessions on the tape.

    I was wondering if it might be possible for you all to provide tapes of the conventions without all of those kids and the costume contest as I have no interest in footage like that.  What I really want is the footage of the stars on stage, and what they have to say.  That is the reason that I drive all the way from the mountains.  I don't care how much you want to charge but I think that you would sell a lot of them at the conventions.  I bought one of your tapes from last years show and I missed Nana Visitor's on stage perfomance ( I was in line for getting her autograph ) and did not worry about it too much because I would just come down for the next one and get it all on tape and 6 months latter I got the tape that I wanted and all it had was about 3 minutes of footage on it.  That was the whole reason for my driving one hundred miles down there.  Please contact who ever does the editing for these shows and see if you can get them to offer something along these lines.  Thank you in advance.

-- John

    Shame on you John, soon you'd be sending us a check and not even come to the convention!  The whole idea of having these conventions is to experience them live.  Sometimes our guests will allow us to include their talks on our highlights tape, however, that is usually not the case.   The actors get paid (very well) to appear at Starcon and Starfest and feel that if their convention appearances were available on video, soon nobody would want to pay to see them in person.  I'd suggest that you plan on making the convention a weekend event.   Spend one day getting the autographs and other stuff and the other day seeing the guests on stage.

    I had a wonderful time as always at the convention. This time, however, I have a quandry...I have NOTHING to complain about.  This is the first time that I have been to the convention and Everyone at the hotel was nice. It is usual that at least 4 hotel employees are rude to us.  Everyone was fantastic. (especially the restaurant).  The front desk person said that the restaurant is under new management.   Please let the hotel know how much better this convention was. I also heard this comment from several other people.  The only thing that was missing was a DJ in the bar, and I was under the impression that you guys tried to get a DJ. Sincerely,

    P.S. Fantastic convention....fantastic guests...keep it up.

-- Denise Tranberg

    We are glad you had a great time.  Nice people like you really make it worth the hard work and long hours it takes to put the conventions together.  Of course, we couldn't do them without the help of the 100 other people as crazy as we are that are on staff.  I thought Jason singing in the bar was more than enough entertainment!

    Hi, I loved the convention.  It was, as they say, a blast!  I got the coolest Ghost in the Shell T-shirt there!  OK, anyways.  I had fun.  It was worth the 2 hour wait in line just to see Alyson once and for only a few minutes.  I just wish I could have had more time to talk to her...you know, a REAL conversation, instead of a hi, and a little small talk....one on one would be good...or maybe with a group?  (oh yeah, this is a suggestion....) how about we get a smaller room, put some chairs in there, and let a few people in to just have a discussion with the stars for a while?  It just seems so impersonal to me....oh well, it was SO worth it.  What are the chances of her coming back at a future convention?  Along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mira Furlan, blah blah blah.  Well, good job, as always, keep up the good work, and please consider that discussion idea... it seems a good idea to get to know our fellow human beings who just happen to star on a television show better.  Thanks.

-- Justin Huling

    Thanks for the comments.  I think you can imagine the problems we would have with the intimate setting you invisioned.  Who gets in?   What do you talk about? ...etc.  I'll try pass along my insights to our guests when possible. (See my comments at the top of this page).  BTW, Alyson told me that she was invited to a get-together in LA with some of her email fans recently and blew them away when she showed up.  That said, I think as she and the show gets more popular, those kind of intimate events are less likely to happen.  All it takes is one bad fan to make things uncomfortable and it blow it for everyone.  The conventions are designed to allow actors to get feedback from the fans and allow controlled interaction.   The more popular the guest, the less interaction you'll see.  Jeri Ryan signed autographs at our convention, however, due to her popularity, I doubt it would be possible for her to do that the next time she comes.  It just poses too much of a security risk to her - and too much of a dissapointment to everyone that can't get an autograph.   It is sometimes better to not have a guest sign at all.

   This was the first convention me and my daughter went to, we went especially to see Alyson.  Myself and children have became big buffy fans and Alyson has always been my daughter's favorite.  This weekend was her birthday present.   We we're one of the first to see Alyson after waiting ( 4 hrs) but, I'm glad to report everything went well.  My biggest fear was that a hot new star would disappoint my daughter.  Alyson was sweet and made my daughter feel special and did not rush her.  Because of this no sooner than we arrived home we are anticipating the next convention. We we're told she would sign up to 3 things per person, maybe she regreted that policy after the first 300 signatures.  Overall that was the highlight for us we hope to see more current stars such as Alyson.  The staff answered my daughter's questions and were eager to help locate different events.  Thanks to everyone for making my daughters birthday go so unforgetable!!!!!

-- Crazy Cruz

    A lot of people including me think it was a VERY bad choice to change the dates of Starcon and Starfest!!!  It was much better when there were 6 months in between each one.  Now there is 8 months on 1 side and 4 on the other.   I hate the thought of having to wait 8 months to party with you guys again.  I love the conventions and I wish they were still 6 months between.  Either that or make more cons each year :-)  Just my thoughts.

-- Leslie

    Our biggest concern is keeping the convention out of the snow!   We once had a convention in the winter during a blizzard and had more staff than attendees.  We are currently trying to move the fall convention to the last weekend in September and hope to have them in April and September from now on.  August was not so good for us either, all our TV advertising was on reruns.

    This was the best convention so far, I have been to all since 1992 and I have met a great bunch of people.  The more you get to know, the more fun you have.  Thank you to the Admiral for Klingon 101.  That class was the best so far.  Can't wait for Klingon 102 in April.  The casino needs some rules on how much you can win or spend, but the Ball just gets better and better.  Thank again for all the work the employees do to make this possible.  Keep up the good work. 

-- Sonja

   I'll pass your casino suggestions on to Susan who runs it.

    Hi there! I was wondering if there might ever be a way to get Alternative Television back?  I must say that was one of my very favourite things at cons in years past and has made the past couple years feel sort of empty without them. If you could get them back I'd really really be happy!

   Funny you should mention that, we've been talking about that too!

    Also just out of curiosity this last weekend there was a Doctor Who panel scheduled, I noticed it was replaced did the Rocky Mountain Doctor Who Viewing Society not make it down?

   They cancelled at the last minute.

    Also another small suggestion on Sat. night you had a "white elephant" sale at 11pm or was it 10 (memory a bit fuzzy now ;) but didn't have anything in the main events from about 8:40 till that time, I would have suggested filling it with a movie or silly shorts or something myself just to keep people busy, I buzzed around a couple other rooms and they were also closed felt almost like chaperoned con ;) (I get used to 24 hour cons I also attend I guess).

   We close try to close Saturday night with the dance.  At the next convention we will probably run video during the dance as an alternative.  The Midnight Madness is a seven-year kind of thing.

    I am also curious if you are inviting any Babylon 5 actors to StarFest.  I didn't hear that in the list of shows you were inviting people from.   I'd rather like to see Peter Jurassic myself.  If you could somehow get JMS to come that would really really be cool as well.

   Actually we've had a lot of requests for Mira Furlon and will probably be asking her, depending on the availability of some of the other guests we are trying to get.

    For at least the past decade I noticed you've had dealers that sell pirated goods, I don't generally mind this if it is something that is impossible to get otherwise like has been out of print for years.  But in your dealers room you have things like SM cd's which are cds made in Taiwan where no money is paid to copyright holder, also many of the tapes are very obviously xeroxed copies of covers of import releases that they just copied and slapped on a Sony VHS tape or something they copied their original on.  Sometimes they sell fansubs in there as well.  A fansub (just in case you don't know) is when a fan or group of fans subtitles a show so that they can share it with other fans, they make no money off this and show and make copies available for nothing (well a blank tape) but some people (like some in your dealers room) make money off such work.  I am involved in some fansubbing of some Japanese material myself my distribution hasn't been very large so I haven't manage to find any of my work in your dealers room for sale yet but there are many others like me who's work is being sold in there and that certainly isn't appreciated.  I would appreciate it if you started putting a curb on illegal merchandise in the dealers room, if you need help pointing it out I can probably come up with a couple dozen people to help you actually probably even more especially if we get AWOL involved.

   We do not condone nor encourage the illegal sale of anything.  We DO hire Aurora Police at our convention and they are available to assist you (or anyone else for that matter) with the enforcement of the law.  As I understand it, and I'm no legal expert, copyright and patent laws are civil matters.  In order to enforce those rights, a copyright holder has to get a court order to seize the infringing items.  Starcon & Starfest mearly lease space to dealers and we have no right to evict someone because we think they might be selling illegal merchandise.  Only the police, as directed by the courts have that authority.   It would be smart of you to call the Denver FBI office if you want to persue this further.  We will be happy to cooperate with law enforcement if asked to do so - but we do not plan on taking the law into our own hands.  I know that in the past, representatives from several movie studios have come to our convention to collect items as evidence in civil lawsuits.  It is entirely possible that such activities were taking place at the last convention.

    Anyway if you made it this far thanks!

    doozo yoroshiku!

-- Coran

  I don't know what that means, but thank you for the comments and suggestions!

    I greatly enjoyed this weekend's convention! It was only the second that I've been to, but I'm hooked! I could keep on gushing about how fun and wonderful and spectacular the whole thing was, but I'm really trying to find out if there is anyway for me to contact fellow Babylon 5 fans in the area who are going to the VOR convention in LA? I am so determined to go that I am going to get a second job (in addition to being a full time student and working full time) so I can get enough money to afford it. My only problem is, my friends either are not fans of B5 or are simply too poor to go. I will go by myself if I have to, but an experience like this is always so much more fun when shared! (I'm also a little leary of going to something this big all by myself!)  If you can point me in the direction of a B5 fan club in the area, or you know of someone (or a group of someones) who are planning on going, please let me know!!

    Also, I was curious about volunteering for StarFest 99.  Is that possible?   Thanks ever so much!!

-- Alison

  If anyone can point Alison in the right direction, please do so.

  As for volunteering for Starfest:  We draw our help from members of the Rocky Mountain Media Association.  Sound official ...eh?   Well it's really a bunch of us nuts that like to go to movies and watch science fiction.  We meet the 1st Thurday of every month.  This month's meeting is at the Barnes and Noble at the Aurora Mall.  Email us here at starland@starland.com for particulars.

---

    I'm not one to complain but I feel this really needs to be addressed.  The last two conventions I've been to were really good but in the same way very frustrating.   My son and I, (like many others) go to get autographs of the Stars. You put up the times they will show up, but you don't address the details to us in the lines. For instance Richard Hatch was charging ten bucks per autograph! That's a lot of money when you already spent $5 dollars on a picture and we stood in line for several hours. Chase Masterson did the same thing for her charity which is OK but we didn't know these things until we got up there.  Roxann would only sign 2 two pictures and same with Alyson.  At the last show I purchased 3 pictures of Geri Ryan and got in line waited for 6 1/2 hours only to have announced by your people that she was only signing one picture per person, and she was not doing any personal photos with people. This was announced only when she started signing. We got cut off 4 people in front of us, so we didn't get any signed. I just figured that it was the luck of the draw but I was surrounded by people at this show who said they got personal photos with her and got 3 or 4 things signed all at my expense, apparently.  Now what I'm I supposed to think of these poor organizational  skills? Are you going to correct them or should I just give up on getting any signatures at all?  I don't think I will be attending these conferences in the future.

-- Roland

    I enjoyed this fall's convention very much; except for one thing, that being the lack of communication about autograph fees.  I Don't mind paying (or as they like to say contributing) for their signatures, but I need to know before I've stood in line for an hour or more that there will be a fee.  At Starcon this time I didn't find out until I was at the table that there was a charge, so I had to leave (mad) because I didn't have enough cash left.  If I could have had some sort of printed information that a fee would be charge, I would have planned differently.  I've seen some programs that tell the fans which guest are charging and for what cause. You post the times already, perhaps you could add a symbol for those that are charging.  Or you could have an area at registration where those of us on a budget could check out times, fees and other special requirements.

-- Meearr

    Our arrangement with the actors at Starcon was to have them sign at least one autograph for everyone for free.  I personally saw signs posted stating that policy at the tables.  Because of the number of people at the cons, we ask the more popular actors to only sign one autograph per person, so that as many people as possible have a chance to get one.  The autograph lines have become a real pain for us.  They generate more complaints than any other event at the convention.  We really want to make things better for everyone, however, since we can only suggest to the guests how we would like to conduct them, problems can and do arise when they come up with their own way of doing them.  That said, I'm not about to get in an argument with a guest over how they wish to interact with their fans.

    We are contemplating the possibility of a separate VIP express line at the next convention.  That way, if autographs are your thing, you'll be able ensure that you can get them much quicker.  Many of the conventions around the country are allowing signatures only for people that have special tickets.  We've resisted such a system, so far, however, it would seem from the complaints that we need to address the issue more directly.  We haven't really decided on how to implement such a thing yet.  Perhaps our readers have a suggestion or two - We're really open to any idea that we haven't tried yet.  Email us with your ideas.

-- Stephen @ Starland

    My contension is not that they charged (and they did charge) but that they didn't post up high where we could see it, and when they did post it was when they arrived (mean while) we had waited in line for like I said before up to 6 1/2 hours.  It is only fair that you find out their needs and post it up on the wall where we can see it.  Then as in Geri Ryans case try to inforce it to some extent.

-- Roland

    Great suggestions!  We will make every attempt to let you know before the convention (at our website) when we know that guests plan on selling photos and/or charging for their autographs.  We will also try to post it at their autograph lines.

    Fellow Grems and interested parties, Just had a FANTASTIC weekend at StarCon in Denver!! Special thanks to Steve and KathE for making the space available for this great event.  The BIG event in my mind was the Make-N-Take and Aztek Airbrush Test Drive that I did with the help of several members of Modelers in Action (MIA), the unaffiliated model club that I am proud the be a member of. The kits were provided by the IPMS program, and included GEOMetric vinyls, Testors Grey Aliens (most of which were not grey when the budding young build-up artists had finished their work!!) and wwII aircraft. The airbrushes and supplies provided by Testors Corp.   Thirty-three children and teens got thier first taste of modeling and airbrushing.   The pictures will be priceless I am sure. The event was staffed largely by MIA members, including Gremlin Scott Longberry.

    The model show was coordinated by Vern Clark and yours truly.  There was a dramatic increase in quality and quantity of the entries.  This included lots of great figures!!  The "People's Choice" award, sponsored by The Modeler's Resourse, went to a fantastic bride of Frankenstein diorama. The "Best Girl Figure", also sponsored by The Modeler's Resourse, went to an original Lara Croft sculpt. I was graced with 1st Place in Senior for my Bunny Lum. Pictures of the other winners, including works of three other MIA's and Mr. Longberry will be posted on the Model Show site shortly.  Watch for the announcement.

    The rest of the con was, of course, also great. I made some intersting finds in the dealers room!!

-- Tom

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