Star Trek San Francisco Convention 2014 Recap

Our STO Elite Away Team of Convention Red Shirts manned our booth at Creation Entertainment's Star Trek San Francisco Convention, and had multiple stations available for Trek fans to test out our tutorials and create Starfleet, KDF and Romulan citizens. We had a great time welcoming new players who had never seen our MMO, as well as welcoming back old players who had not tried the game in various amounts of time, and who were thrilled to see the graphic engine updates and the new character species selection options, amongst other things. The most chosen species was a surprising Liberated Borg selection across all three factions. Resistance is futile, but fun!

Friday through Sunday we were set up right across from not only the theater entrance, where we could overhear all of the celebrity panels, but we were also conveniently located at the entrance to the convention floor and the signature tables of everyone's favorite Star Trek stars! Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Denise Crosby, George Takei and many more were mere steps away, and we were fortunate to have Garret Wang and Robert Picardo stop by to meet the crew and take some great photos with us! A special thank you to both incredible actors for joining us for our raffle and to pose with their in-game persona.

Friday started off with a bang as we set up our booth and unfurled our giant Voyager MSD banner that quickly became a fan magnet as many convention goers flocked to our booth to have their photos taken in front of this beautiful graphic. We held our first raffle with the gracious help of Garret Wang who drew the lucky ticket of our VIP pass winner, and our first sets of Wizkids Attack Wing sets and STO posters! Our Facebook ticket winners also stopped by to say thank you and pose for photos with the crew, and we had a great time meeting them both! Congrats again, and we are very happy you were able to join us at the show! As the day progressed, we could barely hold back our excitement for the appearance of Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as they took the stage. They told us great stories about their co-stars and their current projects, and were hilarious as always when it came time to answer questions from the fans. Michael Dorn even showed up to ask them some great questions and give us all a sample of how things must have been on set during the epic run of TNG. Not to be outdone by the Enterprise's most famous couple, the stage soon opened to Densie Crosby, Michael Dorn and the one and only John de Lancie! It was great fun to listen to Mr de Lancie muse about playing the godlike Q. The night was well rounded with the special aftershow of the TNG Renunion featuring all the stars who joined us in San Francisco.

Saturday was packed with excitement for our team as the cosplay focus day began, and we saw many fantastic costumes from fans who came adorned as Borg, Klingons, Caitians and more, and we even ran into lil' Guinan from "Rascals" and Riker and his father in their Anbo Jitsu gear! A special thanks to Mini-Khan who stopped by to pose with CaptainGeko. As we approached our big Borg Cube raffle (not to be confused with our Borg Cub raffle for all of you who follow us on Facebook) many fans gathered to see who would win the big Saturday prize. Who won? A very lucky Orion Science Officer! We made many fans happy with more STO posters, and 60 day subscription cards given out during the raffle, and we want to thank all who entered. Garrett Wang and Robert Picardo took the stage for their panels, and posed for photos with eager fans. Mr Picardo even joined us at the booth to see how the Doctor looks after decades of service to Starfleet, and pose for some comparison shots. Hearing the voice in-game and seeing his familiar visage was quiet a treat for him, as well as all our team as we swarmed around him in excitement. Chase Masterson took the stage mid-afternoon, and was surprised to know that the Holo-Leeta DOff has become one of our most sought after items in-game. She even thought the idea of Quark creating a photonic duplicate of Leeta fit his character precisely! After the frenzied Creation Auction, the one and only Kate Mulgrew took the stage to tell us all about her experiences not only in ST:VOY as Captain Janeway, but also to bring us news of her memoir, Born With Teeth, hitting publication very soon. It was great to see her on stage and enjoy our time with her as she took questions from the audience.

The Cosplay Contest finished up the day as many skilled cosplay fans took the spotlight to tell us about their costumes and characters, and even to demonstrate the smartest canine science officer we have ever seen. Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer finished off the Saturday evening festivities with the fans for Star Trek Karaoke night in the main auditorium, as the team packed up and got some rest for our final day.

Sunday was a clear and sunny day in the bay area, and was the perfect way to end the great time we had working the convention. Kate Mulgrew did her second stage appearance with her talented son and his artistic creations. James Darren followed on stage to talk about his incredible singing and his time as the photonic Vegas lounge singer Vic Fontaine from DS9. The Enterprise crew were represented by the duo of Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer who had entertained fans with stories about their time in the first starship Enterprise and cameos in Heroes and Stargate Atlantis. The big fan favorite of Sunday was a star very familiar to the San Francisco Conventions, the King of the Internet, George Takei! The line wrapped up an out the doors of the hotel as fans gathered to get his autograph, and later to take their photos with Mr Takei. While on stage, George spoke about his history in the Star Trek franchise, his love of the fans, and his favorite Trek film, Star Trek VI: Captain Sulu Saves the Day! Not to stop there, he also spoke to us about his experiences during his youth as a Japanese American, as well as his current live stage musical, Alliegiance, dedicated to that experience, as well as his recently released film "It's OK to be Takei" and happily answered questions from the audience. The team enjoyed an amazing panel about the NASA Warp Project and what it means for the future of space exploration, to boldy go into what we have only imagined. With the final celeb panel with Ethan Phillips, Mr Phillips shared his tales of time spent under the makeup of Neelix, and his time as a photonic lifeform in Star Trek: First Contact, and signed many autographs for eager fans with a smile and a laugh. We even got to tell him about his delicious confectionaries in the Winter Wonderland, to his delight! As we packed up our booth and began our return to our regular STO work week, we looked back fondly on the photos and experiences we had with other great Trek fans who turned out for this convention.

While Creation's ST SF Con will not return until 2016, we cannot wait to begin our plans for another STO booth at this and other Trek Conventions in the future! We enjoyed meeting everyone as well as saying hello to some familiar faces from our Livestream audience who lived close by and stopped by the booth to introduce themselves. We hope to meet many more of you in Vegas, DST London and many other cities that host Trek conventions, and we look forward to introducing STO to many new players and franchise fans from around the globe.

Thank you again to all the wonderful celebs we met over the weekend, and a special thanks to our Convention Team; Captain Kiki, Captain Smirk, ZeroniusRex, LaughingTrendy, TacoFangs, ThomastheCrypticCat, CaptainGeko, Kestrel, CrypticFrost, QuantumMeerkat, JHeinig, RogueEnterprise, TrailTurtle PWGroverClvlnd and everyone who helped us bring this plan to fruition. We couldn't have done this without the hard work of our teammates and all of our great fans, both at the show, and at home.

We will see you all in-game, and we wish you a happy holiday season!

CaptainSmirk
Community Manager
Star Trek Online