It was 5PM on Sunday night, and a deafening roar could be heard from the main stage. William Shatner was taking his bow after an hour long Q&A session, and the audience was giving him a standing ovation. It was the perfect end to an incredible three days at Star Trek: Mission New York.

The convention was an inaugural collaboration for CBS Consumer Products and ReedPop, the same convention company responsible for Star Wars Celebration and the PAX conventions.

The result was a the type of Star Trek convention I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid.

I’ve been attending fandom conventions for nearly 20 years – conventions that are big, small, fan-run, professionally-run, and everything in between. What I’ve wanted all these years, is for Star Trek to get the same convention opportunity that Star Wars fans have had for the past several years – something TrekCore’s Rob Heyman pined for in his column last year.

When ReedPop announced their partnership with CBS, I was hopeful… and thankfully, those hopes were not dashed. Star Trek: Mission New York proved to be an incredibly enjoyable experience, especially set just a few blocks away from the Intrepid Museum’s Starfleet Academy Experience.

It was the kind of convention Trek had long since deserved. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly a fantastic freshman effort. Here are compliments to the Mission New York team – and some constructive suggestions for next time around.

A Well-Organized Weekend

The convention featured plentiful signage that was easy to see; every panel room had a weekend-long agenda near its entrance; convention staff members were always just around the corner when you needed them, and were all friendly and polite; the official merchandise booth had plenty of placards showing the items for sale, their costs, and if they were sold out; and autograph and photo-op stations were well-marked with actor availability schedules and prices.

In addition – and this is a big plus – all of the autographing guests had signing fees available on the convention website ahead of the weekend, allowing fans to budget for the event.

Plenty of Elbow Room

The vendor/exhibitor room was the appropriate size, which is something that conventions rarely get right. Vendors are usually packed in like sardines, making it nearly impossible to browse and move around. At this convention, the aisles were wide and there was plenty of room between each stall.

For the exhibitors, which sometimes had small lines for their activities, this meant they had plenty of room to queue attendees without blocking aisles. At the most popular booths – the Hallmark ornament display and the Mission New York exclusive merchandise tables – their team smartly organized a queue to allow attendees to check out their wares without being mobbed by the crowd.

Elusive Exclusives

That said, some of the best exclusive Mission New York merchandise was sold out before the first – and most sparsely-attended – day had even ended. I was lucky enough to nab a nicely-designed shirt and a cool “Quark’s Bar” pint glass, but fans arriving Friday afternoon were out of luck when they got to the event only to find both out of stock.

Event-exclusive merchandise is expected to be a limited quantity, but selling out that quickly makes things seemed a bit poorly planned – and those who weren’t there early on Day 1 missed out on some great items.

Mobile Magic

I can’t say enough good things about the official Star Trek Missions mobile app. Having all of the convention info at your fingertips – from panel details to event scheduling to autograph and photo op timetables – was extremely helpful, especially the ability to ‘favorite’ events throughout the weekend.

Not only did the app update whenever panels were changed or removed from the schedule (which happened once or twice before the convention weekend), it popped out notifications on our mobile devices ten minutes before each ‘favorited’ event on our list – a great service in a building without many clocks!

Gaming and Gadgets Galore

There were several Star Trek game developers offering demos at the convention, including Star Trek Online, Star Trek Timelines, the Star Trek: Bridge Crew virtual reality game, and tabletop games including Star Trek: Five-Year Mission and Star Trek: Ascendancy.

There were also several interesting exhibitors, including a huge NASA hub, Hallmark (featuring every ornament they’ve ever made, including a special convention-exclusive Enterprise), the Smithsonian Channel, who was 3D printing phasers on-site, and a visit from the Original Series Set Tour in upstate New York, on site for photo ops on the Enterprise bridge.

Odd Absences

A few seemingly-obvious vendors were missing, especially with some of the events featured throughout the weekend: 455 Films presented For The Love of Spock, but had no table for fans to purchase the film or their previous works (like Chaos on the Bridge).

Nick Meyer screened the new Wrath of Khan Director’s Cut and Roger Lay, Jr. hosted a “Trek Into HD” panel on the upcoming Roddenberry Vault, but there was no booth with Trek Blu-ray releases. Mark Altman and Ed Gross had a great “Lost Treks” panel with highlights from The Fifty Year Mission, but fans couldn’t buy those new books on-site (their first panel fan question was “So… where can I buy them?”).

Most surprising – especially with the highlight STAR TREK: DISCOVERY writer’s panel and signage everywhere – there was no CBS All Access presence to educate people about the streaming service (or to encourage subscriptions) ahead of January’s new series.

Brilliant Badges

One of the neatest things about attending the convention was the Mission New York admittance badges, which arrived in the mail for pre-registering guests about two weeks before the event. In addition to cutting down on the usual lines to get in – which meant most people could just walk right in when displaying the badges to the staff – they also became a great conversation starter for everyone waiting line for panels or autographs.

At least fifteen different designs, from event staff to vendors, panel guests to kids’ passes, featured a different Trek character, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard, “Oh, what’s YOUR badge?” from people milling about the event. Several people even got them autographed by the actor portrayed on their badge – like Bill Shatner or Kate Mulgrew – which also makes for great convention memories.

Easy Eats

Snack vendors were inside all major areas, including inside the main hall – which means that if you were eagerly awaiting the next big panel event, you wouldn’t even have to leave the room to grab a quick bite to eat! Hot dogs, popcorn, soft pretzels, and soft drinks were available in many locations around the convention, along with a Pinkberry cart and small grilled-food vendor in the back of the merch room.

There were open newsstands with prepackaged food and drink options, a Starbucks inside the main level of the Javits Center, and a few regular food trucks parked out front.

Forgettable Food

Sure, there were plenty of snacks, there were basically no substantial meal options. (One cannot live on soft pretzels alone!) For those attending all three days – and living inside the Javits Center for eight-or-more hours each day – subsisting on salty snacks was pretty difficult. Our team began to bring our own snacks after the first day to at least put something healthy in our stomachs before leaving the convention center each evening

There was a food court located near the main hall, but none of those vendors were open during the event. If they could have just staffed one or two of those food options, it would have made a huge difference.

Trek Stars from Both On-Screen and Off

There was a wide variety of featured guests – and not just the usual Trek actors I’m used to seeing at conventions. Don’t get me wrong, they had a great variety of actors from each series – even the rarely-seen, hard-working Roxann Dawson – and they even made an effort to include actors from the Kelvin Timeline (sadly Karl Urban had to cancel due to work commitments).

But what made this convention stand out from others was the inclusion of so many people who were connected with Trek production in other ways – from Brannon Braga joining the Voyager cast on stage, to many contributors from the Trek novel and comic teams, to Jordan Hoffman recording an episode of Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast live, and allowing writer Kirsten Beyer and writer/producer Nick Meyer to headline the STAR TREK: DISCOVERY panel.

(Above: Talking Trek comics with IDW’s John Byrne, Chis Ryall, and Sarah Gaydos.)

An Over-Packed House

The biggest events were scheduled in the Javits Center’s main hall – but for the large crowds at the cast panels and at the DISCOVERY discussion, it was a hugely-frustrating process for new entrants, as the convention organizers had decided not to clear the seating areas between panels, even with a full half-hour scheduled between them.

Say what you will about Creation events, but people know they will get a seat for even the largest-attended sessions when they buy their ticket – and we saw a few panels with dozens stuck outside the room as the doors were closed. All the more disappointing is that we saw available single seats free among the crowds during these apparently ‘filled to capacity’ events – even when people were lined up on the side aisles due to the crowds.

Clearing the non-VIP seating between panels – or at least setting up display screens outside the main hall for the overflow crowd – would give everyone a fair shot to see the headline programming.

Popular Panels

This convention had several events offered for each time slot, giving attendees many diverse options beyond just the typical actor Q&As. One of my favorites was a Mark Altman and Ed Gross’s panel on “Lost Treks,” where they discussed several unproduced pitches and roads not taken over the franchise’s history. We got to see some concept art and hear stories that I’d otherwise never been exposed to, even after nearly two decades of convention attendance.

There was also a great panel featuring the children of Gene Roddenberry and Leonard Nimoy (“Growing Up Trek”); NASA and the Smithsonian both had a great programming presence at the convention; and there was even a panel on Trek and today’s racial struggles (“Star Trek Into Blackness”). So many great options, we could barely decide which to prioritize.

(Above: Mark Altman, Roger Lay, Jr., Michael Jan Friedman, and Ed Gross’s “Lost Treks” panel.)

[td_smart_list_end]

The Final Reflection

I got the impression from some of the chatter around the Javits Center that attendance was lower than organizers may have wanted – though that certainly picked up upon Mulgrew and Shatner’s arrival Sunday – but I hope that doesn’t dissuade the powers-that-be from doing another convention like it.

I thought attendance was solid, given the fact it was competing with Dragon Con, an enormous East Coast event each Labor Day, which most fans have plans for almost a year in advance. It was also happening soon after two Creation Entertainment Star Trek conventions – the annual “Official Star Trek Convention” in Las Vegas, and a smaller yearly show just an hour away in New Jersey.

People aren’t going to commit to attending a convention until ticket prices or guests are announced, and it took way too long for that information to come out about Mission New York – especially for those who would need to travel. Fans making plans to travel for a convention in 2016 had probably already made their decisions long before this event had even been announced.

My sincere hope is that there will be another Star Trek: Mission New York event in the next year or two, and that the organizers will announce it a great deal earlier – and while I know that not all guest scheduling can be announced early, some more advanced notice for NYC guests can surely come next time around… especially when the Vegas convention can start to put out names nearly a year ahead of time.

We’ve seen that that ReedPop will be sending out surveys to attendees in the near future, and we certainly hope they take some of the fan feedback to heart in planning the next convention – but believe me, despite some of the minor complaints I’ve mentioned here, I’m excited to go back again in a heartbeat.

It was an incredible experience, especially for a first-time event, and it was unlike any other Star Trek convention I’ve attended. I’m ready for the next Mission!