Blog I - Why the Calgary Entertainment Expo is Worth Going to

Like last year I figured it would be a great idea to write a debrief about what was experienced at the Calgary Entertainment Expo for 2012. I have decided to do it again this year but in three distinct parts with a lot more pictures in it.

Blog I - Why Calgary Entertainment Expo is worth going to
Blog II – The experience of the 2012 Expo
Blog III – The Good and the Bad

In all honesty, this is a blog I should of wrote and published before the con itself but I didn’t so lets call it a retrospective, in past tense. So the first question is why should you care about the Calgary Entertainment Expo? Isn’t it a collection of a bunch on DnD nerds and social outcasts? Well yes, but it is this and a lot more. As much as people will refer to it as a Comic Con, as I so often do, it isn’t just about comics. The expo brings in mainstream movie actors from sci-fi, horror, and fantasy genres. Artists from across North America that do print comics, web comics and art for the sake of art. This also includes jewelers, armorers, body artist and costumers. There are booths for War Hammer, Magic, Dnd and even just regular board games like Settlers, and Ticket to Ride. And then yeah there is a lot of comic stands, artists and even some writers that make it out This expo is the largest that Calgary has ever seen of its nature. There is a good reason for that. Our amazing organizers, who are all volunteers, managed to bring out some pretty big names.

First, a whole plethora of media guests…
• Adam West of the original Batman series
• Robert Englund of Nightmare on Elm Street
• Adam Baldwin of Serenity, Chuck and many block busters
• Amanda Tapping of Stargate and Sanctuary
• Katee Sackoff, Aaron Douglas, and Richard Hatch of BSG
• James Marsters of Buffy
• Prominent voice actors

Then, more significantly Stan Lee. Even if you don’t think this one is significant, it is. Being the creator of Marvel Comics and a lot of its most significant characters, Stan Lee’s studio in the form of comics, movies, and television shows has blasted the mainstream nowadays. To add a cherry on top, the Avengers movie is released the week after the con. The reason you should see Stan Lee apart from his work is because he is 90 years old. He is getting up there and there may be less and less of an opportunity to ever see him again, and from what I have seen of him in documentaries and interviews he seems like a really cool guy.

Most significantly is the 9 principle members of the Star Trek The Next Generation cast. This is the first time this has happened ever… Since Wil Wheaton left the show. It is the 25th anniversary of the show itself making this the perfect staging for such an immense event. Even though I am not a fan of TNG this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Through their work they made significant contributions to making the science fiction genre more accessible. And the cast has some amazing talent. Patrick Stewart, the captain is a knighted Shakespearian theatre actor. Wil Wheaton is a nerd messiah who leads people to great science fiction and has helped make things that are nerdy more accessible to everyone. For the event they have a hefty priced photo op available as well as a special evening panel.

This year the expo had the largest footprint of any year. First year I went they occupied BMO Centre Halls D and E and the Palomino for panels. In 2011 the expo grew and took over the main area, BMO Centre Halls A,B and C, and the Corral and the Boyce theatre because last year they had Shatner. This year with all the guests, they had all of the above. The Corral, the Palomino and all five halls of the BMO centre.

This year the organizers have also taken strides to make nerdem more accessible year-round by once every month screening a piece of pop culture nostalgia at the Plaza theatre. Movies like...
• The original Batman film (1960s)
• Serenity
• Star Trek First Contact
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Once More with Feeling episode and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog
• A Nightmare on Elm Street

 These events help bring the crowds by raising awareness and the staff make talking about the even that much easier by offering Q &A periods. To chat them up a bit more, after the last con, they would ask on their site, who people wanted to see? What could be improved? Having them start the conversation like goes to show how much they want to make an event that is for us the audience. Emily Expo’s facebook made asking questions about the event in advance an easy and personable experience. We talked and they listened. I noticed this blog is getting a bit long so I will close. VIP. This year Nicole talked me into getting VIP tickets back in December before any big names were even announced. The con experience for VIP is a drastically different one, and one I am very excited to try. All of this promises to make a Great Con for the Calgary entertainment expo.