|
Beyond Ivan Cook's All New Phoenix Comic, Star Trek and SF Film Con and the many guest appearances by Star Trek cast and crew members at other conventions, there have been a string of dedicated Star Trek conventions in Arizona without obvious ownership. I'm assuming at this point that most of them were run by Creation Entertainment (creationent.com). Hopefully more research will highlight whether that's true or not.
Creation was founded in 1971 by two 14 year old kids, Adam Malin and Gary Berman, and it's gone on to run over 2,300 conventions. Initially these were Creation Con comic book conventions held in New York, but they expanded outwards in the 1980s. In 1984 they started hosting Fangoria Weekend of Horrors events and focusing in on specific franchises for events, like Star Trek and Doctor Who. They were certainly responsible for the Supernatural shows from 2015-2017 and the Vampire Diaries show in 2017.
It's hard to describe how pervasive these events were. In some years, like 1989, 1990 or 1993, Star Trek conventions counted for fully half of the fandom conventions in state. This is why, for the longest time, when the general public thought about fandom, they thought Star Trek. In 1991, we even had two on the very same weekend, one in Phoenix and one in Tucson, with William Shatner appearing as a guest at both.
Like their contemporary equivalents for other shows, these events were commercial gate shows that didn't pay much attention to what else was happening in state. They often clashed with older events like LepreCon, CopperCon or TusCon. In one instance, they even clashed with each other, two separate Star Trek conventions being hosted on 7 Sep 1996 at different venues in Tucson, with different guests.
|
| # |
Date |
Location |
Chair |
Guests |
Book |
Web |
Name |
| 1 |
1983
2 Apr
3 Apr |
Hyatt Regency Paradise Valley Mall
Phoenix |
|
Bibi Besch
Walter Koenig
Judson Scott |
|
|
1 |
| 2 |
1988
6 Feb
7 Feb |
Sheraton
Phoenix |
|
George Takei
Richard Arnold |
|
|
1 |
| 3 |
1988
4 Jun
5 Jun |
Sheraton
Phoenix |
|
Michael Dorn |
|
|
2 |
| 4 |
1988
9 Jul
10 Jul |
Hyatt Regency
Phoenix |
|
William Shatner
Nichelle Nichols |
|
|
1 |
| 5 |
1989
11 Feb |
Days Inn
Tucson |
|
Nichelle Nichols |
|
|
1 |
| 6 |
1989
11 Mar
12 Mar |
|
|
Jonathan Frakes |
|
|
3 |
| 7 |
1989
22 Jul
23 Jul |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
Wil Wheaton |
|
|
4 |
| 8 |
1989
7 Oct
8 Oct |
Sheraton Phoenix
Phoenix |
|
|
|
|
4 |
| 9 |
1990
20 Jan
21 Jan |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
Patrick Stewart |
|
|
5 |
| 10 |
1990
19 May
20 May |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
James Doohan
Ron Fassler |
|
|
6 |
| 11 |
1990
6 Oct
7 Oct |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| 12 |
1991
2 Feb
3 Feb |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| 13 |
1991
1 Jun
2 Jun |
Sheraton
Phoenix |
|
William Shatner
Marina Sirtis |
|
|
1 |
| 14 |
1991
2 Jun |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
William Shatner |
|
|
1 |
| 15 |
1992
22 Feb
23 Feb |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
Marina Sirtis |
|
|
7 |
| 16 |
1992
6 Jun
7 Jun |
Arizona State Fairgrounds
Phoenix |
|
Gates McFadden |
|
|
1 |
| 17 |
1992
14 Nov
15 Nov |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
|
|
|
8 |
| 18 |
1993
7 Mar |
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
Patrick Stewart |
|
|
1 |
| 19 |
1993
6 Jun
7 Jun |
Arizona State Fairgrounds
Phoenix |
|
|
|
|
1 |
| 20 |
1993
14 Aug |
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
DeForest Kelley
Michael Dorn
Armin Shimerman |
|
|
1 |
| 21 |
1994
16 Jan |
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
Jonathan Frakes
Marina Sirtis
Ronald D. Moore
Brannon Braga
Lolita Fatjo |
|
|
2 |
| 22 |
1994
30 Apr |
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
William Shatner |
|
|
1 |
| 23 |
1994
6 Aug
|
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
Leonard Nimoy
Robin Curtis |
|
|
1 |
| 24 |
1994
6 Nov
|
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
Brent Spiner |
|
|
2 |
| 25 |
1995
19 Feb |
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Phoenix |
|
|
|
|
1 |
| 26 |
1995
10 Sep |
Phoenix Civic Plaza
Phoenix |
|
Walter Koenig
Michael Dorn
Robert Picardo |
|
|
1 |
| 27 |
1996
17 Mar |
Phoenix Civic Plaza
Phoenix |
|
DeForest Kelley
Terry Farrell
Tim Russ |
|
|
2 |
| 28 |
1996
7 Sep |
Embassy Suites
Tucson |
|
John de Lancie |
|
|
9 |
| 29 |
1996
7 Sep |
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson |
|
William Shatner |
|
|
10 |
| 30 |
1997
23 Feb |
Phoenix Civic Plaza
Phoenix |
|
Marina Sirtis
Dean Haglund
Jason Carter |
|
|
11 |
| 31 |
1997
26 Aug
28 Aug |
Adams Hotel
Phoenix |
|
|
|
|
12 |
| 32 |
1998
30 May |
Phoenix Civic Plaza
Phoenix |
|
Leonard Nimoy |
|
|
1 |
| 33 |
1998
7 Jun |
Holiday Inn
Tucson |
|
James Doohan
Walter Koenig
Nichelle Nichols
George Takei |
|
|
13 |
| 34 |
2000
12 Feb
13 Feb |
Mesa Community & Conference Center
Mesa |
|
Michael Dorn
Robert Beltran
Grace Lee Whitney
Gary Lockwood
June Lockhart |
|
|
14 |
| 35 |
2001
20 Oct
21 Oct |
Phoenix Civic Plaza
Phoenix |
|
Roxann Dawson
LeVar Burton
Virginia Hey |
|
|
15 |
| 36 |
2004
14 Feb
15 Feb |
Phoenix Hilton East
Mesa |
|
William Shatner |
|
|
16 |
| 37 |
2011
9 Apr
10 Apr |
Sheraton Crescent Hotel
Phoenix |
|
J. G. Hertzler
Max Grodenchik
Robert O'Reilly
Armin Shimerman
Gwynyth Walsh
Barbara March
Jeffrey Combs
Casey Biggs
Vaughn Armstrong
Barry Jenner |
|
 |
17 |
