Creation ST-Nash VIP Experience Weekend

Creation Presents ST-NASH: Trek to Nashville

September 13-15, 2024

Embassy Suites by Hilton Nashville SE Murfreesboro
1200 Conference Center Blvd.
Murfreesboro, TN 37129

Michelle Hurd, Gates McFadden, Sonequa Martin-Green, Dawnn Lewis, and Tawny Newsome.

The Ultimate Experience

My birthday has been somewhat of a non-celebratory downer since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 – the attacks cancelled my celebration when I lived and worked in NYC and my birthday was never the same again.

This year I was turning 50 on September 15, 2024 and wanted to celebrate. Most of the people I know were helping run a big event in the city of Nashville that day so I knew I was on my own. Most of my family has passed away. As I was driving home one evening I had an idea.

I was driving on Briley Parkway before the highway began and saw a big gold building. At the same time, I saw the Creation Convention ad for a show in September in the Nashville area with Sonequa Martin-Green.

I thought it would be cool to go to a show. I hadn’t been to a Star Trek show since the late 1980’s. I saw the Gold Front Row seating option and decided at that moment I could drive my car with one hand and buy the ticket on my Ipad with the other. This would be my birthday – meeting Sonequa Martin-Green.

I bought a few photo ops and autographs. The choices I made initially were Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Anson Mount, and John DeLancie but later upon meeting them, I’d also buy Christina Chong and Jess Bush. (Photo Ops are really where the fun happens along with autographs – I learned along the way it’s important to load up on these).

I thought I was done but I did some reading on Creation shows. It seemed the VIP experience was the way to go. The VIP included meet and greet opportunities, someone to guide you through the weekend, and priority in lines. It was done through an auction process and I was fortunate to win a slot.

Registration and Getting Started with the VIP Experience

Ethan Phillips couldn’t make it but we got a photo.

The Convention began with registration on Thursday night. The registration process was very smooth. I believe I was the first one in line and was given my pass, then later on the rest of my package. The registration staff was very accommodating and impressively professional in terms of explaining the different passes and what I needed to have with me.

During Thursday night registration I was informed Ethan Phillips cancelled. Creation was great with this because they included an Ethan Phillips signed photo which we would have gotten in-person with the Gold package. It was nice to have this even though the Benson actor was unable to attend.

The next day I was able to go to the VIP room and meet the other VIP convention goers. We would be in a room separate from everyone else with munchies, a place to park our gear, lunch, and more. There were three other VIP convention goers that day. I still didn’t understand totally how the process worked but through the day it became apparent to me that I didn’t have to – our wonderful guide handled nearly everything for us.

In the VIP room, the Star Trek guests came to us. Part of the VIP process includes not taking transcripted notes, recording or photos or tell your own stories to the guests (unless asked) so I will relate it broad strokes without discussing specific conversation details. The room is stocked with snacks and lunch is served daily.

The first thing I will say is the VIP experience is the way to go, hands down. Front Row Gold isn’t enough. The VIP experience gave us a few things I wasn’t expecting: a more broad range of things to talk about, a group experience, and a guide who was very agile in terms of meeting our needs.

We met a variety of people on the guest list. The VIP experience gave us a chance to talk to the guests about things other than Star Trek. I was especially glad they were willing to talk about things like life experiences. They were open to talking about topics like grief and loss, parenting, and sports as well as their experiences on Star Trek. I appreciated getting to know them as people – not actors, not Star Trek actors, but as regular people who go through the same things we do in life. I also wanted to be treated as a person, not just as a Star Trek fan and during these VIP experiences, I truly felt that the actors saw and treated us as people, not as fans. It’s probably one of the things I valued the most from the VIP experience as far as the talent went.

The group experience is something I’ll never forget. Our VIP group had people from all different backgrounds. We each were able to share with the group about our backgrounds and lives. Everyone had something a little different to offer and something different they were looking for from the weekend. What I found was it was fun to run around with them from room to room as well as sit and chill during the down time. I have kept in contact with a few since the show and never expected to have made friends that would stay in contact after the show.

I think the secret sauce to the VIP experience was our guide. Our guide managed our entire experience beginning to end. It took a lot of the stress out of trying to make individual signings, photo ops, and other convention experiences. Our guide had the ability to adapt on the fly to what we wanted to do, changing convention schedules, and at the same time exercise judgement in terms of the rules we all had to follow as part of the VIP experience. Our guide made the experience fun and was willing to share in the experience with us.

Our guide fostered a sense of community and camaraderie within the VIP group. She also managed people with different levels of fandom very well. There are casual fans, there are cosplay fans, there are fans who can recite shows line-by-line and so forth. She was able to foster a sense of excitement for the weekend. She also treated we VIPs as people – not franchise fans – I felt treated as a person doing this experience. For me personally that’s very important. She also came across as a real person, real interests, and real vulnerabilities while listening and showing empathy to others.

Panels

Panels are the staple of any show. The VIP experience also requires a Gold Package purchase which gives you some of the best seats in the house. It was also great to be able to slide in-and-out without losing one’s seat.

One panel featured Dominic Keating, Cirroc Lofton, and Connor Trinneer.

One panel featured Gabrielle Ruiz.

One panel featured David Ajala and Doug Jones.

Music Shows

The first evening featured a show with Anthony Rapp. This is a must-see even if you are general admission and purchase the ticket separately. If you lived in New York City and saw “Rent” then this is a total must for you. I did. He brings some of that experience to his show.

The second evening featured the Rat Pack show. This is also a must see even if you need to double back and buy a ticket. I didn’t know any of the music they did their songs from but I didn’t have to – they are so entertaining.

The Dealers Room

In the dealers room, the experience may not be the same as a busier show. I don’t know that the dealers room would have been half the experience it was for me if the convention were busier. For me as a birthday weekend, I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

The Nashville area show was not as heavily attended as other shows so I think it lent itself to being able to connect with the guests more often and for longer.

Photo Ops and Autographs

Doug Jones and me 15 years ago making movies

Doug Jones is an actor I was familiar with. 15 years ago I helped run a film company. We scored him as an actor for a production called “Candy Shop” which was an allegory about sex trafficking. Sadly the executive director of the film company passed away, leaving a daughter who also worked with us and loved Doug Jones.

I was the studio accountant for the Doorpost Film Project, a producer on that film. Doug was the first actor I met on the first film set I ever set foot on. We had dinner after a day of filming. He was amazing then and amazing now.

I was able to spend some time in the vendor room with Doug Jones and talk a little about one of the directors (Dan Ireland) we lost a few years ago as well as the executive director who we just lost last year. Doug was nice enough to re-create the picture we took and sign a photo for the girl who lost her father – he was on set during Candy Shop and loved Doug as does his daughter. This was also the 1 year anniversary of her fathers passing so I mailed the signed picture out to her and sent her a video of him signing for her.

Jess Bush – she was fun to meet and one of my birthday photos.

One of the first VIP visits we got was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Jess Bush and Christina Chong. I wasn’t originally going to do photos with each but they were such nice people I went online and ordered photo ops and autographs. I fast found that these two experiences did two things: they captured a memory and were something to do that was pretty fun during the show. I am not an autograph or photo op collector – but I did find the experience fun. It was my birthday weekend and they were both kind enough to personalize the photos with birthday wishes.

Christina Chong was fun in particular during the photo op as she danced from one side and I danced from the other, meeting in the middle as the photographer snapped the shot.

The Gold Package included signatures for Vaughn Armstrong, Casey Biggs, and Jeffrey Combs. I was able to swing by the dealers room and grab some photos. All 3 actors were great signers. We saw them as a group during the VIP visit.

The reason I did this whole thing in the first place.

Sonequa Martin-Green was the main reason I did this experience in the first place. She and her husband are known as people of faith – I had seen her be bold on the CBS morning show – and I really wanted an opportunity to meet her. She was kind enough to wish me a happy birthday and sing happy birthday to me. We were able to discuss faith a few times that Sunday including plans she and her husband have for a production company. I showed her how badly my cheeks came out in our photo and she reminded me that’s the way God made me. She was very encouraging.

Gates McFadden was amazing. Meeting her has been a near life-long dream since I sat in my kitchen at 14 years old and watched Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. My family was beginning to fall apart through divorce and Star Trek: The Next Generation was something I latched on to. I would sit in the kitchen while the rest of the family was in a different room and I’d just watch the show week – no one else would watch it with me.

Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) was my favorite character / actress on the show. In the dealers room I was able to share a little about how I arrived in this country during the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. She mentioned she worked on a production that involved a Vietnamese character. I was also able to share about adopting and she was excited to see a photo of my daughter and encouraged me to write a book. Overall this was my deer-in-the-headlights moment. I couldn’t believe after 35 years I was taking to Dr. Crusher. I knew she had a real name, it just escaped me at that moment.

Michelle Hurd was a pleasant surprise. In the dealers room we had a great talk about addiction and how silent but deadly it is. Michelle Hurd is a deep and passionate person when it comes to this topic and I truly enjoyed the fact that she didn’t shy away from it or talking about how people struggle with it. She was one (along with Todd Stashwick) I wished I’d done a photo op with. I told her I lost my sister to addiction. We talked about how it’s a silent killer and I believe she mentioned she saw people respond to our discussion of it during the Women of Star Trek panel…speaking of which…

My Favorite Panel

Sunday morning was the “Women of Star Trek” panel. It was also my actual birthday. Sonequa Martin-Green had made a statement showing she was a woman off faith so I decided to ask a question during the panel and connect to her statement. I was the first one to ask that morning and it was my first question ever:

“What is it like working on a TV show that has meaning? During the 1960’s the original Star Trek was produced during the Vietnam War – the war of which I was airlifted out of [(and testified I was only here by the grace of God) to which Sonequa-Martin Green responded positively to] – Star Trek: the Next Generation dealt with a variety of issues as did Star Trek Picard – in particular the character Raffi’s arc with addiction. What is it like working on a show that has meaning? I enjoy a procedural like NCIS and I like to laugh watching the Big Bang Theory – but those aren’t shows with meaning like Star Trek. What’s that like?”

It opened up a good conversation about the difference Star Trek makes. Michelle Hurd took the addiction piece and ran with it, while the other actors each contributed something to the discussion. Admittedly I probably sucked alot of the oxygen out of the room and it was a long question with a long answer but I figured it was my last convention so Creation couldn’t ban me from something I was never coming back to. I was also approached several times after the panel by people with questions for me. (About 3 weeks later I gave my first ever complete talk about my story at an event in Nashville, TN).

I had follow up conversations with Sonequa Martin-Green, Gates McFadden, and Michelle Hurd later that day. With Sonequa Martin-Green it was particularly fun to discuss showing our faith on a Sunday morning at a Star Trek convention. Doug Jones later remarked to me how bold she is known to be with her faith and how encouraging it was to him that we brought a little church to the Star Trek convention on a Sunday morning.

Other Encounters

There were a few other encounters to talk about.

Anson Mount is from the Middle Tennessee area so it was nice to have someone local.
Cirroc Lofton and I discussed how his character and Avery Brooks character on Deep Space Nine helped shape my parenting style – Cirroc was grateful I adopted and wanted to see a photo of my African American adoptive daughter..
Todd Stashwick was very pleasant – I didn’t do an autograph or a photo op but I enjoyed talking to the actor I also saw on S.W.A.T. a few years back. I truly wish I had done a photo op with him.
Dominic Keating was kind enough to let me spend some time with him during breakfast – and I saw him later dripping wet & shirtless in an elevator.
Lastly, Anthony Rapp was incredible to talk to about loss. We talked a little in the dealers room about it because he talked about it during his music show – I lived in NYC in the early 2000’s and saw Rent. Anthony Rapp is someone who truly understands loss, the grieving process, and how to live in the world you find yourself in afterwards. It was also nice to connect with another former New Yorker.

The Best Birthday Ever – 50th

On Sunday morning, the VIP group threw me a birthday party. It was probably the first time in a long time I fully celebrated since the towers fell in 2001. The VIP group were a great group of people to spend my 50th birthday with and it’s something I’ll never forget.

Group Adventures

On one group adventure we went to the Land of the Lost! Part of the VIP experience is going on unexpected adventures with your fellow VIP’ers. VIP adventures aren’t guaranteed but they are a lot of fun when they happen.

My late sister liked the Land of the Lost. I really didn’t. But it was nice because every time I saw the Land of the Lost people in the dealers room I thought of my late sister.

To Boldly Go…

In the end I can’t imagine a better experience than I had at the Creation ST Nash show with the VIP Experience and the group of people in it. The guests, the guide, and the staff worked hard to make it a great experience for us. I’ve made friends I didn’t realize I’ll have for many years to come.

The adventure continues however…one VIP member signed up for VIP for another show in another city while I continued on to meet William Shatner at another unrelated event a few weeks later. We all hope to get together for a meal soon. We boldly go on…

Meeting the Shat!

After attending the Creation ST Nash event I decided to go to Lexington, KY to meet William Shatner and get a photo. The event was a movie screening, panel, and photo op with William Shatner run by Legion M.

Twin Cities Comics got the photo autographed at SpaceCon in Texas. It was a dream come true and the top item on my bucket list – and only remaining – now crossed off.