Fan Expo 2011 - Friday

First of all yes I realize this post is incredibly late, I've been meaning to write this up and post it for ages but never actually got around to actually doing it so here goes.

Friday was the first full day of the convention however since I was taking the GO train into Toronto to get there and since it was still during the week I didn't actually make it to the convention centre until around 11:30 or so I think even though the convention actually opened at 10:00 ( I believe, I still actually have quite vivid memories of the convention despite it being almost 5 months ago but there are going to be things I'm not positive about) but since there really wasn't anything on in the morning that day I really wanted to catch I wasn't really too concerned about getting there late.  In fact it was actually kinda nice since when I got there there was no line at all and I was just able to walk straight into the convention centre and onto the main floor with no problems and no delays at all.  There were definitely more people in the main convention area already today then there were on the Thursday but it still didn't seem overly crowded which was nice.  All of the booths were set up and manned now and there were a couple of more celebrities in the signing area so everything seemed alot busier now.  The first thing I was really interested in was a signing by Zoie Palmer one of the cast of Lost Girl but that wasn't until 1:00 I think so I still had plenty of time before that so I figured I'd just walk around the convention and just take it all in really at this point since the day before alot of it hadn't been setup yet.  This is when I really realized that there is a ton of stuff to see just in terms of the floor alone not counting any panels or anything else, I myself am not really into collecting in many regards but I can see how people interested in that could spend ages just looking at the booths and the vendors alone.  I tried to get a good sense of where things were in relation to each other so that I could get to the various booths and areas I was interested in fairly quickly when I needed to get there.  I made sure to keep walking by the Lost Girl booth, which is where the signing was going to be, as the time got closer to 1:00 so that I could get in line if one started forming.  I didn't really see much of a line forming till around 12:45 so at that time I joined the line and so had a pretty good spot and was able to meet her soon after 1:00 (Since Saturday pretty much ended up being my Lost Girl day at the convention I'll wait till then to really say more about meeting the cast).  The first Q&A panel I was looking forward to going to was at 2:30 with Lexa Doig who had been in a number of shows I really like specifically Andromeda, Eureka and SG1, so I explored the convention floor a little more then heading up to the room to wait for a good seat for the panel.  Unfortunately though once 2:30 came around we were informed that sadly both her and her Husband Michael Shanks weren't going to make it due to weather (At this time there had been Tornado/Hurricane warnings for the area so a few of the guests weren't able to make it till late in the convention and some not at all).  This was really the only disappointing thing for me during the whole convention since Michael Shanks Q&A, which was supposed to be later on this day, was one of the things I had been looking forward to most as I have always been a huge fan of Stargate and SG1 but life is life and something can't be helped.  So since the two panels I had been interested had been cancelled I suddenly had alot of time to kill since the next thing I was interested in wasn't until 7:30pm which was a screening of the first hour of the pilot of Terra Nova, this was the first time any of it had been shown in Canada.  Since I had hours now to kill I went back down to the main convention floor and checked out a few of the vendors I had noticed while I was scouting everything out.  I have never really been much of an overt fan, in the sense of having shirts etc, of some of my favourite shows and game I figured I should start to remedy that so spent a good little while looking through the different T-shirt stands especially and ended up getting a Starcraft 2 shirt that I really liked.  I also looked through a number of the comic vendors and picked a few of the Guild one-shot comics that I didn't have.  I also decided that since I had quite a bit of time to kill I'd take the time and go stand in line to get one of the autographs I wanted, this being from Kevin Sorbo.  I had pretty much grown up watching him on Hercules and then later in Andromeda so I had been debating whether I wanted to pay to get his autograph and ultimately the Q&A panel he did the day before is what made me decide to go for it, I am much happier supporting someone that clearly enjoys what he is doing but also very clearly cares about the people he is making entertainment for.  So I stood in line for a bit I am not sure how long but it wasn't long and got the chance to meet him, shake his hand, get his autograph and talk very briefly to him which was nice, I will say that all of the celebrities that I got autographs from were very nice and friendly and even though there was often a line waiting I never really felt rushed or that they weren't happy to meet their fans which is something I know I really appreciated.  After all that I was feeling a little beat and worn out, I have scoliosis in my lower back so if I am standing or walk alot it tends to get quite sore, so I just found an out of the way corner and sat down and had some water and an O'Henry bar I had packed and just rested for a bit.  I am not exactly sure of the timing or order of alot of the things I mentioned I just remember them taking place in that time frame.  I eventually ended up just heading up to the room where the screening was going to take place quite a bit early since I didn't really have anything else to do and was a little tired from exploring the convention floor quite thoroughly, I wasn't really in line for anything since there were a couple of panels in the room it was going to be in and unlike what I heard from people at SDCC here they cleared the rooms before each panel so you couldn't just go in and sit there for as many panels as you want.  Once the last panel before the screening started I did go and take a seat along the wall near the entrance as I noticed a few others doing the same.  It was nice to just sit and rest a bit and to just watch people coming and coming and milling around, conventions are incredibly interesting places to people watch :)  As the time of the screening grew closer more and more people started lining up and before long there was quite a long line.  I am not sure if they were getting things setup or waiting for all the press, since this was the first screening of Terra Nova in Canada there were a number of press there as well to see it, but we weren't let into the room till around 7:40 or so and I did get an excellent seat.  The screening got started around 8:15 or so I think and went for an hour.  I actually really enjoyed the screening of it, although I did feel bad at the end as there must have been a graphical glitch on the DVD so it messed up a bit of the picture near the end of the screening.  With the screening this ended up being my latest night at the convention, and ironically the next day was one of my earliest as there was a panel at 11:00 the next morning I really wanted to catch.  All in all though my first full day at Fan Expo was very enjoyable even if some of the Q&A Panels I really wanted to see got cancelled.

Fan Expo - Thursday

Thursday was the first day of Fan Expo but the convention didn't open until 4pm that day, however those with weekend or premium passes were able to get in 2 hours earlier at 2pm so I had planned to try to get to the convention centre at around 1 - 1:30pm as I really wasn't sure what kind of a line there would be given the gap between the early entry and the normal entry.

I think I managed to get there around 1:15 or so and there was a line already well formed, thankfully it was nice out neither really really hot or cold and miserable so I got into line and was enjoying looking at everyone else around as there was definitely a good mix of people in all sorts of costumes from very large and elaborate ones to very minimal ones and everything between.  So that is pretty much how I passed my time while waiting till we could start getting in, I think I finally got onto the main convention floor at around 2:30 or so which I felt worked out well.  It was definitely interesting walking around especially at first as a number of the stands weren't actually setup and open and a bunch of the others were just starting to get everything out and ready so it was interesting to watch them for a little bit.  So I spent a good little while just wandering around the floor checking out where certain booths were that I was interested in, looked at the celebrity autograph area and just generally was checking things out.

There were only really 2 panels that had looked interesting to me on the thursday both were Q&A panels by two of the celebrity guests one at 4:30 and the other at 5:30 which I figured meant that I'd only really be able to go to one of them as based on what I'd heard about panels at other conventions I was planning on trying to be lined up at least an hour in advance for any of the panels I was really interested in so I opted to go for the 5:30 panel which was a Q&A with Kevin Sorbo which I figured would be interesting as I had grown up watching him as Hercules and then later as Dylan Hunt on Andromeda.  So after walking around and checking out the main floor for awhile I was starting to get a little tired and sore (I have scoliosis in my lower back which means my back tends to get fairly sore if I am standing or walking around too much) and I noticed it was a little passed 4 so I figured I'd go find the room the Kevin Sorbo panel was going to be in and see if there was a line yet for it but when I found the room there was no line but the doors were open and it looked like people were already inside sitting down since the Kevin Sorbo panel was the only panel in that room for today so I went in and got a pretty good seat and just rested for awhile.  One thing I should add here as I mentioned before I really didn't know what to expect from this and as I mentioned my back isn't the best so I wanted to try and avoid having to carry anything if I could avoid it so since this day was a shorter day I figured I wouldn't bring anything and just see what other people brought and get a sense of what I would actually need, and while waiting I realized something to add to that list was a good book as the only thing I had with me was my iPhone which had some audiobooks and TV episodes but the headphones I brought weren't too good so I found it hard to enjoy listening/watching it so I pretty much just sat back and relaxed till it started filling up.  The panel itself was great! Kevin Sorbo was just so down to earth and friendly and it really came across that he was having a good time talking about his experiences with his shows and answering peoples questions, he was also alot funnier then I was expecting but all in all I really enjoyed the panel and it just really increased my opinion of him a great deal.

The panel lasted for about an hour so after I was finished there it was around 6:30 and the convention seemed to be winding down so I decided I would head home as well so that I could be rested for the next day and there were a number of things I wanted to get ready so I'd have them with me for the next day.  All in all though it was great first day and I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to the rest of the convention.