Omaha, NE Omegacon Possibilities and Ideas

I would like to start off by saying that I know a lot of you don't know me and probably will take this as being odd. I'm an idea person and a hard worker. Once I get set on something I go for it. I would really like to work with everyone to make this happen. Omaha really needs to get a con here. It's not hard but it's a lot of work. We talked about this at the last meeting a little bit and I was told to take off with this so here I go.

First off we need to select a group of stars that we would like to contact. I think a good idea is to keep it small for the first one. Some ideas

SW CHARACTERS
Chewy - Peter Mayhew
R2 - Kenney Baker
Vader - David Prowse
Yoda - Frank would be awesome

SW VOICE OVER PEOPLE
Ahmad Best
Jerome Blake

SW BEHIND THE SCENES PEOPLE
Special Effects
Graffics
Prop Masters - Don Beis???
Photography

ST PEOPLE
Maybe focus on Enterprise people...I'll explain why later
Garret Wang???(Very good speaker)
John DeLancie

COMICS
Artist
writers
Personalities
Personally I think Todd McFarlan would be great. He's still heavy in the con circuit and not too expensive

I'm open to suggestions here on stars.

Now as far as support(financial or whatever)
Obviously get in bed with Ground Zero.
UPN and Fox affiliates
Dealers
Decipher???
The force.net
Fanforce
R2 Builders group
Replica Props Forum
Also some local and national promoters. I know one a couple that may be interested. Someone also mentioned that they know some locals.

One thing I would also like to suggest is that we get in bed with a local/national charity. It only helps in my opinion.

At the convention we have costumers contests, showings of the movie, auto booths, dealers room, gamers room, prop rooms and food stands.

Idealy I think the best place for this is one of the hotels. Any suggestions???

Advertisment
The internet is a great place for this obviously.
I can get in contact with several midwest comic and hobby shops.
If we get in bed with the local stations then that's free advertisment for 2-4 weeks before the con. Especially if we get an Enterprise star. We can advertise during the show.

The idea here is to start small for the first con and work our way up. I would love to make this an annual event. I think everyone would agree. I'm open to any suggestions here so fire away!!!

 

The first hotel that pops into my mind is the Holiday Inn Central (at least I think its still a HI) at 72nd St and I-80. Excellent mid-city location right off the interstate with several other hotels right there and some resturants. I know they have a fairly large convention center.
Im not too sure about other hotels around town, especially some of the new ones downtown. But I would have to assume the the HI Central is about the best hotel based convention space in Omaha, given its location.

As far as SW actors, I would suggest trying to get ones that werent here for AlphaCon. Prowse, Baker, Bulloch, etc. And maybe limit it to 2, so they dont take away from the other things.
I know nothing about ST, Bob would be the man for that. But again, around 2.
These are just my ideas for actors, the faces. The behind the scenes people and voice over types would be great.

I agree with you on your comics idea's. Again, if someone more into the whole comics thing could give some ideas....But the more the merrier I would think.

One other name. And I think our chances of making it happen would be zero, given I believe he's busy right now, but..... Kevin Smith. Even if its just a one day thing.

All the backing ideas I believe are right on. Maybe throw in a movie/video kinda place. Suncoast was big into Celebration. (I think it was Suncoast.) Maybe see if Blockbuster or Hollywood would be interested. Suncoast has a very limited prescence here, only 2 stores I believe. Maybe a toy store, TRU or KB.

Charity? Depends on what we would want to support. The first thing that came to my mind, and I'm not even sure if it would be considered a "charity" was the Boys Town National Research Hospital.

I think if we got any ST stars, advertising during a ST tv show would be a must. I do see your point about a current star from ST's current entity, but I think any Trek personality would bring them out. Same as with SW fans and actors.
But of course word of mouth, here on the internet, comic shops. The big thing is getting the word out. Probably the one thing that hurt AC the most was lack of advertising.

I think somehow, we have to incorporate the fantasy genre into it. I know the horror stars were very popular at AC. With us being right in the middle of the LOTR trilogy, it would seem foolish to ignore that end of things. I wont begin to imagine getting someone from LOTR now, at the height of its popularity, but maybe nip at its coat tails a bit. See if we can get a fantasy artist or current author. Oh and I believe Barnes and Noble had a spot at AC, maybe they, or Borders for that matter, would like to come back.

Just all ideas. Just kind of sat here and brainstormed some. As we start to get some direction, we should get together more often, similar to what we did with our movie meetings. But this is great for where we are at. Any one else?

 

Ya know a LOTR personality is not a bad idea...Maybe even a Stargate personality too. I like the idea of the horror group and fantasy. One thing I would like to focus on is not focussing on one Sci-Fi group too much. I like diversity. The more diverse the more people will come. Already contacted Prowse's group to see how much. I'll try getting ahold of Bullock and see cost as well. Great ideas!!!

Mike

 

BTW GO Huskers...10-3 right now.

 

The Holiday Inn you mentioned Mark is where they used to hold all of the old Star Trek conventions. Plenty of room. I think it would be a perfect place to hold it.

With everything going on right now and in the near future (Star Wars, new Star Trek movie, LOTR, Harry Potter) I think it would be a perfect time to start planning. I love the idea of having a diverse con. With the turn out at various Star Wars events around town, and the very large turn out?s at the old Star Trek conventions, I think we would have the people attend.

I'm all for having extra meetings to talk about this. Let's keep posting and keep the juices flowing.

 

I know this is way too early to worry about details, but Omegacon is already a sci-fi convention in Siren, Wisconsin. You can read about it at OmegaCon.net.

Like I said, I know this idea is in it's conception phase, and Omegacon was just a name idea, but just thought I'd let ya'll know.

 

Okay, here's a name idea for you. How about DiversionCon. That's what sci-fi is after all. It's a diversion from the normal grind. I was thinking about Diversicon, but it's been taken. Anyway, just my two cents.

 

TK,
I like that idea for a name. One of the things that I was thinking about was that Omegacon is something that people might associate with Alpha and I didn't know if that was a good thing.

Mark,
I sent off an email to Kevin Smith's scheduler for pricing and availability as well. I think Kevin might be shooting to high for the first con, but I would love to meet him!!!! I love anything he does. Even the midget commercials.

What about having a meeting 2 sundays from today. I can try to gather a couple of comic shops together and we can meet at a library meeting hall or something. I think it would be good to actually brainstorm in person instead of online. We can get a lot accomplished that way.

Just a quick note. I don't plan on dropping this one. I plan on keeping the momentum going so much that you'll probably get tired of hearing about it!!!

As far as charities I may be weird here but I'm open for every charity except for united way. I just have a couple of issues there. Ya know the salvation army or YMCA/YWCA might be a great way to go. We can get lots of exposure as well as lots of kids. Portions of proceeds go to the groups. What do you think?

 

Charities: American Red Cross (slightly overused since 9/11, but still good), St. Jude, Make-A-Wish, Childrens Miracle Network, American Cancer Society.

Becuase of being involved in HOSA, I can easily get in touch with people at St. Jude, Make A Wish and CMN. Every two years HOSA gets a new national service project...right now we're working with CMN. Also, Children's Hospital is affiliated with CMN, and now that I go to Methodist I live right across the street from it.

If we did American Red Cross, we could even have a blood drive (Sci-fi geeks care too!) This is also something I could easily do...My highschool did a blood drive every November, and my senior year I was in charge of it.

Advertising? Well....John Champan from channel 6's son lives in the dorm with me. Rainbow Rowell from the World Herald is a big SW fan. I was in Youth Leadership Omaha as a sophomore, so I still know some people at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

As far as a name goes...I think it's best to focus on the planning and getting things in order before coming up with a name. *shrugs* But that's just me.

 

Those are some good ideas. Ya know if we try a blood drive people could get discount coupons for admission. They could be camped out at the front door. I don't think ARC is over-used since 911...if anything they are in need of blood now more than ever. Not a bad idea.

Sarah I'm sure those contacts will come in handy. Everyone think about a meeting day and time

Mike

 

As far as the name goes, I think Omeagacon wouldn't be a good idea,(apart from it being taken). It probably would be associated to closely to Alphacon. Alphaomegacon is also owned by Dan Lundquist. I think a good thing to do is to define what kind of a convention you want to have. Despite the surface trappings, and legal limitations, Alphacon was a star wars con. Is that all you want it to be? There is a whole world of sci-fi out there, and you may be limiting yourself by focusing on star wars. Once you get a bead on what you're shooting for, then the name will come into focus.

And another thing to think about, is this: Is your vision exceding your grasp? Are you trying to run, before you've learned to walk? It's nice to fantasise about who you'd like to get to attend as a guest. I saw that list at the top of this page, and I'm wondering if you're thinking about trying to get too many A list people to attend. I think it may a good idea to go for some intersting B list people. It may prove to be less expensive in the long run. Which brings me to my next point.

Where are you planning to get the money to finance this thing? Aplhacon had the Omaha World Herald's money behind it, although it was a limited amount. By all accounts, it was successful in every area, except generating a profit that the world herald was happy with. And it's been said that they won't be financing another one. We've been told that Dan Lundquist then tried to talk to local Omaha millionaires about finacing another convention, and that it fizzled. Unless you've got money connections that you haven't told us about yet, I think you'll have a hard time getting money for this. And I saw that you mentioned the local comic book shops, Apart from putting up flyers, I doubt that they'd do much more than that. And are you talking about Ground Zero comics? I'm not sure how the Millard store has managed to stay in business the 5 years I've lived here. In fact, I'm surprised that Kyrpton Comics hasn't folded yet, either. That's one of the big problems that the Alpha con people ran into. You're going to find that locally, most avenues of advertising don't give a hoot about giving a local guy a break, just because he's a local guy who's anice guy trying to do something worthwhile. Unless you have the money to pay for the advertising, don't expect anyone to cut you a break.

And, expect any and all local media's coverage to be of the "they're 30-year old virgins, living in mom-n-dad's basement" variety. I heard that on the local radio, tv, and the World Herald(who was financing the darn thing!)

And another thing that you're going to run into is this: the enthusiasim levels of the FanForce chapter rise and fall like the tides. Long term, it's going to be a struggle to keep everyone's attention and enthusiasim up on this thing. In the aftermath of Alphacon, one of the things that we were going to do was make a fan film. And boy, did we have ideas, plans, asperations. After a little while, the drive to do this took a nose dive, and myself and a few others tried to keep things going. And all I can say is this, it's hard to have a meeting about your group project, when no one shows up. And even after that, we tried anything to keep it going, even a complete 180 degree turn in the dircetion of the project. Nothing helped. The project is for all intents dead. Well, except for Jake. I think he's still working on it! And why tell you this? My point is this: Don't be too surprised if you find that after a while that you find that the enthusiasim of the group isn't matching yours. We are all different people, with different lives. Some are married, some ar in school, some have two jobs, some have tons of free time, some have none, some of us take forever returning borrowed DVD's(right boB? ). So, if a few months down the road, don't be too surprised if some of this might happen.

And just to re emphisize, I think you've got a lot of things to sort out before you get all worried about things like names, and attendees. Start with a good foundation, before yo

 

Money?....Fundraisers. Yes, I know they're lame, I know they can be a pain in the ass, but they work. And again, due to HOSA, I have a ton of fundraising ideas. Sponsorship is good too....Go for the little fish before you try to grab the big fish, though.

 

Boy that was a lot to take in there. You bring up quite a few good points here. Id like to help shine a little light on the subject.

I whole heartedly agree with you on the name. I think we should do something that doesn't even associate itself with Alphacon.

I think one of the problems the Alphacon guy had is he was looking local for funding. That's not the place to look. First off you look to large sponsors like decipher and other world wide companies. You look to dealers. As being a former dealer myself It's not hard to drum up some of the money in that area. Also you look at ways to cut your costs such as advertising. My idea for the local companies like the comic shops and TV is to sponsor advertising. Not necessarily to invest. If they want to fine that will work. Also I'm only looking to have a few personalities. I've dealt with these people in the past and am on a first name basis with some of them. For example I hosted a dinner for Peter Mayhew this summer. It was great. We had a wonderful time.

I understand that the FF does tend to get unmotivated at times with their normal lives. That's understandable. I will say that I'm a great motivator. I just moved up here from Tulsa and down there I was one of the heads of the FF and we did a done of things in a short amount of time. Also I'm not just relying on the OFF. There are other groups I'd like to get involved with this. Although I'd like the primary group to be the OFF.

I'm not saying that this is going to be easy or a quick thing. Trust me I know it's not. I'm saying that it can be done. This may sound corney but I look forward to the challenge!!!

 

Ahh...our voice of pessimism returns.

I was wondering if you were still around, vracer.

As for meeting, Sundays are going to be very bad for me for the next month or so. As some of you know, my days off rotate at 911 and I'm coming into my weekends, which of course means Daddy Duty. So for probably the next 5 Sundays or so, I will be occupied with my 3 year old Sith in training.

"Our vision exceding our grasp"? Of course. Why think small. On the other hand, would we expect everything to come together? Of course not. We are NOT trying to organize another AC. We want something smaller, hotel sized. I think AC tried to go too far too fast. I would also like to think that perhaps we are trying to plan for the future. I dont think AC had any plans beyond that first event. A wait and see kind of thing. I would like to be able to show at least plans for one or two events after the first. I believe that would show our resolve and commitment. And your right, things do ebb and flow around here. So do what you can, when you can. And if you dont want to, then get out of the way.

 

Update...
Contacted Dave with Ground Zero and he's in. We would like to have a meeting Thursday August 5th at the GZ in Bellevue. I had about an hour long conversation with him today and he seems to be a great organizer and resource for this as well.

Contacted Peter Mayhew about possibly getting the Men Behind the Mask Tour here and he's going to check on it for us. Prices and availability that is.
This would include Dave, Kenney and Jeremy. I think I can get replicas of all their costumes for the thing as well so we would have a museum so to speak of their costumes.

We seem to be on the go. Mark I think that it is a great idea that we map out 2-3 shows so that financial backers can see our future plans. That's great.

Also I contacted a couple of other con promoters and we should here back from them shortly. TTYL

Mike

 

I believe you mean September 5th? Haha. I work till 3pm, so anytime after that would work for me.

 

Count me in!

 

May I suggest you NOT affiliate with TFN...I can offer an explanation, but it's lengthy.

May I suggest you get affiliated with Spark of the Force (www.swsotf.net). I own the site with two other people. One of them lives here in Omaha. I also live in Omaha. I could offer you personalized service on the site with a hosted page for this convention. Please, this would be a great move for you, as SOTF could help you with your site, maybe we could help design some official t-shirts, and other stuff. It would help SOTF because we'd be affiliated for a convention. I'm just throwing out ideas, but since I live here in Omaha, maybe you should consider it?

 

Just thought I'd throw this in there. Decipher no longer holds the SW CCG license. They do hold the Trek still along with a multitude of other games. Sounds like an enormous task and I wish you all the best of luck. I'd love to help however I can although my "real world" life is rather hectic right now. Plus I'm about 1500 miles away.

 

Hey guys, just popped over from the Tulsa board to say hey, and as a comic fan, help out with some more names:

WRITERS:
Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-man, Daredevil, Powers)
J. Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spider-man, Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, BABYLON 5)
Jeph Loeb (Superman, Batman, Spider-man:Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, etc.)
Geoff Johns (JSA, Avengers, Hawkman)
Mark Waid (Fantastic Four)
Grant Morrison (New X-Men)
Mark Millar (Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates)

Plus the writers on some of the hottest comics right now, 80s revamps.
Steve Blaylock (G.I. Joe)
Ford Gilmore (Thundercats)
Val Staples (He-Man)
Larry Hama (original G.I.Joe writer, G.I.Joe: Frontline)


ARTISTS:
Pat Lee (Transformers)
Ed McGuinness (Superman, Thundercats)
Tim Sale (Spider-Man:Blue, Daredevil:Yellow)
John Romita, Jr. (Amazing Spider-man)
Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates)
Adam Kubert (Ultimate X-Men)
Jim Lee (Batman)
Frank Miller (Writer/artist of Dark Knight Returns & Dark Knight Strikes Back)
J. Scott Campbell (Danger Girl, Thundercats)


These is just some of the guys that are "hot" right now. You could also go with past greats.

 

All great suggestions. This is great. SOTF sounds like a good possibility. You should come to the meeting on September 5th(MY BAD) and we can talk some more.

Faceloren,
Hey Billy glad you could chime in here. Those are some really great ideas. I like that a lot. Keep them coming. BTW you know that you and Kenzi are coming to it right??? You can crash with me!!! He He.

Corran....
I know you. Ran into you a few times on the RPF. BTW I chated with someone from one of the Omaha boards and I went to high school with his wife. Was that you??? Just wondering.

Yeah Again the meeting time. We are thinking about 6:30 can everyone make it???

 

Excellent! Ok, there is one problem Now, don't go nuts when you hear this, but, I don't turn 16 till September 9th. I have a car already (just got it today ), but I can't drive it places by myself until the 9th.

So, I have a solution. Perhaps I could call wherever this will be and we could have a voice conference of sorts. I dunno if it would work, but it's a temporary solution.

Also, how many people are we expecting to come to this, the convention that is?

 

FoV, wasn't me. Not married and I didn't grow up in Omaha. What's your screenname on the RPF? I've forgotten. Man I hope everything goes as I plan. I can't wait to get back and see what your costume looks like and see all my friends back in Omaha. I really miss all you guys.

 

I go by forceofvader on the RPF. I've been out there since 99' but in my opinion it has gone down hill over the last year. I just don't post much anymore.

 

Well adoniah, it may be lengthy, but I want to know what you have against TFN. I know they arent the best, but what is your beef with them?

And for the record, we already have our own website and webmaster, and we have our own shirt designs.

To some this may appear a little harsh, but I have received a few pm's from mods and others about our (OFF's) "move" to Adoniah's site. So apparently he is telling people we are doing such. Let me state here in public, for the record, we are a chapter of FanForce and will stay as such. I have no objection to him helping us here and promoting his site. But we are not moving ourselves. Period.