So the latest FanX: The Salt Lake Comic Convention is in the books and it was a good one. It continues to be one of the largest attended comic conventions in North America. I know that I was meeting people from Chicago, Oregon, St. Louis, Texas and beyond.
This year my Star Trek fan club, Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet, continued our community service focus by supporting an anti-bullying organization called R.E.A.C.H. (Raising Education Through Arts Characters and Heroes). I was really impressed with the level of work they had done. Our booth wasn’t on the vendor floor. Instead we were in the main hallway just outside of the Starship Frontier Artemis Bridge Simulator room. We were combined to help save space on the vendor floor as changes are being made to the Salt Palace (more on that later). I also got to dress up as a Borg intruder and assimilate the Captain of the crew before they could stop me. I don’t have any pictures of that but I may be getting a video soon.
We had a chance to meet a lot of people. I’m hopeful that some will join us as members of our Star Trek family. I also had a chance to network with a couple of club leaders for future endeavors.
As for loot, well I didn’t pick up a lot this year. A friend printed up a photo of actor Jerry O’Connell with his Commander Ransom character from Star Trek: Lower Decks. It was my intention to pick up his autograph at FanX, but his flight was delayed and I wasn’t able to make it over to his booth afterwards.
I was able to meet up with actor Doug Jones who played Saru on Star Trek: Discovery and obtain his autograph. Talk about someone who made you feel special. Everyone who he met at his booth got as much time as they needed with him. So we didn’t mind taking longer in the line because we all knew we were going to get the same amount of attention. If you got a selfie with him, he did three poses with you. And when he was done he gave you a big hug. I told him about my encounter getting Jason Isaacs’ autograph on the same photo. And when I gave Doug my favorite quote that Saru had given, he finished it just as I started it. It amazed me that he recalled it after all these years.
“Before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves.” Saru- New Eden, Stardate: 1027.32
I was gifted a convention t-shirt from a friend who discovered that I never had a FanX shirt before. However, just after taking this photo, I offered it to my geek wife who quickly snatched it up since it had her two favorite colors on it.
I did bump into a gentleman advertising his game galled Delve in Your Pocket by Otherwise, Games. It was a solo RPG that you could keep in your pocket and pull out when needed. It had a dice system that was contained within the text. I’ll have to see if I can complete it. There were a lot of RPG shirts and fans there. I did talk with a few GM groups about coming up to SaltCON. Hopefully we will see some of them there.
I really tried to find other things to buy at the con. At past FanX events, I had found several RPG items to pick up. But for some reason this year was lacking. I will say that the staff was wonderful as well as the added security the event had. I took the time to shake the hand of one Salt Lake police officer who was patrolling the building and thanked him for being there. There were also a lot of police dogs as well.
I am sad about one thing, I had a great time staying at the Plaza Hotel that was right across the street. The convention rate was amazing compared to the other hotels. However this is the last year the hotel will be in operations as it is getting torn down to make way for a parking garage. There is a lot of construction going on downtown for the new entertainment district and the upcoming winter olympics in 2034. This also led to a lot of people wondering about the future of FanX since the Salt Palace will be going under some massive changes over the next few years. At the end of the con, the organizers did announce that the 2026 dates will be September 24-26. So we know there will be a FanX next year. So next year the Seventh Fleet will be returning (and I think we will be back on the vendor floor) with another charity booth. Many thanks to Dan Farr, the staff and the army of volunteers who helped out with this convention.
Did you go to FanX or another nearby convention? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.