Ecto Con - November 30-December 2 in St. Louis

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1

I wanted to wait until I had pre-registration open to tell anyone about this, but I’m finally helping Demon Vice Commander realize one of his dreams by co-chairing a Ghostbusters convention with him.

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So here’s the website:** http://ectocon.com/

Right off, we’re not expecting this to be a huge event, but we’ve been running conventions together for six years, so we know how to put on a good show for a relatively small crowd. We put every bit of effort we can into theming and programming and feeding everyone tasty snacks for a weekend.

We don’t want to compete with any other events and don’t claim to be a big, Dragon*Con-style convention. We’ll be small. We’ll be fun. We’ll be basically all Ghostbusters for a weekend. There will be a main events room, a con suite, and three programming rooms in addition to a small selection of vendors and fan tables. Your badges will also include a Sunday “field trip” to some local “haunt” (we were thinking about the City Museum, which makes a perfect backdrop for GB pictures and is just plain AWESOME).

We’d love to have anyone from this site who’d like to give us ideas for programming they want to see to post in this thread. Our goal is to fill a weekend with workshops on prop-making, fan panels, contests, interactive games, and perhaps guests (we plan to have at least one GB-related guest, possibly two or three).

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Here’s what we’ve got so far:**

Con Suite on Friday and Saturday

Louis’s Classic Party (Friday night social party, possibly including a cash bar)

Pack Construction 101 (led by several different people who’ve used different methods, and we’d be open to having more people on this)

LED Lighting Basics (more than just for packs since it’s universal in prop-making)

Instant Prop-Building Contest (design and build a new prop from a pile of junk)

Mold Making (for all sorts of resins)

Legends of St. Louis (fun historical ghost stories of St. Louis including the story that inspired The Exorcist)

Fan film showcase (possibly more than just Ghostbusters stuff)

Growing Up Ghostbuster (what it was like to be a child fan of the series)

Monster design contest (for kids but we might do an adult one too)

Ghostbusters trivia contest

Patch-sewing Workshop (because I’ve had a lot of friends come to me to sew patches on)

80s Dance Moves (relearn some 80s dances)

Mad Science and Garage Punk (80s/90s movies featuring homemade gadgets and wacky scientists)

Ideas we have yet to find someone to teach/lead:

Ghostbusters Franchises and How to Start Them

Trap Building

Practical Movie Effects (how to create non-computer-generated effects for fan films)

Special Effects Using Apple Motion (or Adobe After Effects… depends on who teaches)

Real Ghostbusters Retrospective (on the cartoon)

2

I can’t wait. I’m more than game with assisting on the Pack panel, trivia contest, and that growing up a child fan panel, as well as leading the franchise panel. For trap building, I would be willing to help or lead that as well. Give me some time to work through the DVDs, and I’d probably be willing to assist with the RGB retrospective as well. :slight_smile:

I’m very excited and can’t wait. This should be a blast.

3

Our crew might be interested in going. I’ll pass it around.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Ghostbusters Fans on Android

4

Only a 5 hour train ride from Chicago! And so far three out of our five are interested!

Sent from my DROID X2 using Ghostbusters Fans on Android

5

oh man I wish I could go but IL is a bit far to travel to from NY. Have fun and take lots and lots of pics :slight_smile:

6

If work allows, I’m definitely up for attending this. I’m a huge fan of the Ghostbusters, so small or not it should be a fun time.

7

I’m glad there are some Chicagoans interested! It really should be a fun event. We told Dan about it at the signing, and he thought it was cool. I mean, not that he’s going, but at least he thought it was a neat idea. His people suggested we ask him about doing a video for it.

8

Downers grove I’ll here and will be attending!

Sent from my PC36100 using Ghostbusters Fans on Android

9

why cant this be in march when im there for transworld?! city museum is amazing! you guys should try to do a tour of lemp too that creepy, especially the caves

10

How’s this deal going?

11

Footrace through City Museum. Person without a broken ion arm is the winner.

12

Er… sorry. I asked Mikhail if anyone had replied to this thread, and he said, “Not really.” :confused:

We’re doing the City Museum on Sunday, and they know we’re coming. Badges include a City Museum group ticket, and you can choose to dress up or not dress up. It’s a great place for pictures, though, and they are costume-friendly.

We told Dan about the event when he was in town, and he seemed excited. Obviously, with the traveling he does, he can’t attend. We’ve booked a musician who does geek songs (and is actually fantastic) called Professor Shyguy, and we’re still trying to get Ernie Hudson. Apparently, he was in Europe or something every time we tried to contact him.

Anyway, it will be a fun con with or without a GB actor, and if we get enough people, we’ll be able to do it again but larger. Remember that this is just a fan-run event, not an industry convention like NYCC or Wizard World.

13

Hey, guys! In an attempt to find the local guys who apparently have an Ecto, I’m offering a free badge to each person driving a Ghostbusters vehicle to the con. If you have an Ecto and live in driving distance of St. Louis, consider bringing yours. The offer extends to anyone who pulls up in a GB-themed vehicle (though I will give only one free badge per vehicle).