Five Years Strong!

Lake Charles, LA

Since 2011, southwest Louisiana has been home to two fan-run pop culture conventions.  Both of these conventions can trace their history back to the now defunct ConDuLac which first appeared in 2009.  That convention lasted for two years and then became two new and wholly different conventions called Bayoucon and CyPhaCon. CyPhaCon recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and despite southwest Louisiana’s smaller market (in comparison to metro areas like Houston and Baton Rouge), the convention has grown each year and appears to have no intentions on stopping that growth any time soon.

I attended CyPhaCon’s fifth anniversary as part of the USS Lafitte’s fan group.  The Lafitte is the Lake Charles Chapter of Starfleet International, the official Star Trek Fan Group.  I set up the table on Friday night alongside the crew of the USS Neptune and the USS New Orleans.  These ships would prove to be extremely helpful over the weekend.

Friday night was packed (especially for a fan-run event), and there was a steady crowd throughout the evening.  I didn’t get to do much looking around since I was flying solo at the table, but I did manage to pass through the vendor area once and I made my plans for a few purchases over the weekend.

Saturday morning brought with it a much larger crowd and it was on this day that I got to see a whole lot more of the convention thanks to my fellow Starfleet members.  They helped man the table while I walked around a bit and snapped photos of cosplayers and met Vic Mignogna, anime voice artist supreme and, as I told him, the “Kirkest Kirk outside of William Shatner” for his portrayal of the iconic captain of the Enterprise on Star Trek Continues.  Vic was extremely nice and I have to admit that he ranks near the top of my list of coolest media guests that I’ve met.  Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Chuck Huber (anime and Star Trek Continues), Jeffrey Combs (Star Trek: DS9, Re-Animator, etc), Larry Nemecek (Star Trek Continues, all around Trek database), and Marie Doll (cosplay guest of honor), were also on hand for fans to meet and interact with at the convention.

I also hosted two panels on Saturday that were well attended.  Roughly twenty people attended my “Southern Geek:  The Walking Dead” panel.  Other members of Southern Geek were supposed to assist with the panel, but due to issues that they had no control over, they couldn’t make it, so I had the place to myself.  The panel covered the TV series for the most part, with a couple of attendees tossing in a bit about the comic books.  We couldn’t talk a whole lot about anything beyond Season Three of the show, though, since a lot of folks were still playing catch up with the series.  On a strange note, we ended up talking a bit about Twilight during the panel.  Yikes!  It was still fun, though, and I’d do it again if necessary.

My second panel was “Deja WHO?” and was an attempt to cover the repetitive nature of Doctor Who since Steven Moffatt took over as show runner.  Of course, with quite a large mixture of new and old Whovians in the mix, the panel sort of snowballed into a big discussion about the actors that have portrayed the Doctor and everyone’s favorite villains over the course of the series.  About twenty people attended and it was a very lively panel.  Hopefully I can do something similar next year.

DDK made an appearance on Saturday as well and, as the above photos prove, he was grossly outnumbered by villains.  No matter for him, though, as he handled everything quite well.

Other conventions were well represented at CyPhaCon.  In the above photo you can see me and the lovely Jett and Zee, mascots for MechaCon which is coming up soon.  Other conventions that were represented included CoastCon, Geek-O-Nomicon, and Space City Comic Con among others.  A screen-accurate TARDIS was also on site, hosted by Tulsa TARDIS and a group that has recently started producing episodes for their own Doctor Who fan series.

The convention was well attended on Sunday as well, and it also featured the best part of almost every convention I’ve ever attended:  Orion’s Envy.  I’ve known these lovely ladies for quite some time now and even though I’ve seen their performances countless times, they still manage to surprise me.  They were only able to attend on Sunday, but I’m glad that I got to catch up with them.  I believe that their next performance will be at Bayoucon in June.

Overall, CyPhaCon was an excellent event.  There were a couple of bumps in the road, but considering that this event has consistently grown with each year of its existence, I’m sure they will find a remedy for next year.

I really enjoyed this event.  Fan groups were treated quite well and offered snacks throughout the event.  There was also a fan appreciation party, but I was unable to attend since I had a panel going on at the same time.  I look forward to next year and can’t wait to see what the CyPhaCon bunch has in store for us all!

The next convention on my radar is Bayoucon in June.  This year it takes place in Sulphur, LA.  There’s a very slim chance that I will be attending Comicpalooza, but I doubt that I’ll make it over to Houston for that show next month.

As always, thanks for reading.  If you attended CyPhaCon or any other events recently, let me know about them in the comments section.  See ya later!