CONvergence 2008: Ten Years (1999 - 2008) July 3, 2008

Next year CONvergence will be held over FOUR DAYS in celebration of our tenth year. Not only is it a whole extra day of convention, we'll have all kinds of special plans that we'll be telling you more about over the coming year.

*** Guests of Honor ***

To make Year 10 an even bigger event, we're inviting back an expanded slate of guests featuring many favorites from our first nine years to help us celebrate our tenth. Another guest has been added to our mighty 2008 roster since our last email announcement:

Trace Beaulieu

Trace is a puppeteer, writer, and actor, best known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) where he played Dr. Clayton Forrester and was the original voice of Crow T. Robot.

Since leaving MST3K following it's seventh season, Trace appeared as a semi-regular in Freaks and Geeks as the school's biology teacher, Mr. Lacovara. He also appeared in The West Wing episode "Bad Moon Rising". For the last few years, Trace has been a writer for America's Funniest Home Videos. In 2002, he was the head writer, producer, and host of the pilot episode of the Animal Planet show People Traps.

Recently, Trace has joined forces with MST3K alumnus Joel Hodgson, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl, for a project called Cinematic Titanic. Like Mystery Science Theater 3000, the series uses black silhouettes of cast members sarcastically commenting on vintage films. The first live performance was a private show for employees of Industrial Light & Magic on December 7, 2007. After the live show, the cast reworked some jokes, releasing the pilot episode of Cinematic Titanic to the public at midnight on December 21.

You can learn more about Cinematic Titanic at their web site (http://cinematictitanic.com/wpmu/), and you can order their first DVD Release - "The Oozing Skull" - from EZTakes.com (http://www.eztakes.com/store/movie/The-Oozing-Skull-Movie-Download.jsp).

Trace joins our already huge roster of 2008 guests (scheduled to appear), including:

Robert Meyer Burnett (2002 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008robertmeyerburnett.php
Filmmaker, director of Free Enterprise, and producer of DVD extras.

Christian Colquhoun (2004 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008christiancolquhoun.php
Prop-builder and physical effects artist whose projects include
Galaxy Quest, Van Helsing, and Firefly.

Larry Dixon (2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008larrydixon.php
Co-author of Mage Wars and Dariens Tale series, author of many short stories and game material and fantasy artist.

Daren Dochterman (2002 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008darendochterman.php
Designer and illustrator for over 35 feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture Special Edition.

Mark Evanier (First Time Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008markevanier.php
Writer/producer/director for television, animation and comics, co-creator of Groo the Wanderer.

Kenneth Hite (2006 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008kennethhite.php
Role-playing game designer for GURPS, the Star Trek role playing game, and beyond.

Dr. James Kakalios (2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008jimkakalios.php
U of M physics professor, author of The Physics of Superheroes.

Harry Knowles (1999, 2001 and 2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008harryknowles.php
Creator of Aint-It-Cool-News.com.

Jay Knowles (1999, 2001 and 2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008jayknowles.php
Creator of Harry Knowles (and contributor to AICN).

John Kovalic (2003 and 2007 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008johnkovalic.php
Cartoonist and Game designer: Dork Tower, Dr. Blink, Out of the Box Games.

Mercedes Lackey (2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008mercedeslackey.php
Author of many popular novels, including the Valdemar and Bardic Voices series and folk music lyricist.

Bridget Landry (2006 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008bridgetlandry.php
Engineer on the teams of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Pathfinder project, the Cassini Mission to Saturn, and other space missions.

Peter Mayhew (2001 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008petermayhew.php
The actor who played the beloved Chewbacca in the original Star Wars Trilogy and in Episode III.

Andrew Probert (2003 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008andrewprobert.php
Production Designer for Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Airwolf.

Vincent Truitner (2004 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008vincenttruitner.php
Animation and CGI artist.

David Weber (2006 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008davidweber.php
Author of the Honor Harrington series and other military science-fiction

Len Wein (2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008lenwein.php
Writer for comics and animation, co-creator of Swamp Thing, Nightcrawler & Wolverine.

Greg Weisman (2006 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008gregweisman.php
Creator of Disney's Gargoyles and supervising producer of The Spectacular Spider-Man for 2008.

Marv Wolfman (2005 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008marvwolfman.php
Writer for comics and animation, creator of Blade, Bullseye & The New Teen Titans.

Bernie Wrightson (2007 Guest of Honor)
http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/2008berniewrightson.php
Comic book artist, illustrator, creature designer, and co-creator of Swamp Thing.
__________________

Pre-Registration closes May 15

Adult Memberships (Including ages 13-17)

$50 Until May 15, 2008
$65 At-the-door

Supporting Memberships
$30 Before May 15, 2008 + $20 At-the-door=$50 total

Kids Memberships
$25 Kids Ages 6-12 Until May 15, 2008
$30 Kids Ages 6-12 At-the-door

Kids under 5 may attend for free.

Pre-Register Online at:
http://www.convention-reg.com/?nav=event&event=cnvg08.

You can also print and mail in your form and payment by check. A Pre-Registration Form PDF is available at:
http://www.convergence-con.org/pdf/2008_registration_form.pdf.

Remember, you can buy gift registrations for friends. They not only make a great holiday gift, but they're a great way to help out that friend who inevitably bemoans that they didn't pre-register and don't want to pay the at-the-door rate. So give the gift of CONvergence!

For more information, visit:
http://www.convergence-con.org/amenities/registration/registration.php
or email us at [email protected].

Official Website: http://www.convergence-con.org/