Mission Chicago was the second ReedPop Run Star Trek convention I’ve been to, the first being Mission New York back in 2016. Like New York, Chicago felt smaller than it should due to the con being the “Official Convention” for Star Trek.  Even though I bought at 3 day badge, I only attended Friday and Saturday of the con due to having to travel back home.

The Good:

The Location:
McCormick Place is touted as America’s Largest Convention Center, and boy are they right. Just getting from my hotel (which was connected to the convention center) to the hall was easily 1000+ Steps.  Just walking between the main panel room to the vendor hall and back again had me walking almost a mile a day which was much more than I’ve been doing for the whole pandemic.

The Health Checks:
I appreciate the health check, though I would have also appreciated a mask mandate.

The Stars:
Like most cons, Star Trek: Chi had several stars from the present and past Star Trek Series. Highlights for me were Nana Visitor, as DS9 became one of my favorite Trek series during the pandemic. Kate Mulgrew, who is one of my top three favorite Captains, sorry Kirk and Picard, finally getting Doug Jones’ autograph and a Doug-hug.  and the entire Strange New Worlds cast. It seemed like everyone was happy to be there, and glad to be out and about among the Trekkies again.

I found the panels I attended interesting when the actors/creators were allowed to speak. The moderators I saw left something to be desired, but more on that later.

The Vendors:
I was genuinely surprised at how few vendors were listed on the con website, only 34 as of my time of departure on Wednesday. I didn’t really count to see if that stayed true for the con. What was there was nice though, and I did manage to pick up a pair of the official Strange New Worlds boots. Lookout Dragon*Con my cosplay boots are going to be awesome!

The exclusive merch was neat too. I love my Geordi Bear!

The Special Attractions:
I liked that they had some props from the shows, most notably, the Skulls from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 and the uniforms from Strange New Worlds. As a cosplayer I really enjoy having access to the uniforms in a display situation because I love getting all those little details right, when I’m purchasing or having someone make my uniform. There were also the requisite photos in the Captain’s Chairs for Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Those were all fun things that added an extra element to the con.

The Bad:
The whole process leading up to the convention felt unprofessional. I received my badge a few weeks before the convention with links to badge activation and mobile app websites. Neither of those links worked until a few days before the convention. Then, while at the convention, panel times that were previously published switched times and/or days and the only way to know that was to download the app that had a less than stellar interface.

I was really surprised by all of that considering ReedPop is usually much more organized when running New York Comic Con.

Disability Services:
Medical stickers were provided, but like other ReedPop Cons, barely honored. It helped when entering the con, but beyond that, it was basically useless and didn’t help my mobility challenged self.

The Ugly:
The moderators. At a previous job of mine, I ran an event that had panel style programming we put an enormous amount of effort into finding moderators for the panels. They had to be someone who knew about the subject matter, could keep the discussion on track, and ask questions that would make the panel valuable to the audience.

The two moderators, Morgan Jay and Helen Hong, I saw in the main panel room of Star Trek: Chicago did none of those things. Out of the two of them, Morgan Jay bothered me the least, but I only saw him during the Enterprise Panel and the end of the Star Trek: Discovery panel.

Helen Hong, on the other hand, made me feel uncomfortable. First, she related everything back to sex. She called all of the DS9 cast “Snacks” and seemed to low-key hit on Anson Mount during the Strange New Worlds Panel. He seemed visibly uncomfortable and from the pity chuckle she received from the audience after saying Anson was hot, most of us were too. Then, after all that, she just kept pushing the issue. It was the only time in my life that I felt second hand uncomfortable for an actor on a stage.

All of that plus the overuse of the phrase “lady-boner” made her feel like a teenager in a room full of adults. I don’t know if she did that for shock value or what, but it felt like she had no concept of her audience, which had people of all ages including children.

It detracted from the panel I was looking forward to for the entire weekend. Honestly, if this was my first ReedPop convention, it would keep me from going to any more of them.

I hope ReedPop does better at selecting moderators in the future at ALL their conventions.

The Fans:
The real reason everyone goes to these things! It was so nice to meet the members of TrekTwitter that helped make this pandemic more bearable. And Bill and Dan from TrekGeeks! Even if I didn’t meet you, I probably saw you from across the hall. It was great to be in a room full of people that love something as much as I do, and it’s because of them that I can’t wait until the next con.