ConCarolinas is pleased to announce that our event will be returning to the Embassy Suites Concord in 2016. The Embassy Suites is offering complimentary wifi in the hotel rooms and convention center. Also, we want to make certain that convention attendees are aware that the Embassy Suites has a complimentary shuttle for hotel guests that will take you to places (such as nearby restaurants). We look forward to working with the Embassy Suites Concord for our 2016 event.
Now for our 2015 report. We’ve held off giving the report until we had the venue secured and final reports in from each department.
2015 saw ConCarolinas move from Charlotte Hilton University Place, our home of 6 years, to our new venue – Embassy Suites Concord. The new venue offered us a lot. More hallway space, bigger rooms, a giant atrium for people to gather, rooms that were suites, and more. More space meant more programming and we worked with sched.org for the first time. Many thanks to Mike Monaghan who was integral in the integration of sched.org.
We also added Programming Track Managers who assisted Programming Director, Carol Cowles, with various tracks. Many thanks to Jaysen Buterin, Sarah L. Gerhardt, M. Doc Geressy, Cheralyn, and Misty Massey for taking on their respective tracks.
We saw a record number of entries into the ConCarolinas Short Film Festival. Congratulations to the Major Award winners:
- Best Original Film – Kiko’s Paradise
- Best Fan Film – The Red Thunder
- Best Atomizer – Clownbie
Doctor Who 4th Doctor Scarf Record Attempt – we heard back from Guinness and will need to resubmit our application. ConChair, Jada Diaz, is working on that.
2015 Opening Ceremonies brought about a plethora of Hawaiian shirts in memory of ConCarolinas Founder, Fred Grimm. Fred passed away unexpectedly in late 2014. Kelly Lockhart (also a Founder) spoke in memory of Fred. Kelly also gave a history of how ConCarolinas came about back in the early 2000s. After Kelly spoke, ConChair, Jada Diaz, invited all current and former members of ConCom to come up on stage and she brought Stephania Grimm, Fred’s wife, up on stage also. At that time it was announce that ConCarolinas was establishing the Grimm-Koch-Lockhart Literary Scholarship Fund open to any college student in North or South Carolina. The first $500 of the Annual Charity Auction would be reserved for the Fund. Stephania let us know that the teddy bear she held who was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and had a lanyard was wearing a vial with Fred’s ashes.
This year’s charity auction raised over $1200 for the North Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association (NCSARDA). Additionally, after the convention an auction was held for a “dog/child” sized Fourth Doctor scarf. That brought in an additional $46. The NCSARDA dogs and handlers are integral in assisting North Carolina Law Enforcement and Parks with finding lost campers/hikers and Amber and Silver alerts.
Matt Nooe of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina gave us this report:
“We’ve calculated the total and we’re happy to announce that ConCarolinas raised 3,430 pounds of food to help feed hungry children. Thank you for your support.”
While we normally have a blood drive through the American Red Cross, due to issues with the donation bus, this year’s drive had to be canceled.
Finally, our numbers for 2015. We had 1676 people with us this year. Yes, this is down from our record in 2014 (due to that famous author we had) but it is up from our numbers in 2013 (1451).
We look forward to making lots of announcements in the coming months and amping up for 2016 when, among other things, we will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek!