Today is the last day to pre-register to attend ConnectiCon for all 3 days for only $40!

Starting tomorrow pre-registration will be $50, the $50 pre-registration will cut-off on July 19, 2008. After that you'll have to register at the convention.

Also, we'd like to mention that we have another voice actor attending ConnectiCon this year:

Michelle Knotz

We hope you're having a happy and safe 4th of July weekend, we know that some of you are probably attending AX or PCM this weekend.

See you all in 4 weeks!

Also, we're going to add a room block at another hotel this week, as the Marriott is COMPLETELY sold out on Saturday night, this block will likely close on July 19, 2008.

With less than 30 days to go, I have been answering emails like mad.
So if your Volunteering, interested in volunteering or just thinking about volunteering. read the following
There will be 3 classes for Volunteering on July 31st at the convention center at 1,3, and 5:30pm, there you will learn the ropes and get to know me if you dont already. Also the classes however long they are count as 1 hour volunteer time.
After the classes you are free to go or you can stay and help the con staff set for the next 3 days. people thinking about crash space are encourge to help out. (an average of 10 hours is usally given for thrusday)

Important. If you volunteered last year, and think you got free membership, please go to the volunteer link and email me.
ALSO IF YOU HAVEN'T REGISTERED PLEASE DO SO, VOLUNTEERS MUST BE REGISTERED MEMBERS.

And on a final note this year I will be closing Volunteer Registration on July 15th, due to the high number of email I get and the fact that a new job within the con makes me need to prepare for other things.
See you on the 31st

We'd like to announce this year's winners of the Cover Art and T-Shirt Art Contest:

Cover Art: Jon Kneeland
T-Shirt Art: Paul Jacovino (Yuureikun)

We'd like to thank everyone who submitted art, it was a tough call making the decisions but we finally came down to the winners. The winners of the cover art and t-shirt art contest receive a complimentary table (including 2 memberships) in the Artist's Colony each year.

Congratulations winners, hopefully some fans will swing by your tables to have their program book and/or t-shirt signed by the artist!

For those of you who are curious, you'll just have to wait until the convention to see what the art will look like.

Unfortunately, the attached Marriot has informed me today that they are all out of rooms with double beds! There are still a few rooms left with King Beds, as of this afternoon (Thursday, June 26, 2008), the following quantity of rooms are available, before the hotel is SOLD OUT:

Wed. - 8 Rooms
Thurs. - 13 Rooms
Fri. - 26 Rooms
Sat. - 11 Rooms
Sun. - 9 Rooms

ConnectiCon 2008 attendees are invited to stay at our official convention hotel, Hartford Marriott Downtown.This is the hotel that is attached along the exhibit level to the convention center, so you won't have to walk 15 minutes from the hotel to the convention center, or wait for the downtown shuttle service.

It is of great importance that ConnectiCon members stay at our official Headquarters Hotel so that we may book a larger room block in future years as well as receive function space for additional events at the hotel.

The rates for rooms this year are $135/night for both single/double occupancy rooms. Rooms MUST be reserved by July 14th, 2008, last year our room block sold out quickly, so reserve your room soon!

Room bookings will also require a non-refundable deposit for the first night of your stay.

You can book your room online: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bdldt-hartford-marriott-downtown/?groupCode=concona

Alternately you can call 1-866-373-9806 and ask for the ConnectiCon room block. Make sure you mention the ConnectiCon group rate/discount.

"Housecall"

Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips reprise there role as the Doctor and Nellix... in which Nellix is in the delta Quadrant and the Doctor is in the alpha Quadrant and Nellix asks the doctor to please come and treat his son, but the doctor is getting ready to go on a date with 7of9...The doctor reluctant to give up his date, finally agrees to help Nellix's son and the fun begins.

Tickets for this event will be $15 (my memory malfunctioned when I entered this as $10, the correct price is $15) and may be picked up at the tables of Robert Picardo or Ethan Phillips.

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This year LAZ parking will be offering our members $15/day parking passes, these passes will be good from 8am until midnight on Friday and Saturday (you'll need a new pass each day). These passes are flat rate and will allow our members unlimited in and out privelidges, which means you'll be able to leave the garage, pick up some friends and come back later on in the day, hurray for LAZ parking, it only took what... 4 years to get a deal like this worked out?

Parking passes will be purchased at a LAZ table near the registration area (hours tbd).

Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance
Rich Stevens of Diesel Sweeties
Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie
Jeff Rowland of Over Compensating and WIGU
Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak

will all be attending ConnectiCon 2008!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up - there are only 3 weeks left to pre-register to attend ConnectiCon for all 3 days for just $40. Membership rates for all 3 days will increase to $50 on July 6, 2008.

See you at the convention!

Ethan Phillips- best known as the character of Neelix on StarTrek: Voyager and will be available for autographs during the weekend. He will also be performing a play with Robert Picardo on Saturday evening based on their characters in Voyager.

Along with Armin Shimerman and Tim Russ, he is one of only three "Star Trek" regulars to appear in three different "Star Trek" series ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987), "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) and "Enterprise" (2001)).

Ellen Muth- probably best known for her performance as Eighteen-year-old Georgia "George" Lass, in "Dead Like Me", as the show's protagonist and narrator. George dies early in the pilot episode, leaving her mother (Cynthia Stevenson) and rest of her family behind at a point when her relationships with them were on shaky ground. She becomes one of the "undead", a grim reaper. George soon learns that a reaper's job is to remove the souls of people, preferably right before they die, and escort them until they move on into their afterlife. The show explores the "lives" and experiences of a small team of such reapers — led by Rube (played by Patinkin) — as well as the post-mortem changes in George and her family as they deal with George's death.

Not only is Ellen an actress but she is a member of Mensa, a student at the Lee Strasberg School, drives and races a six speed SS and collects Burmese cats. Her awards include Best Actress at the AFI for The Young Girl and the Monsoon (1999) and best supporting actress at the Japanese Film Festival for Dolores Claiborne (1995).

Speaking of Mensa... Mensa will be at ConnectiCon 2008 conducting tests this year, for our members interested in joining MENSA. If you don't know what MENSA is please visit MENSA.org.

We're also pleased to announce a few new webcomic guests:

Sam Logan - the man behind Sam & Fuzzy will be attending ConnectiCon this year.

Pontus Madsen & Christian Fundin - the crazy Swedes behind the scenes over at Little Gamers will be attending this year!

We're still working on convincing the fine folks at Wigu (Jeffrey Rowland), Overcompensating (Jeffrey Rowland), Dinosaur Comics (Ryan North), Dresden Codak (Aaron Diaz), and A Softer World (Joey Comeau). If you want to see these guys attend ConnectiCon, send them an email expressing your interest in seeing them at the convention.

We were able to have some additional rooms added to our room block! If you still need a room, we recommend that you book your room soon, before space is no longer available:

As of this morning (Wednesday, June 18, 2008), the following quantity of rooms are available, before the hotel is SOLD OUT:

Thur. 7/31/08 - 16
Fri. 8/1/08 - 58
Sat. 8/2/08 - 48

ConnectiCon 2008 attendees are invited to stay at our official convention hotel, Hartford Marriott Downtown.This is the hotel that is attached along the exhibit level to the convention center, so you won't have to walk 15 minutes from the hotel to the convention center, or wait for the downtown shuttle service.

It is of great importance that ConnectiCon members stay at our official Headquarters Hotel so that we may book a larger room block in future years as well as receive function space for additional events at the hotel.

The rates for rooms this year are $135/night for both single/double occupancy rooms. Rooms MUST be reserved by July 14th, 2008, last year our room block sold out quickly, so reserve your room soon!

Room bookings will also require a non-refundable deposit for the first night of your stay.

You can book your room online: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bdldt-hartford-marriott-downtown/?groupCode=concona

Alternately you can call 1-866-373-9806 and ask for the ConnectiCon room block. Make sure you mention the ConnectiCon group rate/discount.

I've been informed that the deadline for the AMV Contest has been extended to June 20th.

That givies everyone a little more time to put the finishing touches on their masterpieces.

Enjoy!