“Meet the Man” GABIT EVENTS Convention Report
GABIT Events held their first Richard Dean Anderson convention called “Meet the Man” in Vancouver August 5-8, 2010.
The event started off with registration on Thursday afternoon where each person attending was presented with a gift pack including a custom made bag, water bottle and yo-yo each baring the event’s name “Meet the Man”.
A cocktail party was held on Thursday night for a lucky group of people who managed to get their tickets booked the moment they went on sale. At the cocktail party attendees were seated at round tables with 9 people at each table. We enjoyed a buffet meal and once everyone had had their fill “The Man”, Richard Dean Anderson, arrived and was introduced. During the welcome Anderson pointed out that he was only “a” man and not “the” man but fans disagreed. For the rest of the evening, Anderson circulated the room spending about ten minutes at each table having a relaxed chat and then posing for a photograph with each group.
The rest of the event included multiple Q&A sessions every day, charity auctions, signings and photo sessions. Every person attending received an autograph and a professional photo opportunity with “The Man” and these were spread out over each day of the event. There were also items to purchase including a variety of specially made items from Legends Memorabilia and the option to purchase autographs and photos with the other guests.
One of the main focuses of the event, other than “The Man” himself was to raise funds to support the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society a charity that Richard Dean Anderson is very passionate about. Sea Shepherd work tirelessly to protect marine life from poaching and illegal hunting, doing whatever it takes to save whales from illegal slaughter by the Japanese, trying to put a stop to inhumane seal hunting in Canada and fighting for many other worthy causes (see link below).
During each of his Q&A sessions Anderson answered many and varied questions from the audience appearing very relaxed and at the end of each session fought with Becky (GABIT organiser) to answer “just one more”. He presented himself with the usual sense of humour that has endeared him to everyone but at the same time it was obvious that he’s a genuinely humble and very friendly man. He recounted moments from his career including MacGyver and Stargate and mentioned the new series he has a recurring guest role in called “Facing Kate”. He also had a few personal stories to tell including his his daughter Wylie and his involvement with Sea Shepherd.
Attendees were also treated to Q&A sessions with Dan Shea (Stand in and stunt double/coordinator for RDA), the Sea Shepherd team, Paul Watson (Captain, Sea Shepherd) and Barry Campbell, head of the Arctic expedition for the filming of the Stargate movie “Continuum”.
Perhaps the highlight of the event was the charity auction which helped bring the total amount raised for Sea Shepherd over the entire event to an amazing $100,000! The huge amount of money raised was in no small part due to the generosity of those presenting the auction items, particularly Anderson himself when he offered hugs and kisses to winning bidders, driving up the auctions to enormous amounts, even up to an astounding $11,000 for an opportunity to have a private photograph session with Anderson in Stargate costume. Other fun auction items included juggling balls which Anderson juggled during the auction, a large doodle that he created while signing autographs and a MacGyver tshirt which Anderson himself kept bidding on.
This is one of the best run events I have ever attended and I would not hesitate to attend another. The GABIT team were outstanding and worked hard to make sure everyone was happy both before and during the event. Their caring attitude was obvious and their motivations clearly in the right place. Richard Dean Anderson himself was so impressed he said on the spot that he wouldn’t hesitate to attend another event provided that GABIT were the ones running it! If you ever have the opportunity to attend a GABIT event don’t hesitate. Their next event is AT5, an Amanda Tapping convention to be held in the UK in February 2011, only a few tickets are still available so be sure to get in quickly.
We’ve included a few photographs below but for our full set from this event you can visit our Flickr Page.
.
