We were hot on the heels of the excitement that Sons of Anarchy star Kim Coates had jumpstarted the city with.
His appearance at Pine Centre was a massive success in engaging hundreds of fans for photos and autographs. Prince George was abuzz with the new direction of the BCNE. The stage was set for what was next.
But what was next?
BCNE president Alex Huber and I came up with something spectacular. We had seen the throes of Sons of Anarchy fans turn out for Kim Coates.
It only made sense to follow up that appearance with someone else from the hit series - Ron Perlman. In order for that to happen, we sought sponsorship support from Brent Marshall but that was not enough. In truly inspiring form, Alex was so committed to the idea that he invested some of his own personal resources to make it all happen.
Flash forward to our pursuit of Ron Perlman. As luck would have it, we were able to book him through an agent Denise Crosby (Star Trek: the Next Generation, Pet Sematary) had recommended to us - Gary Hasson.
As I mentioned in an earlier column, it is never just as simple as picking up the phone and booking the guest but Gary's agency (BookCelebrities.com) does make it as easy for you as possible. We attribute much of the foundation of Northern FanCon to the attention we received from this agency as we started. In the particular booking of Perlman, we could not have asked for a better situation than what they offered us.
In most cases, an agent rep will accompany the appearing celebrity guest to the event at which they are booked. The agent rep's job is to make sure the celebrity guest is taken care of, doesn't have to handle money, and is on hand to deal with any situations that might arise. This likely comes as no surprise to you but what came as a surprise to us was who the agency sent with Perlman for our booking. BookCelebrities.com sent us a man by the name of Barry Greenberg - Gary Hasson's business partner.
We could not have asked for a better person on the ground to support us in the event than Barry.
It was almost surreal that they were sending him. We were about to have the chance to explain face to face our vision for what would eventually become Northern FanCon to a leader in the celebrity appearance business.
Perlman and Greenberg arrived in Prince George according to plan. The BCNE had a ton going on that year and Ron's appearance was the crown jewel. He would do a series of autograph signings and photos throughout the day and we chose to do an interview with him by Citizen reporter Frank Peebles live on the midway.
In retrospect, the latter piece here was a huge risk but it was absolutely stunning. Imagine thousands of people in the midway and when Perlman took the stage, everyone stopped in their tracks to watch.
You could hear a pin drop.
To date, that is still one of my favourite moments of the FanCon history.
Before Barry and Ron flew out the next day, I said my goodbyes and Barry said to review the roster of BookCelebrities.com for options for the inaugural year of Northern FanCon. It did not take long that day to decide on who we wanted to book as our first guest.
We wanted William Shatner.
