Orlando Leap

Convention
Name:	Orlando Leap
Dates:	June 22-24, 2001
Frequency:	once
Location:
Type:
Focus:	Quantum Leap
Organization:
Founder:	Jo Fox
Founding Date:
URL:	videos and photos are here
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Orlando Leap was a 1999 British Quantum Leap convention held in Orlando, Florida on June 22-24, 2001.

Guests: Rich Whiteside, Deborah Pratt, John D'Aquino, Natasha Pavlovich, and Daniel Roebuck.

Con Report

Orlando Leap Report: By Jo Fox - Organizer:

June 21st The day before the con. The family will stay at the hotel tonight. I've been planning this convention for two years. It took 8 months just to find the hotel. Great news that all 5 guest stars are coming! Judith was a house guest from England for the past couple of nights and went with me all over town today on errands. We dropped off my car for service, picked up the 8 passenger Astro van, came back to the house to load up all the con stuff, back to the hotel to register and schlep the stuff up to the room (3 trolley loads), then lunch at Denny's, then to Costco to buy food for the welcoming and wrap parties. After dinner at Golden Corral we shopped at Publix to get the drinks.

Some Leapers began to arrive Thursday evening. I visited with those who were there, then went to bed after Richard and I checked the AV equipment to be sure everything was copasetic [sic]. There were a couple of glitches that we corrected before the con cranked up.

June 22nd Friday is mostly a blur. I know it rained. I know we went back to Denny's for lunch, this time with Keir. I know we did some setup of the room - maps and message board and registration stuff. I can't remember much more till 5 when the con began with registration. Packets included meal cards for the Ziggys, pens from Gallogly, Fernandez & Riley, LLP (Accountants and Consultants), bookmarks I made up, Orlando coupons, name badges, and the printed booklet. Rather than have the stars bring boxes of photos for autographing, I had the photos they sent me printed on cardstock for autographing. Minuteman Press did a fantastic job.

Keir took over for me at 5:30, Helene ran videos at 7:30 and the Fox family left at 5:15 to pick up John D'Aquino, Natasha Pavlovich and Rich Whiteside for dinner.

[...]

It was a rush to get through the auction. There were several packets still remaining when we had to stop the bidding in order to assign the tables. Richard came up with the idea of bidding on the stars' tables and paying the lowest bid of the top group. That seemed to work. The other tables were opened up to those not bidding on star tables.

[...]

Natasha and John were our first guests. They were on from noon to 1:30. I brought sandwiches into the green room for the stars. Our schedule was so tight we didn't have a lunch break. Natasha is the only woman I know who can wear chartreuse and look good!

[...]

What are the Ziggys? I wanted to do something different for Orlando Leap. I thought an award ceremony like the Oscars might be just the ticket. It was tricky keeping it quiet from the stars because I had inadvertently let the cat out of the bag early on in planning. But luckily, most of the stars forgot that they would be receiving awards as well as Leapers.

Cons are generally laid back and casual. To make this event special, we decided to have a dress-up affair and an MC in tux, John Koenig. We had awards specially created and film bits of each actor's work which was displayed on the screen prior to the actor's acceptance. During dinner, a revolving award filled the screen along with slides of Scott, QL, and all the stars.

[...]

Rich Whiteside came on stage to present the award to the Leaper who brought the best show and tell goodies to Orlando Leap. Helene Kaplan won handsomely with her videos although Freda Whaley's Scott and Dean dolls were a crowd-pleaser.