Here is the summary from Kyle who attended the Supanova in Gold Coast.

Introduction:

Meeting Summer in Supanova Perth 2010 was a most wonderful memory. When I found out that she was coming to Australia again but to Melbourne and Gold Coast this time, I applied for leave from my boss right away and booked for the ticket, flights and hotel for Gold Coast. However, my Whedonverse ticket was cancelled just a few weeks before the event due to a conflict in schedule for one of the invited guests. On the bright side, I really should have just gone for a VIP ticket in the first place and this gave me a most wonderful opportunity to switch. And I was very thankful that option was still available!

Saturday 21st April:

The last time I visited Gold Coast was for an academic research conference a few years ago. This time my hotel was right across the road from the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre. I walked over to the convention centre nice and early and was taken to the front of the queue by the friendly Supanova staff when they spotted my VIP badge. I had everything ready, and had obtained all the tokens I needed from the Friday preview/pre-registration night. I chatted with some staff and another fan while we waited.

Door opened at 10am. Summer’s first photo session was scheduled at 10:30am, so I rushed to the photo studio section and started waiting there. The queue grew very long very quickly.

When Summer showed up, she was in a lovely white summer dress with matching sandals – a divine creature from heaven. She was gorgeous and breathtaking – my heart skipped a beat. We had a photo taken and I thanked her.

While other fans had their photos taken with her, I collected the wonderful photo and went on to do a few things on my to-do-list. I then went to the autograph section when Summer started her signing.

Summer’s mum was with her for this Australian trip. When it was my turn to receive Summer’s autographs, I presented my items to be signed (my photo with her and another picture from my own collection). The picture raised the interest of both ladies as it was a relatively rare one and they had fun trying to recall when and where it was taken. I then told Summer fans from Summer-Glau.net said hello. That brought a very lovely smile to her face. I told her that the fans heard she had an interest in gardening, and was wondering if she was more into flowers or vegetables. She said that she has a great interest to grow vegetables of her own, but her current home does not have a backyard so she only has some flowers at the moment. She will be growing a lot of vegetables when she gets a backyard one day. (In her Q&A panel later in the day, she also mentioned that she has been doing some reading about sustainability and feels that she’s a farmer at heart.)

I left Summer with some souvenirs (a white koala bear doll and two smaller plush toys of Australian animals) and thanked her and her mum. Both ladies are super nice and friendly. Summer’s mum was having as much fun meeting the fans as Summer. It was easy to see she is very glad that Summer is bringing so much joy to the many many fans who appreciate her and her work.

I then went on to do a few other activities, before returning at 1.45pm for the “Serenity Sirens” photograph with both Summer and Morena Baccarin. I asked if we could do a kung fu/fighting pose together and both ladies were lovely. I thanked them and went on with other activities before going to Summer’s Q&A panel at 2.40pm.

Summer’s panel was held inside a huge theatre, and it was fully packed with fans! I managed to get a seat in the front row and had my DSLR with telephoto lens ready. The host introducing Summer asked us not to take any video but very kindly allowed us to take photos with our cameras. He forgot however, to ask fans not to request Summer to hug them. So when the Q&A time came, a very lucky fan asked Summer for a hug and actually received one from her! Some highlights from the Q&A:

A fan gave Summer a packet of “Tim Tams” (a popular brand of Australian chocolate biscuits). Summer exclaimed “Oh I love those”, but then commented that she’s been having too much food in this Australian trip. The host teased her by telling her he’s happy to keep them instead. When the Q&A was over and the host returned the Tim Tams to Summer, she was very happy. It was very very cute.

Questions from fans were mainly about Firefly and Serenity. One particular question of interest was regarding the character development of River: she was a very different character by the end of the series when compared to the beginning. Apparently, in the very early episodes Summer had no idea that River would become a “killer character”, until Joss Whedon instructed her one day. The cast and crew often had no idea what Joss had in store for them next.

Another interesting question was regarding Summer and “mainstream” roles. Summer in the past was offered quite a number of roles that were considered more “mainstream”. However, she loves strong female roles/characters, and believes that she should follow her heart and finds it to work very well for her so far.

Summer was considering a number of scripts, and actually had to decide on one by the Sunday while she was still at Supanova! The projects/roles were top secret of course, and she could not tell us anything about them. Yet a fan asked if we could “help her” decide which script to take.

After the panel, I had a quick look around the various stalls and stands at the exhibition hall. After a little asking around, I managed to find a rare poster of Summer. With that I returned to my hotel room and had a little rest, before going to the VIP cocktail party at 7.30pm at a secret location.

The cocktail party was wonderful. We were VERY WELL looked after by the wonderful Supanova staff. I got to know other fans who came along to the party and made a few new friends. Initially we were told that Summer was not feeling well in the late afternoon and might not attend the party. We all knew how exhausting it must have been for the guests to do signing and photo sessions the whole day, and just wished that Summer could manage to take a much needed rest and hopefully get better. But when the guests arrived, Summer was amongst them! They came around and talked to all of us. Summer was so wonderful and kind. She allowed me to have another photo taken with her using my phone. I was so happy and in the photo I look like I was about to lose consciousness out of joy. I cannot thank enough of the lovely and wonderful staff who looked after all of us (both guests and fans) so well. They did it with such professionalism and enthusiasm that everyone had a great and memorable night.

I also had a little chat with Supanova’s official photographer Roy, the man who’s been handling the operation of the wonderful photo studio for the Supanova events past and present. Having been in charge of some logistics and operations research teachings at my university before, it was very interesting for me to learn a little about their photography operation and now I have even more respect and appreciation for how they have been handling things so wonderfully.

Sunday 22nd April:

Not sure when in the future I will get to meet Summer again, so I went to get a new token to have another photo taken with Summer for the 11.45am photo session. The queue was of course getting very very long. I chatted a little with another very excited fan. Right behind us were two girls who could not contain their excitement for finally meeting Summer, and were trying to come up with things to say to Summer. Another fan commented that his wife was with him at Supanova, but it would be extremely difficult for him not to smile too happily when standing next to Summer.

When it was my turn, Summer remembered my name and we had another photo taken. This new photo is also wonderful and now holds another special place in my heart. After the photo session, I took the photo to Summer for signing as well. I chatted a little with Summer’s mum while Summer took time to personalise a lovely autograph on the photo. I thanked both ladies again and left happily.

I went back to my hotel room. But then I decided I really should not waste the remainder of Supanova. Thinking about what I could do, I decided to get a more stock picture signed by Summer. So I returned to the convention centre yet again to obtain another token and a stock picture made available by the Supanova staff. It was very hard to choose between a picture from Serenity or one from TSCC, as Summer was great in all the shows she’s been in and all the pictures looked lovely. In the end, I chose a TSCC one. It happened to be the same image as the poster that was displayed on the wall behind Summer during her autograph sessions. By the time I returned to the autograph queue, that poster had gained a new autograph by Summer with “come with me if you want to live”. When it was my turn, I asked Summer if she could do something similar on my picture and she did it wonderfully. Summer’s mum commented that I kept returning to their table.  After finishing another lovely autograph, Summer thanked me and shook my hand. I thanked Summer and wished her the best for all her future projects and will be looking forward to all of them. It was still relatively early. But for me, Supanova had ended most wonderfully and it was time for me to get back to work and reality.

Thank you so much for sharing details of your time at Supanova at the Gold Coast Kyle (and also a thank you to Norman for posting them). It was really nice to read your 'first hand' account of being at the event and meeting Summer and her mother in person, especially for those of us who couldn't make it. It's great to see that you had an awesome 'Summer' experience, one in which as you said, and I quote, will hold a special place in your heart. Also thanks for putting in a word for us fans from Summer-Glau.net

After reading your summary, other than wishing I could have been in the Gold Coast at the time (work got me first unfortunately ), I kind of wished I had someone as confident as you with me when I met Summer back in 2009 at Supanova Sydney. I think it would have really helped me get the most out my experience when I was there. I unfortunately get very nervous and 'frozen' when meeting Summer on my own (and after reading a particular fan's comment on the webpage, it looks like I'm not the only one ), so it would have helped to have a confident friend/fan with me at the time to kind of have their positive energy rub off on me as well. But one thing is for sure, next time Summer comes to Supanova and I can make it, I'm definitely going to try to get a VIP pass as well if I can afford it. It seems it's really worth it based on your experience.

Thanks again for sharing Kyle. Now I'm really interested in what her (possible) secret upcoming project might be

Many thanks Norman!




I was far from being confident. This is Summer we are talking about! I'm not sure if most of the things I said to her and her mum ended up resembling English or making sense. I also look like a dork (who is about to pass out) in most of the photos I've taken with her. (I might share them another time.) But it really helped that both Summer and her mum were SUPER nice and always full of enthusiasm to everyone. Summer was as perfectly polite, classy, well mannered, and full of humility as I remembered her fondly from Perth 2010.

I'm not sure about other conventions, but the organisers who run Supanova really have hearts and it was very obvious that they did it for the fans and made sure that everyone (guests, fans, and themselves) had a best possible memory. If Summer attends Supanova again in future (any city) I'll definitely go with a VIP pass again (and I'll hopefully be better prepared). I will be very happy to meet up with you and go together.

That's exactly why I was hesitant to get a photo-op with her. I figured one of two things would happen: Either I'd pass out or I'd have a terrified expression on my face. As it turns out, we took a pretty good photo-op.

I definitely agree with you there Speaking of which, I realised you inadvertently pointed out a mistake in my post. I met Summer in 2010 not 2009. I went to the same convention as you but I was at the Sydney one.


That would be great, I think it would be nice to meet another Summer fan at the next convention, especially one from the same SG.net community


Same here, the photo-op wasn't that bad once I actually did it. For me, it was the feeling of anticipation of actually going to get a photo with Summer that kind of got to me while I was waiting in line.

I hope she visits sydney again, hopefully sometime when I have some money and can make it there.

That's great! In the end, I was very glad with my photos too.




I remember the feeling of nervousness being the first in line to have my photo taken with her in Perth 2010, and also when lining up again for the autograph. The same feelings returned in Gold Coast 2012.
It really helped she was very lovely to her fans and made each of us feel very comfortable. As soon as we started talking the nervousness was gone.






This was not the first time she visited Australia so she must have enjoyed her time and experience here.