a public service announcement

[davemerrill]

relevant link: http://www.laspegasusunicon.com/
(tl;dr - Las Vegas Brony convention crashes and burns)

Edited to add: wow, after reading that info dump Google doc (linked to in the comments) I'm leaning towards 'scam'. EIGHT (8) levels of membership? Package deals including hotel rooms (which is why people were getting kicked out of their hotel rooms - the convention took the money for the rooms but never paid the hotel)? Looks more and more like a drive-by cash grab by someone who got in way over their head. This wasn't a 'fan convention'. This was an (attempted) business. Conspiracy to commit financial transactions with malice aforethought.

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You shouldn’t start a fan convention if:

If you’ve never staffed a convention or run a video room or worked a dealers room table or managed a cosplay contest or set up an art show or worked registration or laid out a flyer or built a website or reserved meeting space at a hotel or rented a car or an apartment. If you’ve never done any of those things you have no business starting a convention.

Can’t balance your checkbook? Don’t start a convention.

Never thrown a big 4th of July or New Years Eve party? Never stayed behind to help someone else clean up THEIR big party?

Ever telephoned fifty strangers to ask them for their time and/or money? No? Try it sometime. It’s fun.

Not willing to put up your own money? Every cent of it? Not willing to go into debt?

Desperate to create an environment where everyone MUST obey your every whim? Burning, assholish desire to be a Big-Name-Fish in the Small Pond?

Can’t get two people who absolutely hate each other to work together? Can’t stand the idea of working with people YOU hate? Perhaps a project that depends on people working together is not for you.

Not totally willing to take over any and every aspect of the convention at a moment’s notice? (I didn’t say ‘ready’, I said ‘willing’. Nobody is ever ‘ready’)

Cannot say “no” to your best friend’s bad idea? Not ready to say “yes” to a good idea from your worst enemy?

Unable to put your own life and everything in it on hold for the sake of the convention?

Think your fan convention is gonna make you lots of money?

If this sounds like you, don’t start a convention. There are enough conventions already. We’re good. Get some KFC, call your friends, have a picnic in the park instead. We’re all better off that way.

THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Yeah, I know: bronies. But new fan conventions have been crashing and burning for-ever. For-freaking ever. Get a wild idea, start a convention, spend way too much money, hallucinate wildly about attendance figures, have a weekend of stress and fail, and watch the pieces fall slowly around you, all because you had no idea what you were doing and when that little voice inside you told you that you had no idea what you were doing, you ignored it.

Comments

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

info dump: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-G4JfFM-P8UUPj5CgfegwlIwlTIcAzOC-msrcbhHj7o/preview?pli=1&sle=true

[animejump.livejournal.com]

oh god, the carnage. it's hilarious, and it would be so much MORE hilarious if I didn't know that people had their weekends/businesses ruined because of it!

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

Is it me, or does Vegas have a measurably higher rate of hilarious fan convention collapse than most cities?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

This failed convention ruined somebody's business? I mean, BESIDES the business that was in the business of running the convention?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, THAT'S RIGHT, the dealers agreed to accept some kind of FAKE PLAY MONEY in the dealers room or something, that was going to be redeemed at the end of the show for cash, and then the show ended and there was no cash. So yeah, that will destroy your business. EXTREME GODDAMN STUPIDITY at ACCEPTING SUCH AN INCREDIBLY SHADY DEAL has a way of doing that.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

a fun rundown here:

http://maguszeal.tumblr.com/post/44202148412/las-pegasus-unicon-efn-q-a

[animejump.livejournal.com]

well, shucks, I guess I think it's too bad that innocent people had a tough time here. Even if, you know, they're DUMB innocent people.

jesus, I cannot stop reading this crap

[footyfoot.livejournal.com]

Vegas does seem to have more than a couple of scalps on its belt in regards to 'fan conventions', doesn't it? Just a shame they don't deal with the 'promoters' of these things in the same way that they used to deal with non-performing mob bosses...

8 LEVELS of membership? I expect to be confirmed as an Operating Thetan at anything above two.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeaaaah, this stinks to high heaven. These folks don't appear to have so much direct fan convention experience, but they've at least played some double-A ball as far as attempting to harvest pocket money from gullible nerds.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I know, it's a real train wreck, you can't look away.

I do feel bad for the people that got screwed, yeah. I think we're looking at a level of duplicity not often seen in the convention world.

[theengineer.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if Vegas hotels just have particularly weird contacts period, everything I'm hearing about the hotel contact in this case has me going "Huh?".

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I can see this happening, actually, with not much stupidity at all from the vendors. Consider:

(1) Money down, committed to the weekend as a vendor.

(2) Concom contacts vendors, letting them know about the fake-money program AFTER the vendors are committed.

(3) Vendors have a choice between accepting the new conditions or pulling out of the con, knowing that at this point it's highly unlikely they can find an alternate show for the same weekend and getting a full refund will likely require a lawyer who'd charge more than the cost of the booth.

(4) Vendors decide to take a chance on the funny money.

(5) Vendors end up at ground zero, FatManLittleBoyCon.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

(1) A non-refundable deposit on vendor's spaces at a first year con? Really? People would pay that?
(2) Fake-money gimmick wasn't in the contract that the vendor signed with the convention? Tough darts, Convention. Not gonna do it.
(3) Should vendor pull out of first-year convention that's already attempting sketchy nonsense? Signs point to YES
(4) Vendor takes chance on funny money. Wonder how THAT is going to turn out?
(5) Vendor trapped at collapsing disaster-con, kicks himself all the way home for not bailing when he had the chance.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

here's a report from a vendor here: http://www.roundstable.com/2013/03/01/fear-and-loathing-in-las-pegasus/

Even though I had paid $125 for my table and badge, there was nothing to be found. Eventually, they just wrote my name and the word ”VENDER” [sic] on the bottom of a normal weekend pass in Sweetie Belle Gold Sharpie. I figured it was no big deal, I could pick up my real badge later. But then the next thing was to figure out where my table was, and this should have been a red flag. Apparently the pre-determined vendor layout had been rearranged in the artist area because two people needed or wanted to be near each other, so my table (A16) had been taken over. Instead, I was told to “take a free table near Celestia Radio.” As I strolled through the vendor hall, I noticed a gigantic movable wall separating the artist alley and “vendor hall” into two separate areas. I didn’t think much of it, but it would turn out to loom large all day long.

Pretty scary stuff, and this is just getting his badge...On the other hand, $125 for a table and a badge is dirt cheap!!

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

(1) Would and routinely do, yes. Most conventions I deal with have a "no refund past X days before convention" clause in the contract.

(2) The contract, more often than not, will have some clause that basically says, "The con can add stuff to the contract without notice." Which is bullshit, but it's bullshit that requires a lawyer to shovel out.

(3) Pulling out means almost certainly abandoning table fees (see 1), abandoning any non-refundable travel costs prepaid, and most likely means sitting home that weekend with no sales. By the time something like this is brought up by a con, it's usually too late to get into any shows running the same weekend, or even the same MONTH.

Given that, and given that at most shows that do this sort of thing the funny money is a very low percentage of sales anyway, I can understand vendors going forward. Being a dealer at a convention is always a crapshoot, even at conventions you've been selling at year after year... and even a long-established con can be a bust for a dealer coming in for the first time, depending on a lot of other circumstances.

However, if I'd been in the market for that show and saw the stuff about eight different membership tiers and pre-packaged hotel/travel deals, etc. I'd have run away screaming. That's how squeeze-the-fan autograph-show cons run. "Bits" would have been the least of the problems.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

From what I'm reading in that report from the vendor, the "bits" were only used by people who had purchased one of the membership upgrades, and it's not mentioned as one of the primary causes of vendors losing money at Unicon.

The primary cause seems to be a distinct lack of actual people at this convention - not much traffic, period. Hard to make money when the people aren't there to spend money.

Apparently the convention also sold advertising space in some kind of program booklet - that was never actually got distributed to the congoers. Scam, scam, scam.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

The primary cause seems to be a distinct lack of actual people at this convention

An issue that's plagued my con sales since last Labor Day. The cons have been either smaller attendance than expected/promoted or full of people who are broke when they walk through the door.

But after reading that dealer's report? Yeah, there are SO many signs of fail... but by the time you get there, it's too late to do anything but pray.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I personally would not pay a non-refundable fee for a table at a first-year convention - those things have a nasty way of not happening. But I'm not and never will be a convention dealer.

The logic behind non-refundable table payments for an established convention - one with a solid track record of performance, a waiting list of dealers, and guaranteed attendance - that's something I can get behind (and have). But a first year show? forget it. First year shows need dealers more than dealers need first year shows.

Somewhere like Vegas, you can at least go and have an interesting weekend, even if you get to the convention and find it totally SNAFU'd and decide it's not worth your time to sit behind a table and watch nothing happen.

There have been instances where I've arrived at a con to do an Anime Hell or whatever, and there's some kind of front-desk nonsense about who's going to be covering my hotel bill, and had that hotel bill not been taken care of, I would have cheerfully said to hell with the whole thing and spent the weekend buying records and otherwise goofing off. But again, this isn't my livelihood. Never will be.

[animejump.livejournal.com]

Word up. I keep reading remarks about the high cost of renting the function space and hissing "Hello? What about the room block?"

Of course, even if this convention had a room block, they wouldn't have filled it, which just would have meant thousands of dollars in fees from a different department. But unless it's a one-day event, no hotel convention should ever be paying for the function space anyway-- that's what the room block is for. You fill your room block, that fee is waived, or you book your damn event at a hotel that's clear on the whole "quid pro quo" thing.

Here's another great story of a con that got really wobbly:
http://marzgurl.livejournal.com/249869.html

Nutshell: AtsuiCon needed to raise $12,000 in one hour on Saturday night, or they'd get kicked out and the con shut down. What happened? Read the link. It's kind of horrifying, but kind of amazing.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That is a really appalling story, counting on the good nature of fans to help them overcome their ridiculous financial stupidity. You'll notice there weren't any more AtsuiCons.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

We shouldn't overlook the greed factor. Of course there are dealers with honor, who are reasoned and plan and are all around good people. There are also a f**kton of people who are in it because they once heard that "anny-may is HAWT and you can make a ton off those folk"

I can't help but imagine there's a bit more of that in the whole MLP world.

Consider: reading stuff about this con, seems to be a whole lot of folk out there making stuff (which, generally, I approve of) but not paying a dime in licensing fees to Hasbro.

Like the time in the '90s when Rumiko Takahashi was offended like all get out at a SDCC when fans came up to have her sign Chinese/HK bootleg posters and such, bought right then in the dealer's area (Which led to the high profile 'appease the Japanese' forming of J.A.I.L.E.D.-remember THAT?), I can't help but believe that the MLP production people were a bit discomforted when presented with home-made mass produced 'art' prints to sign...

does that make me a hater? :)

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tohoscope/979890747/)
Yeah. Thanks for reminding me of this.

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

That was the con that broke me.

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

the mass production art print thing is weird. a friend of mine is massproducing prints of polar bear cafe fanart he drew to sell at fanime. i find that cheap high quality color printing of digital art maybe crosses a line... thoughts on this?

granted he's not gonna get rich, or anything. he's just a college kid / artist. but still. it's weird-ish to me.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

He's selling prints of artwork using somebody else's copyrighted characters? Sure, that's ethically wrong. Once he starts making enough money to make it worth his while, he'll discover it's LEGALLY wrong as well.

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

yeah, i guess the thing is -- i dunno how it is at AWA, and at cons in the last, i dunno, DECADE, because the last con i really went to and paid attention was otakon 1999 (i went to a couple AXes but never encountered this, and no later than like, 2005, anyway) but it was de rigeur, at least back then, that people would draw fanart and then sell it in the art show. and i don't think that is weird or bad. but they were selling original pieces drawn with real media. now, kids THESE DAYS all use a tablet and whatever digital art tool. so he draws this nice little polar bear cafe image.. and then he prints, i dunno how many, and sells 'em. gets into weird territory.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Most of the artist alleys these days have specific rules about how much of any artist's table can be taken up with fan art of copyrighted characters - usually a certain percentage has to be original-concept artwork that does not feature licensed characters. It's been a big issue in the AA world.

I have no idea of the reasoning they use to justify where they are drawing the line on copyrighted vs original art. Not my circus, not my monkeys.