the silver lady ([info]acciochocolate) wrote in [info]con_central,
@ 2008-06-16 17:38:00
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Current mood: aggravated

FedconUSA--an sf con mess in Dallas, TX this past weekend
FedConUSA, which was being held over the past weekend in Dallas, TX, with Trek and BSG stars supposedly in attendance, was shut down on Saturday by the hotel and /or the promoter, Tim Brazeal. (Brazeal may be known to some of you as the person behind Trek United, which was a group trying to raise money from fans so that a fifth season of "Enterprise" could be supposedly produced in Canada.) Strangely enough, the major con organizers were all out-of-state, so why the decision was made to hold it in Dallas will be interesting to find out.

This seems to be a huge mess, much on the same level as that Firefly con in California a few years back. Or the Doctor Who con in the Carolinas back in the 80s that was to have Pertwee and Sladen as guests (that one never even took place, as one or more of the concom made off with thousands of dollars of pre-reg--not sure what legally happened with that event).

Here's some links for further reading about the FedconUSA meltdown, under the cut:




Aaron Douglas (aka "Chief Tyrol" from the new BSG) was to have been a guest at FedConUSA. Here's what he has to say about things:

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=369&st=0


"This is the most unprofessional, egregious behaviour that I have ever seen
displayed. FedconUSA, you make Creation look like Shoreleave or Dragoncon,
two of the finest run conventions a fan will ever attend."

"I just got a call from a friend in Dallas who was listening to the
radio and it stated that myself and James will be at Fedcon this weekend?

WHAT!?!?!?!

are you insane?

tell you what fans. I am consulting my lawyer in the morning and I
will look into a blanket letter I can sign that you will all be able
to use to have your credit card charges reversed because you bought
your tickets with the promise that I would be there when they clearly
had no intention of ever having James or myself.

This smells a lot like fraud. I am not saying it is... just smells
like it."

*******************************

More info on the con here:

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=371&st=0

****************

From the Aaron Douglas LJ community

http://community.livejournal.com/aarondouglas/107436.html

a comment:

"This is completely embarrassing and aggravating!
Now I really know why the FedCon Germany people pulled out of that one
and are rather angry at the FedConUSA people (not that they're saying
anything but I do know some of them...)"

************************

From a blog by a first-time con goer and first-time author:
http://tiedyedbrainrays.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/where-no-me-has.html

The only reason I posted this link is so that folks can click on the links to the right on his blog about the FedCon meltdown.

********************

More from the con's own forum:

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=349

*******************

More from Aaron Douglas:

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?s=&showtopic=349&view=findpost&p=2824

************************************

Also, Marc B. Lee posted a statement from Fedcon GmbH (the German con folk):

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=372&pid=2823&st=0&#entry2823

*************************

The announcement that the con was shuting down at 11 AM Saturday morning!

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=374

More on that--the con bounced a check on the hotel:

http://starcat-jewel.livejournal.com/436353.html from Lee Billings.

****************

From Scott Merritt of Pegasus Publishing, a dealer at the con:

"I was also at the convention this weekend. I was one of the vendors in the
Dealer's Room. I (as with almost all of the other vendors) obtained our
space at the convention based upon the reputation of FedCon Germany. We were
informed that not only had FedConUSA licensed the name but that there was
substantial financial participation and other commitment from FedCon
Germany. None of us were informed when this financial participation was
withdrawn months ago. If we had been aware of this most of us probably would
have withdrawn from the convention.

It's a shame because this could have been a wonderful show. However without
proper financial backing and a totally inexperienced promoter this was bound
to happen. And I feel very badly for the fans who'd made the effort to show
up who had the rug pulled out from under them."

Scott Merritt
http://www.PegasusPublishing.com

*****************

Liz had volunteered to be guest liaison. Her story............


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Weber
Date: Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Subject: [usstrinityriver] FedCon - THE CON


To any and all people who shucked out money to go to FedCon down in
Dallas, Texas........

I suggest you call your credit card company and report this as a
fraudulent charge....

They did have guest,,, but did not pay them, any money the guest got
this weekend was from the sales of their autographs and photos taken
with them.

I'm betting that the hotel didn't get paid either.

As a volunteer, I was not privy to what went down, but I showed up
today to escort Garret Wang to his Photo/Autograph session. And
walked over to the Auditorium and heard that the Convention as of
11am was shut down, out of business!!

I was never so ashamed to have been a volunteer for an organization
before.

The guest, (the remainders) put on their best faces (literally) and
went on with their Autograph sessions and photo opps. They said,
these people will see us, we may not get paid, but we will have a
good time!

Robert O'Ralley and JG Hertzer both came down in full Klingon makeup
and proceeded to autograph for the fans, and after that was finished,
promptly went to do photo opps.

I had a friend get a photo with me and them in full makeup; I hope to
get the photo from him tonight via e-mail.

Sigh,

I have never seen such a thing in the many years I have volunteered
for sci-fi conventions. These things usually get nipped in the bud
before happening.

**********************

The CEO of Fedcon Germany details their experience with Tim Brazeal:

http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=384&hl=


**********************
SyFyPortal article (very eye-opening)

http://www.syfyportal.com/pagetogether.php?id=5123

This is the article that is also linked to in IMDB about FedCon's
cancellation.

And more here: http://www.syfyportal.com/news425122.html

************************

From Brownwood, TX radio personality Brian Rays:
http://fedconusa.com/community/index.php?showtopic=386

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I was the only member of the mainstream media there. Tim
Brazeal claims to have spent thousands of dollars on radio adds, yet we
offered him as many 20 minute live interview slots on a drive-time
newstalk schedule as he could fill, six months in advance up to
convention day-- FOR FREE! He couldn't have bought the airtime that we
were willing to give him. His organization came across with exactly zero
interviews. Calls were not returned. His media staff couldn't put
together a single five-minute interview at the convention with me
dogging their heels... Very frustrating.

I will be discussing this on my morning radio show on Tuesday morning on
KXYL FM 96.9 in Brownwood, Texas. I'm on the air live from 6am to 9am
Central Time. We don't stream live, but I'll make sure the audio is
posted to our station web page and to my personal blog, Tie-dyed Brain
Rays <http://tiedyedbrainrays.typepad.com> . If anybody would like to
call in and discuss the topic the studio line is: 1-800-966-1055.

I'll also be blogging the story and participating in a panel discussion
on the Fedcon USA implosion with the SyFy Portal website. I'll post all
the details to my blog."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement from James Callis:

http://pub50.bravenet.com/forum/4256384660/fetch/637480/

But Aaron and I NEVER CANCELED THEM! -

This is not the first time this has happened to me.

Last year I was set to attend FEDCON in Germany - at the last minute - they
canceled me. But I was told I had canceled!

*******************************

Another LJ account:

with photo of the small number of people at the opening ceremonies

http://looking2dastars.livejournal.com/70193.html

Here's an excerpt:

"It seems that somehow - they failed to print up enough convention badges
and were forced to depend upon the hotel's printer to make more. When that
failed, they began openly announcing that you didn't need a badge to go into
any events - something I'm sure that pleased the people who paid extra for a
Gold-Level, No Waiting pass.

"Why did they decide to do this? Well, even if they had the badges, it's a
bit hard to enforce the 'no badge/no admission' rule when you don't have a
security team.

*****************

Another take on the meltdown at Fandom Wank

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1160761.html



Btw, those Gold-Level Passes? $269, folks.

Moral of this story: stick to fan-run conventions.


(Post a new comment)


[info]rhonan
2008-06-16 09:54 pm UTC (link)
Ja know, I wish I could feel more compassionate for those people, but I've never given my money to commercially produced SF events, and I probably never will. Even the well run ones have always struck me as sleazy.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]acciochocolate
2008-06-16 11:46 pm UTC (link)
We're lucky in the Atlanta area the Dragoncon is so big that it mostly keeps the Creation-type cons away. But that dang Jumpcon is coming here at some point. :(

Btw, icon love. :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]geckoman
2008-06-16 10:20 pm UTC (link)
Even fan-run conventions aren't immune to this sort of behavior. We've had a few here in Tidewater Virginia over the years.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]acciochocolate
2008-06-16 11:43 pm UTC (link)
I'd be interested in hearing the stories, sad as they might be.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(Anonymous)
2008-06-17 04:05 pm UTC (link)
There was a fan-run SF con in Chicago that died pretty spectacularly in 2006. The con couldn't afford most of their advertised guests and so they canceled the guests but told people that the guests had canceled (which pissed off the guests). The con couldn't afford the hotel bill and so the hotel pulled some of their space - the hotel was nice enough, though, to not kick them out entirely (which they could have legally done) because the hotel did not think it was fair to the people coming in. There was no consuite and attendees were told it was because the person running consuite had quit, but we later found out that the person had never gotten any funds to buy supplies. And there were a lot of other problems.

So, sometimes the meltdowns happen even with fan-run cons. :-(

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]eiricmacbean
2008-06-18 05:36 am UTC (link)
I know that con. I was there. The con-com even got screwed over by the one person responsible for the debacle. Said person still owes us money. He lied to the con-com, the staff, the hotel, the guests...by the time we got to the bottom of the mess, it was too late to fix it. I'd still cheerfully throttle that s.o.b. if anyone knew where he was!
Luckily, I wasn't *on* the con-com that year, but would have been for the next year. Just ended up being in on the euthanasia of the battered corpse he left behind.
Bitter? You bet your sweet bippy! It was a damn good con till he got ahold of it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]shayde
2008-06-16 11:11 pm UTC (link)
What an absolute disaster.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who has anything to do with conventions, even as an attendee. You think your con is having problems? You don't realize how bad it could be without the organizers, volunteers, and 'behind the scenes' folks holding it all together.

This is what happens when an incompetent convention chair is in charge. The rest of his staff may have had some clue, but without someone with the basic skills needed for communication and organization, an entire event can come crashing down.

I'm sorry for all the staff who have their names attached to this event - it truly is one of examples of What Not To Do for a Con.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]acciochocolate
2008-06-16 11:49 pm UTC (link)
It's truly sad and amazing, all at the same time. So many people paid a lot of money to fly into Dallas for the weekend, only to see the con do an epic fail. In the end, TB didn't seem to have his act together, or any real money to make this con happen. Another note: start small, and then work your way up to the big leagues.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Texas cons
[info]theresamather
2008-06-17 06:17 am UTC (link)
Texas cons- always be cautious unless they are well established or run by people who know what they are doing.

I was solicited to display my art standard sci fi convention style by the jackballs at Realmscon a few years ago. We sent approximately $1000 worth of prints (fortunately no originals)- the jacktard thieves quit responding to me, never answered my mail, email or queries when they restarted their con. I never got paid and never got any of the art back. After the event they refused my registered letters and all communication- they are outright thieves. It would cost more to go to Texas to try to collect than I would probably get out of them.

It's buyer beware with Texas (or any southern start up) cons, and I wait a few years now to see how any of their art shows are run before I will entrust them with my work for their art shows unless I have previously worked with the art show director.

That said, I've always had no problem at all with Apollocon, Armadillocon, A-Kon, ConDFW and Fencon, and the one time I had a problem with Aggiecon it was resolved satisfactorily.

(Reply to this)


[info]the_snowgoose
2008-06-18 01:52 am UTC (link)
It appears the FedCon USA boards are suspended at this time.

(Reply to this)

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