Aki Con Is At It Again, Sends Artist’s Personal Information To Random Person
Washington’s Aki Con seems to be determined to keep screwing something major up every year. We talked about their history on the podcast last year, but to sum it up:
- In 2012 they put their Artists and Vendors in a leaking, freezing garage.
- In 2013 they invited a convicted sex offender as a guest, who then drugged and sexually assaulted another guest… and then Aki Con staff blamed the victim.
So, yeah – they have a history. It may come as a relief to hear that this year all they’re doing wrong (so far) is mostly just being bad at their jobs.
Tumblr user MysticMagix has posted an extensive write up about their experiences trying to register for Aki Con’s artist alley, and it’s been a cluster f*** of incompetence on the part of Aki Con staff. You can read the full write up here, but the highlights include:
- Contradictory instructions
- Lack of any email responses
- Taking the artist’s money while still rejecting the table
And my favorite… - They were sent a copy of artist Sammy Ng’s contract, including all of Ng’s personal information
That’s right – Aki Con sent artist Sammy Ng’s personal information to MysticMagix for no discernible reason beyond straight incompetence.
Aki Con seems determined to get things wrong before the event even happens this year.
Just giving some more info on the “event”…
Prior to 2013, they were a for-profit event, as you knew. However, according to Washington State Law, any for-profit business is not allowed to have volunteers, and all employees must be paid at least minimum wage. Which their “volunteers” were not. So they’re on the hook for likely thousands of dollars of unpaid wages. Oh, and they were also signing off on community service requirements for high schoolers. Except for the fact that working for a business isn’t “community service.” So they could be on the hook for fraud to the state.
They also have no type of “security” at all. Tons of people attend without badges, which are never checked. I can only hope that they instituted a weapons policy after their first year, after which you could not pay me to ever return to.
Additionally? It wasn’t just artists who were in that garage. They were also serving food there.