Tag Archives: Con Scene

Louisville’s Fandom Fest Announces Last Minute Venue Change (As They May Have Never Booked the Old One)

July 19, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

The Louisville, KY based Fandom Fest is scheduled to take place pretty damned soon (July 28th-30th), and while the venue hadn’t ever been formally mentioned on the con’s official materials this year, with no other location mentioned most people assumed it would continue to be held at the same one it’s been at for years — the Kentucky Expo Center. I mean, the official recommended hotels are all in the vicinity of the Expo Center, and with the con so close (and people planning it for months) it just wouldn’t make sense to announce a venue change now, right?

Well… wrong?

You see, a new venue is exactly what the convention announced on Monday — just eleven days before the event. The con posted the about the change to their official Facebook page, saying the con’s new location was an event space attached to the Jefferson Mall. This new “event space” (read: old, empty former Macy’s department store) isn’t a short walk from their listed hotels — in fact, it’s a fifteen minute drive. Continue reading Louisville’s Fandom Fest Announces Last Minute Venue Change (As They May Have Never Booked the Old One) →

Convention News, The Mega-Blog

Kitsune Kon Bans Youtuber ‘DesolatorMagic’ Due to Weapons Concerns

July 13, 2017 Trae Dorn 24 Comments

Kitsune Kon is taking place at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, WI, but at least one person who planned on attending won’t be let in the door. The convention made an announcement earlier today stating that Youtuber ‘DesolatorMagic’ has been officially banned from the event due to safety concerns.

In a video posted on July 1st where DesolatorMagic announced he was attending the con, he stated “considering the sheer volume of threats I get on Twitter and on Youtube and Reddit and everywhere else — if you so much as look at me wrong, I’m probably going to stab you. So just FYI — you might not want to freak me out. You might want to come at me within my full vision arc and kind of slowly. That said, if you do want to fight me, just announce it first. No cheap shots, or I will shoot you.” In context it’s actually really difficult to tell how serious he is, but as DesolatorMagic repeatedly mentions he carries a gun in his other videos (and also talks about having had to pull it out), it’s clear he’s serious enough. Continue reading Kitsune Kon Bans Youtuber ‘DesolatorMagic’ Due to Weapons Concerns →

Convention News, The Mega-Blog

UK Based ‘Rogue Events’ Is Out of Business

July 10, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

UK based Rogue Events, which ran a number of fandom conventions over the last few years, has officially called it quits. While there is no mention of it on the official facebook page, the company’s website has been taken offline and replaced with the following message from the company’s director Jennie Glover:

I am truly sorry and heartbroken to have let down the attendees, staff and volunteers, as well as the guests in the way I have done at insurgence 9. I came on board in a desperate hope to be able to re-build the events into something great for everyone, and I failed. This was due to many factors. I made bad decisions. I was inexperienced. Nothing I can say will take back what has happened or make anything right. I can only apologise to people with everything I have. I am so deeply sorry.

A version of that statement was also posted to the company’s Twitter account. The company’s closure comes on the heels of reports that Chase Coleman, who had been a guest at the company’s “Insurgence 9” event, hadn’t been paid for his appearance still.

Most of the comments on the Rogue Events facebook page are people asking if or when they’ll be refunded for preregistrations for now-cancelled events, but there hasn’t been a public response from the company. We reached out to Rogue Events’s email address (as it was the only remaining contact option we could find), but received an automated response which stated “This email address is no longer monitored.”

The Nerd & Tie Podcast

Episode 102 – The Grand Switcheroo

July 10, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

On this (audio only) episode of the Nerd & Tie podcast, we celebrate Wonder Woman‘s victory at the box office, give a spoiler-free review of Spider-Man: Homecoming, ponder HBO developing a Watchmen television show, and consider the ramifications of Phil Lord and Chris Miller getting booted from the (still untitled) Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film. Then we hit the con scene, where Titan Fan Con messed up big time, and Emerald City Comicon finally settled their “minions/volunteer” lawsuit.

This is also the first episode recorded from the new production studio, so please forgive our settling in.

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Convention News, The Mega-Blog

Emerald City Comicon ‘Volunteer’ Lawsuit Settled

June 28, 2017 Trae Dorn 5 Comments

The legality of volunteering for “for profit” conventions is a complicated issue, and one that’s caused some headaches for con organizers. Notably, as we reported last year, a class action lawsuit was filed against Emerald City Comicon over their ‘minions’ (the term the con used for convention workers) not being paid while working for the con’s old, pre-ReedPop acquisition management.

Well, it looks like that lawsuit has now been settled.

In the agreement, Emerald City Comicon has agreed to pay out $493,227.84. That number includes the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees ($123,300), $5000 to the plaintiff, and additional funds to pay an administrator to dispense the money. The rest will be paid out to people who worked for Emerald City Comicon in 2014 and 2015, and applications and necessary forms can be found here.

As you’d expect, Emerald City Comicon doesn’t admit to any wrong doing in the case. So while the threat of a lawsuit does seem like an obvious deterrent to for profit shows using unpaid labor, it doesn’t really change the legal playing field at all. The writing on the wall seems obvious though — if you’re running a for profit show, you need to pay your workforce.

Convention News, The Mega-Blog

Hey Titan Fan Con – Maybe DON’T Tell Attendees to Directly Contact Guests Who Cancel?

June 21, 2017 Trae Dorn 1 Comment

So Titan Fan Con is a small comic convention that ran last weekend in Odessa, TX. It’s one of the myriad of small cons that dot the American country side, and with a small attendance it normally wouldn’t get close to registering on our radar. For a con like this to end up filling column inches on Nerd & Tie, they’d have to do something spectacularly amazing or spectacularly stupid.

They apparently decided to opt for the latter.

Actor Seth Gilliam, best known for his role on The Walking Dead, was originally slated to appear at the convention. A few days before the event, though, the actor cancelled his appearance. When stuff like this happens, it’s always unfortunate — but it’s a known risk running events where you bring in media celebrities. When Titan Fan Con announced the cancellation though, they didn’t exactly handle it well. Continue reading Hey Titan Fan Con – Maybe DON’T Tell Attendees to Directly Contact Guests Who Cancel? →

The Nerd & Tie Podcast

Episode 101 – The Mid-Move Mess

June 20, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

On this episode of Nerd & Tie we deal with the ongoing move of our production studio, mourn the passing of Adam West, go through the highlights of E3, discuss the changes coming to Pokemon Go, review the confusing situation surrounding the Venom movie (and how it MIGHT still be MCU adjacent), and consider Wizard World’s money problems.

There are a few technical difficulties in the video too, but at least the audio version is largely clean?

This episode of Nerd & Tie was sponsored by Ohio Kimono

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The Mega-Blog

Gen’s Tips: Volunteering For Your First Convention

June 19, 2017 Gen Prock 1 Comment

Hey Gen, you might ask, I’m going to be volunteering at my first convention ever, do you have any advice?

Here are my tips:

-Most cons will let you attend for free or refund your badge if you volunteer a certain number of hours for them. If you want to volunteer at a con, go to the staff office and ask the staffers there about it.

-Write down your volunteer schedule and keep it with you. If the back of your badge is blank, write your schedule there.

-Be professional. Most of your hours will probably be badging, which can get really boring. Try not to nap, be on your phone, or play games while badging. It makes the con staff look bad.

-If a congoer comes to you with an issue because they think you are a staffer, don’t worry. Stay calm and just try to direct them to an actual staffer nearby, or to the staff office area.

-If you sign up for volunteer hours, SHOW UP FOR YOUR HOURS. Please. The staff are depending on you to do your job and to be where you need to be so that their con can run smoothly. It’s really frustrating to staff if volunteers don’t show up to their shifts and they have to stretch to cover it.

-Have fun, stay hydrated, take showers, enjoy the fact that you are attending for a lower price than most other people there.

Disclaimer: Gen is not a professional advice person in any way, and can only give tips based on their own experiences.

Convention News, The Mega-Blog

Wizard World’s Money Problems Continue With Shrinking Margins

June 9, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

Convention mega chain Wizard World has had some widely reported financial issues over the last few years, and it looks like things haven’t gotten any better for the company. Even having scaled back operations to fewer conventions and securing outside funding from Bristol Investment Fund, the company still managed to lose over $1.28 million in the first quarter of 2017.

Revenue per Wizard World show is down $99,096 from 2016, and with an ever more crowded con market, I can’t really see that getting better soon. This isn’t even to mention the “Con Box” subscription service, which appears to have fallen apart completely.

Honestly, as more and more pop culture events spring up across the country, and celebrity guarantees rise, the costs are making the continued existence of a chain like Wizard World untenable. Where finding big name celebrities at a regional con used to be novelty, it’s becoming less and less of one as time goes by. Without that draw (and a pretty hefty entrance fee), it’s hard to see a bright future for the company in its current state.

Via Newsarama

The Nerd & Tie Podcast

Episode 100 – Stumbling Towards Milestones

June 7, 2017 Trae Dorn Leave a comment

On this, the one hundredth episode of Nerd & Tie, our heroes give our review of DC’s Wonder Woman movie, discuss how said film was banned in Lebanon, celebrate 40 years of Star Wars, and continued to get confused by the ongoing progress on Sony’s Venom movie. Then we take on the con scene, where ColossalCon forced Colossus Con to rebrand, and Phoenix Comicon narrowly avoided tragedy.

Yeah, it gets a little dark at the end.

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