Failed Conventions: DashCon 2014
What happens when a group of fans with no relevant experience get together to run a three day geek convention? DashCon 2014. It begun its life as Tumlbr-Con, organized by fans who had no idea what they were doing.
While Dashcon was Tumbl-Con USA, they decided to create committees for each fandom to raise money for the convention itself. Their method would be to ask popular fanartists/fanfic writers to donate fanworks so that they could be auctioned off and the proceeds would go to the con. They first wanted to secure a convention area and get hotels. The way the committees were formed was absolutely fucked up, they literally put an open call on the blog and said “WHO WANTS TO FORM A COMMITTEE TO HELP US RAISE FUNDS?” they asked no questions whatsoever. [1]
What about the organizers? Surely they had the chops to handle something of this scale.
None of the main convention organizers appear to have a background in fan conventions or similar events. DashCon owners Megan Eli and Roxanne Schwieterman are a novelist “with 15 years of business experience” and a 20-year-old with “a degree in hospitality management,” respectively. [2]
Early plans fell through, such as the production a web series called Tumblr University because the art director (I have not verified his claims) "saw a sinking ship".
some of the “heads” were as young as 13. I told them they needed to vet and screen people, and people who are at least 18, but they took anyone who volunteered. I believe a few of the admins were still in high school. And as a first hand witness, they did indeed treat you guys like shit, and there’s WAY more things they did wrong behind the scenes but I’m running out of characters. [...]
I left mainly because they are NOT experienced. In ANYTHING. As someone who’s worked for big companies and work behind-the-scenes all the time, I saw that they were just a group of kids on the Internet LOLing over an idea.
Three days seems overly ambitions for a brand new con with new organizers. Moreover, the article and other sites reported names like Misha Collins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian Somerhalder, Stan Lee, Tom Hiddleston and Tom Felton were considered as guest. These are high profile actors, some with smart, tough cookie agents who won’t take any B.S. If fact, if those agents even accepted an offer from such an unproved new convention I’d have been extremely surprised.
The numbers didn’t even add up. Originally organizers projected three to seven thousand attendees with costs of over $100,000. However, only 500 tickets were available each day. Even assuming that was for one day passes only, you’d need to have at least 1500 three day tickets to reach their goals. As far as I know, there were no presales.
Unsurprisingly, things quickly went pear shaped by day one.
a Saturday badge cost $45 [...] At 9PM, the organizers claimed that because of a sudden change of plans with hotel staff, they had to raise $17,000 within an hour or shut down the convention [3]
This sounds familiar, much like some of the problems those failed anime cons had. Even if I love the fandom, I refuse to toss money at people who have no idea how to manage it. Furthermore, shouldn't the convention have a contract with the hotels stating the rates and monies owed? I'm no expert on this, but it just seems the logical business-y thing to do. At best, the con staff failed to understand and honor whatever the contract stated. And what if they hadn’t been able to raise enough? Would the money be returned right there and then?
A video of the plea for money is here. Though DashCon promised to be ”refunding you guys after the convention as soon as possible” it's uncertain how they’ll do so as there’s no evidence that they kept a record of donations.
Things got worse on Saturday.
a room full of people have been waiting over an hour to see the creators of beloved surrealist podcast Welcome to Night Vale. When an organizer says they left after not getting paid, a cry of disbelief runs through the audience. [3]
Aren’t guests paid up front or a percentage up front and the rest at the convention? If it’s all worked out prior to the convention this really shouldn’t be an issue, should it? Dash Con spun the explanation thusly:
With regards to today and Welcome to Night Vale, we don’t want to get into it, but we want to officially say that we did have the money for Night Vale, and a large majority of it was in cash. The remainder was available via PayPal, but unfortunately PayPal was malfunctioning and they were unwilling to wait. [4]
Moreover, in the The Geekiary video the convention representative who delivers the band news, in my opinion, implies Night Vale just wasn’t patient enough, i.e. if only WTNV would have waited after the panel or hadn’t wanted “everything up front”.
The con didn’t have the money to cover WTNV’s transportation and performance fees. When WTNV asked them to pay the remainder of their performance fee prior to the panel beginning, DashCon was unable to do so, and WTNV walked out as they are positively free to do because what the fuck you don’t invite keystone guests if you aren’t able to pay their fees upfront (and showing them your PayPal balance on a smartphone absolutely does not count). [5]
But this isn’t the whole story, and Night Vale had this to say:
The organizers of an event we were scheduled to be part of today were unable to pay for our flights, hotel, or performance fee.
We tried very hard to make this happen. We took a full break in the middle of our July tour to attend this small fan-based event. We paid for our own hotel and plane fare, and were very excited to be part of this intimate fan gathering. But after a morning of discussion, organizers were unable to pay for the costs of travel and performing. [6]
Then guests found out they had to pay for their own hotel rooms.
After the Night Vale panel was called off, guest webcomic artist Noelle Stevenson discovered secondhand that she would be paying her own hotel bill, after having to moderate her own panel. She ended up sleeping on a sofa in the Night Vale cast’s Airbnb rental. Sherlock Holmes podcasters the Baker Street Babes pulled out of the show for the same reason.[3]
Though Stevenson and the Baker Street Babes got their money refunded -- after much hassling -- it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Even the supposed charity tie became suspect as the Random Acts didn’t even have an official joint project with DashCon.
Critics cast suspicion on a "partnership" with charity Random Acts, which later said it had only approved a fundraiser, not agreed to any kind of joint project. [3]
While it's great to raise money, I think it's a mistake to assume people doing something for charity = competent. To top it off was the feedback panel at the end in which the organizers promised a DashCon 2015. After such a big failure, I sure as heck wouldn’t pay to any convention by the organizers.
There was in fact a feedback panel at the end of the convention during which the organizers claimed that DashCon 2015 was still going to happen, and I for one am interested in seeing how that pans out [7]
Everyone thinks they can just jump in and organized a con, but without the know how or connections to pull off such a large endeavor the odds are against you. Successful conventions are usually run by staff of other conventions; they understand what's needed as far as logistics, costs and contracts and the potential problems that may arise. Though I've known some smart teenagers, chances are a group of 18 to 20 year olds are going to have limited to no experience when it comes to this kind of thing. Perhaps if they'd planned small they might have pulled it off.
I see this a lot in writing circles where someone wants to start their own publishing business. They think “ business experience” or “ degree in hospitality management” is proof of their competency, yet they lack the detailed knowledge and experience of the actual industry. Often criticism or concerns are met with hostility or labels of being a “hater” - another warning sign. But in the end, the majority fail and take many a writer down with them.
Years back there were a string of failed fandom and anime conventions -- and one outright scam-- by people who saw the attention organizers received and craved their own little slice of praise and fame. Imagine rubbing elbows with some of the big Names in the fandom! The respect of being a committee head or possibly a Big Star can cause some to toss caution to the wind, and the bigger the event the better. A one day gathering simply wouldn't do. A few were actually well intentioned but all were ill prepared and inexperienced.
While Dashcon was Tumbl-Con USA, they decided to create committees for each fandom to raise money for the convention itself. Their method would be to ask popular fanartists/fanfic writers to donate fanworks so that they could be auctioned off and the proceeds would go to the con. They first wanted to secure a convention area and get hotels. The way the committees were formed was absolutely fucked up, they literally put an open call on the blog and said “WHO WANTS TO FORM A COMMITTEE TO HELP US RAISE FUNDS?” they asked no questions whatsoever. [1]
What about the organizers? Surely they had the chops to handle something of this scale.
None of the main convention organizers appear to have a background in fan conventions or similar events. DashCon owners Megan Eli and Roxanne Schwieterman are a novelist “with 15 years of business experience” and a 20-year-old with “a degree in hospitality management,” respectively. [2]
Early plans fell through, such as the production a web series called Tumblr University because the art director (I have not verified his claims) "saw a sinking ship".
some of the “heads” were as young as 13. I told them they needed to vet and screen people, and people who are at least 18, but they took anyone who volunteered. I believe a few of the admins were still in high school. And as a first hand witness, they did indeed treat you guys like shit, and there’s WAY more things they did wrong behind the scenes but I’m running out of characters. [...]
I left mainly because they are NOT experienced. In ANYTHING. As someone who’s worked for big companies and work behind-the-scenes all the time, I saw that they were just a group of kids on the Internet LOLing over an idea.
Three days seems overly ambitions for a brand new con with new organizers. Moreover, the article and other sites reported names like Misha Collins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian Somerhalder, Stan Lee, Tom Hiddleston and Tom Felton were considered as guest. These are high profile actors, some with smart, tough cookie agents who won’t take any B.S. If fact, if those agents even accepted an offer from such an unproved new convention I’d have been extremely surprised.
The numbers didn’t even add up. Originally organizers projected three to seven thousand attendees with costs of over $100,000. However, only 500 tickets were available each day. Even assuming that was for one day passes only, you’d need to have at least 1500 three day tickets to reach their goals. As far as I know, there were no presales.
Unsurprisingly, things quickly went pear shaped by day one.
a Saturday badge cost $45 [...] At 9PM, the organizers claimed that because of a sudden change of plans with hotel staff, they had to raise $17,000 within an hour or shut down the convention [3]
This sounds familiar, much like some of the problems those failed anime cons had. Even if I love the fandom, I refuse to toss money at people who have no idea how to manage it. Furthermore, shouldn't the convention have a contract with the hotels stating the rates and monies owed? I'm no expert on this, but it just seems the logical business-y thing to do. At best, the con staff failed to understand and honor whatever the contract stated. And what if they hadn’t been able to raise enough? Would the money be returned right there and then?
A video of the plea for money is here. Though DashCon promised to be ”refunding you guys after the convention as soon as possible” it's uncertain how they’ll do so as there’s no evidence that they kept a record of donations.
Things got worse on Saturday.
a room full of people have been waiting over an hour to see the creators of beloved surrealist podcast Welcome to Night Vale. When an organizer says they left after not getting paid, a cry of disbelief runs through the audience. [3]
Aren’t guests paid up front or a percentage up front and the rest at the convention? If it’s all worked out prior to the convention this really shouldn’t be an issue, should it? Dash Con spun the explanation thusly:
With regards to today and Welcome to Night Vale, we don’t want to get into it, but we want to officially say that we did have the money for Night Vale, and a large majority of it was in cash. The remainder was available via PayPal, but unfortunately PayPal was malfunctioning and they were unwilling to wait. [4]
Moreover, in the The Geekiary video the convention representative who delivers the band news, in my opinion, implies Night Vale just wasn’t patient enough, i.e. if only WTNV would have waited after the panel or hadn’t wanted “everything up front”.
The con didn’t have the money to cover WTNV’s transportation and performance fees. When WTNV asked them to pay the remainder of their performance fee prior to the panel beginning, DashCon was unable to do so, and WTNV walked out as they are positively free to do because what the fuck you don’t invite keystone guests if you aren’t able to pay their fees upfront (and showing them your PayPal balance on a smartphone absolutely does not count). [5]
But this isn’t the whole story, and Night Vale had this to say:
The organizers of an event we were scheduled to be part of today were unable to pay for our flights, hotel, or performance fee.
We tried very hard to make this happen. We took a full break in the middle of our July tour to attend this small fan-based event. We paid for our own hotel and plane fare, and were very excited to be part of this intimate fan gathering. But after a morning of discussion, organizers were unable to pay for the costs of travel and performing. [6]
Then guests found out they had to pay for their own hotel rooms.
After the Night Vale panel was called off, guest webcomic artist Noelle Stevenson discovered secondhand that she would be paying her own hotel bill, after having to moderate her own panel. She ended up sleeping on a sofa in the Night Vale cast’s Airbnb rental. Sherlock Holmes podcasters the Baker Street Babes pulled out of the show for the same reason.[3]
Though Stevenson and the Baker Street Babes got their money refunded -- after much hassling -- it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Even the supposed charity tie became suspect as the Random Acts didn’t even have an official joint project with DashCon.
Critics cast suspicion on a "partnership" with charity Random Acts, which later said it had only approved a fundraiser, not agreed to any kind of joint project. [3]
While it's great to raise money, I think it's a mistake to assume people doing something for charity = competent. To top it off was the feedback panel at the end in which the organizers promised a DashCon 2015. After such a big failure, I sure as heck wouldn’t pay to any convention by the organizers.
There was in fact a feedback panel at the end of the convention during which the organizers claimed that DashCon 2015 was still going to happen, and I for one am interested in seeing how that pans out [7]
Everyone thinks they can just jump in and organized a con, but without the know how or connections to pull off such a large endeavor the odds are against you. Successful conventions are usually run by staff of other conventions; they understand what's needed as far as logistics, costs and contracts and the potential problems that may arise. Though I've known some smart teenagers, chances are a group of 18 to 20 year olds are going to have limited to no experience when it comes to this kind of thing. Perhaps if they'd planned small they might have pulled it off.
I see this a lot in writing circles where someone wants to start their own publishing business. They think “ business experience” or “ degree in hospitality management” is proof of their competency, yet they lack the detailed knowledge and experience of the actual industry. Often criticism or concerns are met with hostility or labels of being a “hater” - another warning sign. But in the end, the majority fail and take many a writer down with them.
Years back there were a string of failed fandom and anime conventions -- and one outright scam-- by people who saw the attention organizers received and craved their own little slice of praise and fame. Imagine rubbing elbows with some of the big Names in the fandom! The respect of being a committee head or possibly a Big Star can cause some to toss caution to the wind, and the bigger the event the better. A one day gathering simply wouldn't do. A few were actually well intentioned but all were ill prepared and inexperienced.