Star Trek Convention Cancelled DURING Event

[Michael Hinman]

Dude, you're making me nostalgic for my newspaper days

Doesn't he know you can Never EVER try to bluff a reporter, and never EVER assume what you're saying is private or "off the record"

Well, you can, actually. I take off the record quite seriously in both my real job and SyFy Portal.

But there is a give and take with that. If you ask something be privileged, but you not only start releasing it yourself, but attack me with it, I consider it no longer privileged.

Also, you should NEVER assume that any correspondence you have with a reporter is off the record. You should make it clear that is it not for publishing.

 

[Michael Hinman]

You guys should be reading the TrekUnited boards. They are quite entertaining.

Some poster there thinks that because Tim started a new corporation for FedCon, that his other assets like TrekUnited and his share in SciFi Studios would be protected if someone tried to collect on a judgment.

Hahaha! If only. A judge can order ALL of Tim's assets, as the president of the company, to be brought to the table in order to satisfy a judgment. People, I tell you.

Also, people are asking over there what happened to SciFi United. Check out this response from Rooster:

can only presume that Chris - After pulling out of FedConUSA and leaving us hanging with the press and half the guests (he was responsible for booking most of our BSG guests) - decided to steal TrekUnited Incs Database and the SFU site and start his own....


<<< is not amused

Apparently it's his fault now that the convention failed.

They sure like to spread blame around there, don't they?

And Chris McKeown responded:

Information Removed

 

[Michael Hinman]

Oh ... and John Billingsley has talked ...

Information Removed

 

[Thena]

In regards to John Billingsley... the man is a class act.

 

[Michael Hinman]

I totally agree.

 

[HRHTheKING]

Information Removed



Oh the Kool Aid Company is crumbling so quickly.



Hey, they were warned. They ignored it. After all "In Tim They Trust" right?

On StarTrek.COM many of the members told people not to make a hero of this guy and his idiotic plans, campaigns, and announcements.

Along with other sites that criticised him, we were dismissed as being "haters" or "anti-Star Trek" or laughably depicted as morons in the TU ENT flash animation.

Well, now I think it's obvious. The critics of Brazeal have always been right.

 

[Zod]

This whole thing is disgusting. Bad for conventions, bad for fans, bad for the actors. I have read the complaints about Creation. I have lived them, being that they are basically the only ones who come to the NYC area year after year. I hate how commercial they are, and that they create a buffer between the actors and the fans. I had a conversation with Avery Brooks about it in NJ during their 2006 convention and he fully agreed. If it were up to the creation people I would never would have had the pleasure, but we talked for awhile after it was already over. Mr. Brooks was once a college professor of mine and asked me to wait for him after the signings ended so we could catch up. Fact is most of these actors want to enjoy the fans, not be segregated from them.

BUT and this is the huge issue. At least their conventions have never been canceled, at least during the 15 or so years I have been attending. This is a disaster and I guess its the reason we are stuck with creation or nothing it seems, unless you can afford to travel

 

[JoeZhang]

Some of those trek united comments beggar belief - "we should stand by our friend" - please, there are enough comments from enough people (upto and including the actors) to call this one.

The guy is a crook, he committed fraud. He sold a convention off the promise of Actor appearances that were never going to happen.

All this guy has done for the "community" is make it more difficult for honest con organisers.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

In regards to John Billingsley... the man is a class act.

That I can't deny. This is definitely looking more and more unsavory (whether it was a scam or just someone dishonest who also happened to be pretty incompetent, I don't know, but it's probably screwed up future conventions, since people will look at them with a bit more distrust now).

 

[cardinal biggles]

It'll certainly make it harder for anyone without an established track record to organize a con.

From everything I've read here, this sounds like a clusterfuck of epic proportions. It would be easy to say "I told you so," considering Brazeal's involvement, but I wonder how many people (attendees, not actors/press) actually knew?

 

[JiNX-01]

Right. Why do people diss Creation? They run great cons. Have great guests. And charge decent prices for autographs and photos. Can't really complain.

Not to get off topic here... but decent prices? I think you're confusing these people with Shore Leave.

Creation charges a fortune for everything. I bought the gold ticket (nearly $700) for August. It includes a handful of autographs and no photo ops. And they charge me $7.25 "freight" per ticket to e-mail them to me!

As for TimB and Fedconusa... some of you might not know this, but he demonstrated his capabilities as a convention organizer when he promoted Connor as a "confirmed guest" without a signed contract. Fortunately, they offered refunds to anyone who wanted one at the time. I took one. And eventually, Connor signed. But I wasn't going back.

 

[Michael Hinman]

This is actually sad. A poster named Terilynn, who joined TU back in December and has posted 1,675 (that's like 10 postings every day! sheesh!) and who was all excited about being a part of TU and FedCon ... is gone.

I feel bad for her actually ...

After researching the hell out of this subject for the past two days it has become quite clear to me that I have been led down the primrose path on many things, only to have lost a great deal of money (which I frankly don't ever believe I will see back), time and face.

I really do enjoy your company here, but my gut is telling me other things. I admit I'm feeling horrendously victimized right now and the more I try to sleep on it, the worse it seems to get. I knew the anger would come...and it has. I blogged about my excitement for the past six months...

Whatever...I don't think it's fair to make you guys read it when it's obvious many of you feel differently. I won't subject you to it on this forum.

I would love to be able to talk to you all about our love for Trek and I realize that some of you think I'm just overreacting, but I don't feel that way. I cannot and I will not associate myself with someone who has done this - not only to me - but to the hundreds of other fans who trusted him.

I must say goodbye to TU.

I am around on other forums and I will post a new blog and will repost my fic and finish it elsewhere. I don't think you will ever understand how heartbroken I am over this. I've cried enough for now.

 

[Jamee999]

Jesus. What a fuck-up.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Wow. The hits keep coming.

Personally, I have always believed the guy was a scam artist - all the way back to the TU's 'attempt' to save Enterprise, and their assurances that they had all of these large pledges from mysterious donors who could not be named. Yeah. Right. So the disaster of the con really does not surprise me, except as to the scale of it. Frankly, after the frakup of 3 years ago, I never thought he'd get far enough in the business to be in a position to rip off so many people in one fell swoop.

I AM pretty shocked, however, that he apparently thinks so little of the press that he thinks he can get them to take their eye off the ball by offering them 3-year old 'juicy tidbits' (no doubt these would have consisted chiefly of more attempts to blame-shift to those who have jumped ship more than anything else) in lieu of anything that can be remotely considered to be 'news'. Talk about a shell game! Good lord, this guy is a scumbag! And he's not even very good at it!

In any case, thanks for the updates, Michael Hinman....they have been most illuminating. Maybe this will get some scifi fans to wake up and get out of the basement...and discover that there are alot of people out there - even in scifi fandom - who will do everything possible to leverage the fanbase for personal gain, all the while claiming they are doing it 'for the fans'.

 

[Danoz]

I think it's pathetic that some people are gloating about this guy's failure.

I've worked with a load of promoters and have promoted more than a few events myself.

If a promoter feels that it's cheaper to shut an event down than to keep it going at a greater loss, that's a decision that needs to be made. Things like that happen out in the real world. The math is a lot more complicated than one might think.

I will be more than happy to elaborate and explian it to you in real terms if you all can be a little more civilized about it.

Having a Trek Convention so south because of poor promotion and poor attendance is never a good thing to have happen, no matter who is putting it together.

This was my take on it as well, but ONLY if it were explicitly mentioned in the terms of contract/purchase that low attendance could mean cancellation. You have to consider also the people who flew in, took off work, and spent a lot more money than just the convention fee. Let's not forget the actors, as well.

 

[Michael Hinman]

Wow. The hits keep coming.

Personally, I have always believed the guy was a scam artist - all the way back to the TU's 'attempt' to save Enterprise, and their assurances that they had all of these large pledges from mysterious donors who could not be named. Yeah. Right. So the disaster of the con really does not surprise me, except as to the scale of it. Frankly, after the frakup of 3 years ago, I never thought he'd get far enough in the business to be in a position to rip off so many people in one fell swoop.

I AM pretty shocked, however, that he apparently thinks so little of the press that he thinks he can get them to take their eye off the ball by offering them 3-year old 'juicy tidbits' (no doubt these would have consisted chiefly of more attempts to blame-shift to those who have jumped ship more than anything else) in lieu of anything that can be remotely considered to be 'news'. Talk about a shell game! Good lord, this guy is a scumbag! And he's not even very good at it!

In any case, thanks for the updates, Michael Hinman....they have been most illuminating. Maybe this will get some scifi fans to wake up and get out of the basement...and discover that there are alot of people out there - even in scifi fandom - who will do everything possible to leverage the fanbase for personal gain, all the while claiming they are doing it 'for the fans'.

PK ... thanks!

I get some flack for this type of reporting sometimes from my dedicated readers, and I understand why. We are supposed to be a television and movie site, and they would prefer we keep that focus, and not tangent off on conventions and scam artists.

But one thing I INSIST on doing at SyFy Portal is to give something back. I've ALWAYS done that, even when were a part of the great TrekNation family and Christian was around more often (I miss that guy).

The thing that has kept me going on SyFy Portal for the last 10 years is the passion of the fans. I love that about fandom ... how passionate they are. The Jericho people, the Farscape people, the Moonlight people, and even three years ago, the Save Enterprise people.

I covered the TU campaign as someone who loved seeing the passion of fandom and doing my part to document it. But then I realized that these people were all being taken advantage of. And I couldn't just sit back and let them get away with it.

That's why we'll take time off of our regular coverage to fight for the fans, to be an advocate the best way we can. We reported on Slanted Fedora, we reported on TrekUnited, and you better believe we're going to report on FedCon.

And no matter how many people try to organize to defend their Roman Grant, I won't back down.

 

[Michael Hinman]

Tim retiring?

From Tom on the TU boards:

Ok guys Im back home now, i need a little time to digest this situation. First off regarding fedconusa, I am just a volunteer I have no legal or financial ties to it whatsoever, I also helped do some PR, banners and also trying to keep things smooth on the forums as i do with anything im involved with. After the Con was cancelled i was heartbroken and just about in tears when we had to tell everyone down there what was going on. Since then I have not posted anything more on the FCUSA forums will not again.

On to SFU, I did see this coming and i need to adjust things now so new members can join TU and fix the system we are using here. I can do that easy enough, TU will be the master member database like it was before SFU was here. As for TU and GBBS they will NOT shut down, I refuse to allow that, I created (its my baby to

) this place and i wont let it die (same with gbbs). I will be talking to Bill & Derek (for TU) and Zipper (for Gbbs) and it is possible that Tim may step down (retire) from his ownership role and Bill, Derek, Zipper and I can own/manage these site colectively, or something like that, this is something we need to discuss. And it is something I believe Tim would be willing to do also.

I just need to stress that I will not let anything happen to TU or GBBS!

 

[Michael Hinman]

Sad part is, if there is a criminal investigation -- which we are getting more and more that there is -- Tom is not completely off the hook. If he helped promote guests that weren't there and such, he would be a part of any bait and switch, volunteer or not.

Sadly, that might implicate Chris McKeown, too, even though he saw what had happened and bolted. I hope it doesn't because I think Chris WAS trying to do the right thing.

 

[Michael Hinman]

Oh, and from Trek Realist:

As far as TU goes, it is my most fervent wish that when all is said and done that this community remains healthy and robust. Like Terilynn, I have been doing some substantial reading on what is being posted and I can honestly say I am even more confused now than I was two days ago. Now, I am just speaking for myself here, but I have always found that TU is a place that creates a synergy that goes far beyond Trek Fandom. And, for all my time here and at SaveEnterprise I have never felt like someone was in the background with a Machiavellian plan to do harm to the members of this community.

Apparently, to be a realist, you have to be blind.

 

[StolenThunder]

Michael, can I ask that you condense multiple posts into just one or two in the future? I know it's nice to preserve emphasis sometimes, but I find repeated posts from the same person disrupt conversation flow.

Thanks.