PeterDavid.net

That is service. man I'm so sorry to hear you won't be down here. It's not like you don't go to all the other cons I go to but, still.

Additionally, I hope you have a good weekend and birthday and Yom Kippur.

I spoke with someone via email about a guest spot in artist alley and was told I needed to call. I did. No answer, no call back, nothing. No replies to my other attempts so I just gave up and will stay home and work that weekend. Oh well. I'll save gas money on a drive to Florida. :)

I hope you have a great birthday, Peter.

Bobby

(frowns) You haven't heard from them to sort this out even *now*? And over an issue that should have been very solvable?? P, dump them and don't go back. This is the worst kind of behavior.

(wanders off doing slow burn on your behalf)

Oh, and happy birthday. ;)

They must have just taken your name off, PAD, because it was still there either Saturday or Sunday when I last looked.

Hope you have a great birthday!

Boy, sounds like they run a REALLY tight ship... You're better off having a great birthday at home with the family, methinks...

PAD,

Just curious, are guest passes required to attend a synagogue at any time, or just during Yom Kippur? I've only been to a synagogue two, maybe three times, including a Bat Mitzvah; but those events were decades ago, and maybe things have changed.

Or maybe those guest passes were taken care of ahead of time, and as a kid, I didn't notice.

In any event, have a happy Yom Kippur and a happy birthday.

Rick

In many synagogues, since the High Holidays are a very in-demand time for attendance, they limit attendees to paid synagogue members. They generate tickets for the services that are sent to members. Any other time of the year, I could walk into any synagogue during Sabbath and participate in services. Hell, in many they'd be thrilled to have me since my presence would contribute to a minyan (the required ten men for Torah services.) But the High Holidays, it's a different story. That's why my attending needed to be cleared ahead of time.

I informed the convention organizers of this back in July and they never responded. As noted, it took a retailer less than a week to accomplish what the committee was unable to do in two months.

PAD

You must come to Aviles (Spain) next year. There are no synagoges near, but you'll have a great time, ask George Perez about it!

Used to be the same for midnight mass services at Catholic churches at Christmas. They tended to require passes, too. Not as much any more since attendance has been declining, I gather.

As for conventions leaving guests up in the figurative air? I'm not sure what's worse, not knowing whether you're going or not, or knowing you're going and then having them screw it all up. Was slated to appear at a Halifax convention in the early 80s to talk on costuming (I used to be very much into that about 25-35 years back) only to discover on arrival they'd neglected to get the audio-visual gear they'd agreed to get for me - or else got the wrong one (Beta instead of VHS) - leaving me to scramble around an unfamiliar city to find the needed material in time for the talk. Oh, did I mention they'd also booked me to do another presentation but sort of forgot to mention it to me ahead of time, too?

Or a much more recent local convention where I was slated to be on a panel (the topic of which I'd suggested) only to have the con committee call a month beforehand to state it was being cancelled because they couldn't find anyone else to be on the panel. As there still seemed to be interest in the subject I told them I could do it on my own. Reassured, they told me to go ahead. Come the morning in question I arrive to the function room ... to find a panel setting up. "You've got the right room, but they changed their minds and decided to go with a panel after all" leaving me with a carefully prepared, logically organized presentation which kept being disrupted by non-sequiturs (or else bits I was going to cover in due time) from the other panelists - to the point where, fed up, I got up and left and reamed out the organizers for changing the rules of the thing at the last minute for no good reason and then not bothering to tell me ahead of time. It's one thing to be forced to cancel an event at the last minute, but this ...

(In the couple of years since I've thought maybe I should have stayed, but I'd been running a major, somewhat related event for another group the evening before, was short on sleep and didn't need the added aggravation. Oh and that earlier event had been scheduled - and advertised as such - BEFORE the convention committee chose their date. Yet in spite of pleas to the committee they not select the same weekend as that prior event AGAIN, thus forcing people to choose, they managed to do it FOUR YEARS IN A ROW.)

Have a festive Yom Kippur, Peter, and a Happy 51st Birthday. For my part, I promise no birthday cards involving multiple personality disorder or transgender dysphoria. :-)

Is it possible they called their Friendly Neighborhood Synagogue, heard the price for a seat on Yom Kippur, and balked?

Keep in mind that seats for Y"K are usually packaged with seats for Rosh Hashana, making the whole shebang even more expensive. At that's just a seat for you, nevermind the wife and kids.

L'shana Tovah, PAD.

"Is it possible they called their Friendly Neighborhood Synagogue, heard the price for a seat on Yom Kippur, and balked?"

Except I never said that I expected them to absorb the cost of any seats. If they'd said, "We looked into it and it will cost X amount of dollars," I would have said, "Fine, I'll pay for them." Two months of silence doesn't give me that opportunity.

PAD

Sorry to hear that you wont be coming but hopefully you will come to a convention in florida

Have a great Bday and L'shana Tova

Peter,

Any chance you're coming to Wizard World Texas this year? Always enjoy hearing you talk.

A pity. Sounds like they're quite the professionals.

Enjoy the weekend at home with the family, though -- they're always nice, too.

And Happy Birthday!

TWL

I keep hoping they'll invite you back to the Trek Expo in Oklahoma one of these years.

PAD:

Considering the quick response they supplied it may be less annoying for you not to go.

L'Shanna Tova, Have a sweet and happy year.

LW

PAD:

By the way, Have a very happy birthday as well.

(I swear if my head wasn't attached this morning, I would have come to work and left it in bed at home. Then again, staying in bed at home sounds really good about now.)

LW

Happy 51st, Peter.

When I used to go to church (which I stopped doing 22 years ago), I used to marvel at how hard it was to get a seat at Mass on Christmas and Easter. My mother wasn't too pleased about it herself and often suggested that our church should have assigned seating on those days for parishoners who showed up more than twice a year so regular attendees didn't end up standing in the back of the packed church.

1Really sorry to hear that you won't be at the con. If something happens, please let us know.

Being the sort of person who believes that all good deeds should be appropriately rewarded, i sent Gary Brown (a Forida comcs fan, newspaper editor and author of a monthly comics column that's gotten some national attention) a heads-up and a link to this post.

Perhaps he can think of something to say about it.

I was looking forward to seeing you again Peter, that stinks you won't be coming down after all.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and Yom Kippur!

S!

could you tell us more details about what had happened or what took place?

I had heard artists sometimes ask for too much and the con may have not had it within their budget?

Any more details would be great?

Thanks again and have a good bday

"could you tell us more details about what had happened or what took place?

I had heard artists sometimes ask for too much and the con may have not had it within their budget?"

All I know is that what I asked for in March was agreed to in March. If they suddenly had budget reversals, and could no longer keep their end of the agreement, then they should have said something to me. Instead their last communication was, "We're going to book you the tickets by the 12th." Then they never booked the tickets and instead removed my name from the guest list with no further communication.

That's amateur hour no matter how you slice it.

PAD

PAD

It seems you ar enot the only one to be treated like this by OrlandoCon. Accordin gto his web site, Stuart Immonen (sp?) has been left in the lurch with no plane tickets or other travel plans.

PAD

It seems you are not the only one to be treated like this by OrlandoCon. Accordin gto his web site, Stuart Immonen (sp?) has been left in the lurch with no plane tickets or other travel plans.

The same thing happened to me. I finally talked to one of the organizers on the phone last week. He said he had been sick and hospitalized. Rooms had all been booked in a block and his partner was going to book my flight (seemed late to me) and I'd have a full itinerary Monday. Didn't get it. No further response. Maybe the guy had a relapse and his partner still isn't checking the email. I wonder how many other guests were left out.

PAD - you and I have spoken a couple of times, and my associate Ken and I spoke to you regarding this at DragonCon. I find it unfortunate that we missed having you at our event (ASSIMILATION next weekend) this year due to this. I have staff promoting ASSIMILATION at ComicCon and I'll make sure that they all ask where you are... and I'll also pass word to the folks at Coliseum of Comics who are sponsoring the event. Hopefully we can find a way to get you to Orlando in 2008. :)

Thanks for the info - man three of you guys not coming to Orlando

This stinks - was in New York and it insane trying to meet anyone

Maybe you guys will go to heroes in charlotte or megacon or fxshow in Orlando and allow us "Florida Fans" to finally meet you, tad and Stuart

Dark Tower rocks and looking forward to the next series in Feb

Thanks for taking the time to let us know the info

Have a great holiday

It's a shame, we were looking forward to meeting you finally and talking about you on our show.

The main sponsor for Orlando Comic Con really don't care about that event. They just want to buy up everything on there way to become the walmart of comic shops. So they really don't care.....They put all their eggs in Mega Con.....It's a shame since there is an opportunity to make it a huge great event cause of the theme parks and weather.....so sad...if they ask you to come to Mega and it's the same people.....I'd think about it......it's the same way they treat their customers

Not that I am a big fan of the "Sponsor" you are labeling here, but why are you blaming them? This disater falls squarley on the shoulders of the two people who (failed to) promoted and (mis) planned it. The sponsors and vendors paid to be there, and had no vested interest if the con lost money.
Thankfully these are not the same people who plan and run MegaCon. They run a terffific show.

Am I totally off base or are all the wishes for a happy and festive Yom Kippur missing the point just a bit? Not intending to get off topic but not being Jewish I thought perhaps I had the wrong end of the stick. Just curious.

All,
Coliseum of Comics was indeed the platinum sponsor of this event. We are often approached by conventions as we can promote a show through eight stores in seven cities. However, as of the day of the show we still had not received a single poster promoting the event nor did we receive a single flyer listing where the convention was being held despite multiple requests and reminders. All promotional items we received to promote this show were post cards directing people to the website. I would have pulled our name off the event had the option been available but we were already into the unringing the bell phase. The screw ups on this show were too numerous to count though the high points have been deservedly hit on this and other forums. We sponsored this show last year in the hopes that it would launch a second successful show in Orlando and despite some problems last year, which we then attributed to growing pains, they were not as egregious as they were this year. The growing pains have simple become pains.

The attendance was poor. We did our own independent counts. To say that there were 1000 people in attendance would mean counting the entire staff of the convention center plus those of the hotel next door – plus the hotel guests. Our top count on Saturday was less than 400. Our top count on Sunday did not exceed 200.

Coliseum of Comics IS the main sponsor of Megacon. Megacon is run by Beth Weidera and is a different and completely unaffiliated company to OrlandoCon. Beth runs a very professional convention that has continued to grow every year and now boasts more than 22,000 UNIQUE attendees – two days does NOT count as two people. PLEASE do not associate Megacon with the fiasco that was OrlandoCon.

In short, though Coliseum was the sponsor, we had no control over the running of the show, the guests, or the promotion. Come to Megacon for a real convention experience.

Wal*Mart? Truly an insult, sir.

Phil Boyle
Coliseum of Comics

I'll second the kudos for Megacon. I've had some great experiences associated with that con...most memorably when they arranged for all the con guests to meet with the Disney animators in the Orlando studio. One of the coolest experiences of my life. I also got snowed in there once. Seriously. We were down for Megacon and a blizzard blanketed the Northeast, so our flight was cancelled and we weren't able to get out of Orlando until the following Thursday. There's worse fates than being stuck in sunny Orlando for four extra days.

PAD

"Am I totally off base or are all the wishes for a happy and festive Yom Kippur missing the point just a bit?"

Happy Guilt Day, PAD!

Hello Peter,
Sorry to hear about the probs you had with the Orlando Con, from what I heard you weren't the only one.
Hell, even Nick Cardy in his 80's(bless his soul) had to get set up to be picked up at the airport!
I'm a local artist in Orlando trying to eek out a niche in the biz, I attended the con, not expecting a whole lot from a con that was only 2 years old- I have met Glynn and Sara, the organizers for the event several times at various cons on the east coast, they sincerely seem like good people although they may be a little inexperienced at the convention biz, I was also part of their con last year.
I'm not hear to condemn nor condone their action ,in truth I do not know all the details to what went down in preparation of this con, I heard from several fellow professional artists and writers alike about some of the problems they faced with getting with this con.
I for one experienced no problems other than a low turnout on my part-I am but a little name in a large book filled with larger names, but I live in Orlando so the event was a mere 30 minutes from home.
I also bartered a trade with the organizers of the event; some promotional art to use however they wished ,wether it be posters, flyers, programs etc... for a free table, I arranged this with them last year with no problem, this year I had to pay-granted ,it was only 60 bucks, and yes I was trying to save myself the 60 but was also willing to offer my talent to help promote their convention in a more professional manner.
One of my friends is writer Mitch Hyman, who also observed Yom Kippur on the Saturday in question, needless to say, he did not attend that day. Arcana Studios was also noticeably absent from the floor due to some misunderstanding.
Like I said, I do not know all the details of what happened at this year's Orlando Comic-Con, I did talk with one of the organizers at length and I was given the impression that part of the problems with the convention stemmed from the association with the location of the event; the Caribe Royale Resort hotel & convention center and it's managers.
Hopefully next year, if there is one for this particular con the problems will be all ironed out-I mentioned to Glynn that a young con such as this one can ill afford a bad rep at such a tender stage.
Again, sorry to hear about the mix-up, I would have liked to have met you, never have before...maybe someday, at another con in the future.
-take care,
Shawn Surface
SURFACE ART STUDIOS.

My group was all looking forward to seeing you at the con, then bam you weren't schedualed anymore wtf right? Comiccon really let us all down with that. Happy bday btw!