Random Acts:
We did intend to implement fundraising for Random Acts, but we hadn’t gotten the donation receptacles placed prior to things going pear shaped on Friday evening. In light of those events, we felt it was questionable whether they would even want us to continue with our original plan and, thus, we didn’t. I’ve since spoken to our Random Acts contact, and it seems we made the right decision. I’ve made an attempt to remove all Random Acts references from our blog. If you could point out what I missed, I’d like to remove that as well.
Panel Descriptions:
Most of our panel descriptions were written by an admin who left DashCon several months ago due to medical reasons. Neither Cain nor myself approved those descriptions, rather believing that the description approvals by others could be trusted. It has since become obvious that this isn’t the case, and we won’t be making that mistake again. Overlooking the detail of reading each description myself is inexcusable, and I can only promise that we do better next time. This is obviously something we’ll have to prove to you, but we’re willing to put in the time and effort to do so.
Attendance Numbers:
In the very beginning, we were using numbers that were gathered through an RSVP-style poll. For a first year convention, much of the initial information is based on informed guesses. Given that we had around 1500 people pre-registered, I still stand by the estimate that we’d have reached about 3000 if things had gone as planned. It was the issues we faced that deflated our ‘at-the-door’ sales, and with good reason. There was no intentional misleading done there. Also, we had stopped leaving the upper end at 7000, dropping it to 5500 due to space limitations.
Indiana Convention Center Attendance:
We actually didn’t tell the Indiana Convention Center that we only expected 2000 in attendance. The person who did our RFPs actually copied the number we used for this year’s convention (from around April 2013) when scouting out locations for 2015. I called this number into question, but I was told that it just needed to say something and the number on the RFP wasn’t really all that important. It bothered me at the time, but that number has played no role in our actual planning for 2015. Also, the 5000-8000 estimate was made prior to the events of this past weekend. Everything previously hypothesized must be reassessed at this point, save for the location and dates.
Former Admin & WTNV:
I have very little control over what others say and do. She was going off of the information that we knew and had made available when the convention ended. Since the press release, she has since rescinded her statements. Source: [x]
Raffle & IndieGoGo:
Cain and I have barely been home for 24 hours, and we spent the vast majority of today doing internal damage control, including the writing of the very long press release that we posted tonight. The raffle will happen within the week. I’m sorry for the delay, but it hasn’t been forgotten.
The IndieGoGo was never within the realm of my or Cain’s control. I was not brought on as a partner until May 28, 2013, whereas the IndieGoGo (based on the actual campaign page I just went and found) ended on April 13, 2013. Cain was not brought on until April 21, 2014— nearly a full year later. We have no right to speak to what was or was not done with rewards for this campaign, but I will attempt to reach out to DashCon’s former associates who were in charge at the time to try and get this question answered. I’m sorry I can’t provide more information right now.
Refunds:
Acting in opposition to one of our rules, as I’ve been told, does actually call all of our rules into question. The fact that someone changed rule 21 during the event has no bearing on the fact that rule 25 states: “The Schedule is subject to change at any time, even during the convention.” Everyone who bought a badge agreed to these rules, including the fact that the schedule could indeed change at any time. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. That’s all there is to it. Additional questions about this policy would have to be addressed to our legal counsel, as this stance was formed around his expertise in the matter.
Thank you for your questions. We’re happy to listen to and answer whatever we can. Your questions and concerns are important to us, and we’re prepared to prove that in the coming weeks and months.
~Megg (and Cain)
