Rant: Detroit area geek convention cancelled 3 days prior

[Crazy Lee]

There's a convention in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn called Midwest Media Expo. Basically a small, all-fandoms geek convention, anime, gaming, comics, cosplay, scifi, ect. Was planning on going to it this weekend, probably just for Saturday. Then last night my social media feed exploded. Guess I won't be going to it anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/MidwestMediaExpo/posts/774609339383345

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We are coming to you with a very heavy heart to inform you that, due to circumstances beyond our control, the 2017 Midwest Media Expo has been cancelled. For the past year we have been working hard to bring you a very special event, and it pains us greatly to have to make such an announcement, especially this close to our event date.

LOL WHUT?

http://io9.gizmodo.com/detroit-based-comic-con-suddenly-cancelled-three-days-b-1794682670
http://www.nerdandtie.com/2017/04/26/midwest-media-expo-2017-cancelled-days-before-event/

I was pretty worked up last night. This doesn't exactly make a lot of sense. This is not a furry con like Rainfurrest or Rocky Mountain. No controversy that I know of. It's not Dash-con, the organization putting on the event is not a bunch of noobs, they've been running cons for 15+ years. They know what to do.

Rumor has it that the hotel just suddenly pulled out of the contract. Possibly because they were demanding all the money for the con up front, which sounds like what happened to Dash-con. However I can't imagine a group that's put on dozens of events would be that stupid to screw up that badly. However, that second article mentions something...

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In our own research, we found that the Edward Village Michigan Hotel’s history is a little shaky. The hotel has gone through five names in the last ten years, and when the current owners took over in April of 2016 they laid off the entirety of the hotel’s management.

So yeah, it doesn’t sound like a super stable place to work with.

Can confirm. I remember it being the Hyatt for as long as I can remember. I don't personally remember it having 5 names, but apparently it was the Adoba Hotel, then it was supposed to be the Regency Darborn Hotel before Hyatt sent a legal complaint for the name Regency, and then the Royal Dearborn Hotel briefly.

Don't know if it's a breach of contract and if the con organization can sue. Likely, if it is, the contract has one of those "Arbitration" clauses that I loathe. Plus, I feel bad for anyone who pre-reged (I had not), or who have reserved a hotel. Who knows if they'll get back the money for the hotel rooms or if they're "non-refundable" and the hotel will take off with their money like greedy swine.

[Feelwell]

Can you link dash-con too? Never heard of that, sounds like a debacle.

Sorry to hear you can't go though, sounds like it would've been fun, less drama than a furcon.

 

EDIT: OH my gosh they were hosting IAMDYNAMITE too. Those guys are great. Boo to the hotel.

[AshleyAshes]

[Rukh Whitefang]

I was planning on going too, pretty bummed about it being cancelled. Also I'm not sure how the contract works if the hotel came under new management. Sucks either way, and that hotel can kiss any major conference goodbye after doing this.

[Crazy Lee]

Well, it looks like the con has squeaked out a last-minute event at a nearby smaller hotel. Some of this was thanks to the GOH Jon St John, best known as the voice of Duke Nukem, saying he was flying in anyway and setting up his own event called NotCon.

Someone just noted me several mistakes in the article I posted on io9, but it's not like that site is real news, so who's surprised?
1) Not rescheduled for November, that's the organizer's other convention.
2) The con was not at this hotel last year, I don't think.
Also:

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Right now, both sides are claiming the other cancelled the convention. Russell said the hotel’s latest management pulled away from the event, not honoring agreements established with previous ownership (some of them look to have been verbal). But, the hotel insists the fault lies with Kollin. A manager at the hotel, who asked not to be named, told io9 they spent 30 days trying to get in touch with Kollin about the contract, but never got a reply. Then, in the twilight hour, Kollin cancelled.

The Edward Village-Michigan Hotel has had its share of problems over the years, including multiple names and ownership turnovers in the past decade (during its latest transition, which happened right around last year’s con, the new ownership reportedly laid off most of the management and sales staff). Attendees say the hotel demanded M2X either pay for the entire reservation up front or terminate the contract. io9 asked the hotel to comment on this accusation, but they refused, adding they’ll issue a press release.

There’s also the issue of the reported police call. According to Russell, who spoke with Kollin about the situation, Kollin went to the hotel on Tuesday to try and sort everything out. He waited for the general manager for hours, then started exploring the hotel. That’s when he said the general manager called the police. Russell said the police were told Kollin was a potential suicide risk, even though that wasn’t an issue, and he was ordered out of the hotel. The hotel wouldn’t confirm or deny that the police were called, instead referring us to the Dearborn Police Department, which refused to discuss any cases over the phone.

I have doubts that Kollin would have just bailed at the last second, he's been running cons since the early 2000s. But who knows. I do find it interesting that there's rumors the police were called... kinda sounds like the hotel refused to deal with him when he tried to fix the problem then called the police to remove him. If that's the case, the hotel is utter shit. The con's already gotten a ton of 1 star reviews on FB, Yelp, and Google, I'd like to see them sued if they're responsible.

 

23 hours ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

Can you link dash-con too? Never heard of that, sounds like a debacle.

Googling it, or "one hour in the ball pit" would give you more info than I can provide. However, what happened was Dash-con was supposed to be a Tumblr convention but the people running it were noobs and didn't know how to run a con. There was an entire large room with just one thing, an inflatable pool with balls in it, and when a Nightvale panel was cancelled the con offered "one free hour in the ball pit" as compensation, because apparently the ball pit cost money to use even though it was tiny as fuck, and somehow giving someone a free hour in it was just compensation for incompetence. Then, the con ran out of money on Saturday supposedly and the hotel was demanding money up front, so the con staff started begging for donations to pay for the $22k bill they had with the hotel. So the whole hotel collapsed into a black hole and no one gave a fuck.

23 hours ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

EDIT: OH my gosh they were hosting IAMDYNAMITE too. Those guys are great. Boo to the hotel.

Also, Billy West, the voice of Fry on Futurama, Rob Paulsen who voiced Yakko and Pinky on Animaniacs, Maurice LaMarche who voiced Brain, Jon St John aka voice of Duke Nukem, the creator of Something Positive, and the band Fox and Pepper, as well as some other people I don't know.

 

21 hours ago, Rukh Whitefang said:

I was planning on going too, pretty bummed about it being cancelled. Also I'm not sure how the contract works if the hotel came under new management. Sucks either way, and that hotel can kiss any major conference goodbye after doing this.

You seem to keep going to things I'm going to. As mentioned above they're having some kind of smaller con event in Farmington instead called NotCon, and there's always Penguicon in Southfield and Motor City Nightmares (a horror con) at the same Novi Sheraton as MCFC.