Las Pegasus Unicon - Crash & Burn

[Senn555 242]

EDIT 2/27/13 9:12PM PST: The 3-hour Everfree Radio Q&A video is now up, see the bottom of this post.

So. You've probably heard about some events that have occurred recently and have created another rift amongst the fandom. The major pony news outlets have (more or less) refrained from reporting about all of this for the time being, because the mess is still going on and everyone's scrambling to try to resolve it all, and there's way too much rumor / speculation flying around for everyone to piece together fact from fiction.

Before I continue, let me just say this: I did not attend this convention, I did not get burned, and if there are any lingering questions you might have, it's better to ask reliable people who have actually attended the con and are trying their best to report the facts (such as Everfree Radio); not me. I'm just an information leecher who has spent the past several days lurking around and gathering info from a ton of places.


Long story short: Las Pegasus Unicon crashed and burned. Very very badly.

It was supposed to be a three-day convention that took place just this last weekend, over Friday the 22nd through Sunday the 24th. All was going well through Friday and most of Saturday... until a fire alarm rang out in the middle of a panel on Saturday and forced a temporary evacuation. It turned out to be false and things resumed as planned for the rest of the day.

Sunday was when things went through the roof. I'll just let the screencaps and the links explain themselves - warning for language:

https://www.facebook.com/steffan.andrews.music/posts/521183211257798

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/02/auctions-and-information-for-unicon.html


And a statement from Las Pegasus Unicon on their website:

Clarification (2-26): When we say the money from EFN's fundraiser was uncounted, we mean to say that Las Pegasus Unicon has no record of it. This does not imply that EFN did not keep apropriate records themselves.

What follows are not excuses, but rather explanations for those who want to hear from ones who know.

We first wish to offer our apologies to those negatively affected by Las Pegasus Unicon. Unicon was started with the best of intentions, an attempt to provide a grand, fun event for the wonderful fandom of Bronies that we have come to know and appreciate. At no point was malice, negativity, or greed a part of our motivation. What we were guilty of was naivety. The short version of it all is that we acted upon bad advice from those we thought we had no reason to distrust, and were financially gouged by nearly every institution we dealt with. With any plan you make, allowances are made for the occasional mishap, and our plan was like this. However, we encountered not occasional, but constant negative changes throughout the stages of this convention. So many, that not only did our backups prove ineffective, but we doubt there could have been any effective backups to work, save perhaps a millionaire benefactor. Sadly, we did not have one, nor any sponsors at all for that matter. This convention was run out of our own shallow pockets, the only supplementation being the ticket sales.

Between last minute add-ons by the hotel/convention center employees, (on top of a 5 month swim through their lies and misdirections) equipment rental changes, un-authorized transportation charges, unmentioned union labor costs, and two dozen other unexpected last-week costs, our convention operations budget had been depleted. Now this is not to say that the voice actors and other MLP:FiM cast members had been overlooked. Contrary to some unfounded and untrue statements, the celebrities’ agents have all received monies from us - both prior to the convention and during. Exactly how much has been received by the agents is impossible to say with certainty. We have records of payments totalling in excess of $40,000 to the various agents. However, an unknown amount of cash was witnessed, on more than one occasion on Sunday, being directly removed by an agent of the stars from our cash box. Additionally, all monies raised by EFN’s fundraiser and all autograph sales went uncounted directly to the stars’ agents.

While at no point did we abandon Unicon, at about 2:00 AM Sunday we realized that events had escalated beyond what our experience and staff could manage, and thus effective management was transferred from us to EFNW. At this point, we were grateful for the willing assistance from our fellow Bronies and had long since discarded any thought of recouping our personal losses into a goal of giving the best time to the attendees there on Sunday. We did our best to help these more experienced folks salvage the convention, and many crises were averted with their guidance. However, when it came to monies, the hands of the stars’ agents were constantly being filled. Whether it be from autographs, auctions, or personally removing T-shirt sale money from the cash box. Due to the chaotic nature of the con at this stage of the game, and a complete and utter refusal of the agents to sign records, an exact ledger of what was received by the agents on Sunday is impossible to produce.

As some of you are aware, some attendees suffered from the questionable tactics employed, for whatever reason, by the Rivera Hotel upon their checkout - most notably, ignoring all payments made by Unicon towards their room comps and charging them full balance.

In regards to the generous Bronies who have been donating to fundraisers, we have never put our hand out requesting donations and have no association or awareness of how these fundraisers are operated or organized. They are not affiliated in any way with the staff of Las Pegasus Unicon. Thus, Unicon has no knowledge of the disbursement or organization behind these fundraisers. However, our suggestion for these generous donations would be first to go to the Bronies affected by the recent events, especially those forced by the Riviera to pay for their rooms out-of-pocket. Following this, helping the musicians who performed so admirably who may or may not be out funds. These recipients, rather than the voice actors, who have already received payment to their agents, should be preferentially compensated.

The reason that the vendor hall closed when it did was simply because the Riviera stated that, despite the convention space being paid in full until midnight well before the start of Unicon, they would be closing the doors at 6:00 PM. They then changed this to 7:00, and then finally admitted that we had paid in full for the event space. However, this confirmation from the Riviera came much too late to forestall the chaos instigated by their first proclamations. This matter we place on the shoulders of the unprofessional Riviera staff.

We are currently seeking legal counsel on how to proceed in an attempt to find closure with those financially impacted by the hotel situation, along with making our side of the story known to the community at large. The contact@laspegasusunicon.com email address will continue to be monitored and will respond to serious inquiries.

Sincerely,
The Las Pegasus Unicon Staff

TL;DR (though you REALLY ought to be reading all of this info above): LPU ran out of money halfway through the convention; $40,000 disappeared overnight (nobody knows where it went); the con chairs (Sandi and Edward Haas) bailed (presumably WITH the money); and a whole plethora of fans, vendors, fandom musicians, pony news correspondents, and even show staff, writers, and voice actors got screwed. The Riviera Hotel in Vegas is also to blame for being extremely unprofessional and even conducting illegal activity.

Again, there is a TON of conflicting information, rumors, and BS flying around, resulting in a huge confusing mess. It is my impression that the official statement posted on the Las Pegasus Unicon website is among the fabricated BS meant to shift the blame to the Riviera Hotel (only true in some aspects) and the voice actors' agents (which appears to be utterly false).

In the end, the congoers were left to take matters into their own hands by setting up emergency donation drives to pay the voice actors and their agents and to allow the show staff / VAs to fly back home. #LasPegAssist was set up to help those at the convention who suffered a chance to recover financially.

Everfree Radio held a 3-hour livestream last night to answer questions and to help clear up everything that has happened, and in my opinion, they did a damn great job at it:

If you're too busy to watch it, here's a couple summaries highlighting what was said:
http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=333289#p333289

http://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/19cslx/las_vegas_convention_aftermath_qa/


A comment I wrote to a friend in private:

From what I've heard on the EFR livestream, everyone should be out of Vegas by now. But Final Draft was all "really, if anyone is STILL stuck in Vegas, please let me know?"

That was last night. Friday and Saturday went well (aside from the false fire alarm on Saturday), shit hit the fan on Sunday and people were stranded Sunday/Monday. Everyone supposedly went home over Tuesday.

Everyone thinks the fire alarm was triggered by some idiot going out through an emergency exit door (possibly, suspectedly as a diversion for the con chairs to bail - it seems they knew they were in the hole financially for *at least* a month prior to the con and kept quiet about it). One person (I forget his name) talked to a Riviera maintenance worker who said the fire alarm went off because someone in the kitchen was careless and didn't bother putting a lid on top of a massive pot that was boiling. Or something.

And finally, if you wish to support those who were screwed by Unicon, items are being auctioned off and ALL proceeds go directly to the victims:

http://bronies.com/lpu/ Edited February 28, 2013 by Senn555

[CloudFyre 848]

Something catastrophic like this was bound to happen at one point or another in the fandom, but the only question was when. Examples like this are going to make it much harder for other cons from here on out (especially first time start-ups).

I find this highly disappointing. I hope they get it all resolved.

Edited February 27, 2013 by CloudFyre

[Fluffy Pinkie 417]

I was really thinking about going to this con and all i can say is i'm glad i didn't  . Not going to lie i'm a little worried about going to any future cons now and i'm sure i'm not the only one. I really hope they get better money managers for future cons .

[hawkflame 3,310]

From what I've gathered here, this seems to be a problem of very poor planning at best, and outright deceit at worst.  How do you lose $40, 000 overnight, even at Vegas?  Whether it be poor money management, not paying attention, or outright thievery, someone at the con needs to face some consequences.

 

Edit:  And if they knew about the shortfall a month in advance, that's even worse.  What, did they think the extra money was going to appear out of nowhere?  If that's the case, they should have been up front about it from the beginning- use the website to tell the attendees about the financial situation and ask for donations, if they needed to.

Edited February 27, 2013 by hawkflame

[Treble Bolt 1,122]

I wonder how common this is?  By the sound of it, this is something no one saw comming and is not something that often happens in the states for ANY type of convention....There's more to this than meets the eye and a bit more illegal activity than we may expect....or it's irresponsible people doing too much with not enough money in Vegas....

 

I feel really bad for the con goers, and MLP staff and guest fans....This is quite a blow upon the fandom. I wonder what Hasbro will say once everything has calmed down

[NavelColt 22,880]

Well, that's too bad. I plan on going to BronyCon in August, my first every con ever, and I certainly hope something along these lines, or anything similar doesn't become a reoccurring thing. I imagine the chances are this was simply a bad run of luck more than it is something to be scared of the the future, though. Like what was said earlier, whether incompetence of the staff when it came to money planning or someone deciding to be a prick and steal money, this was just a bad situation turnout.

 

It, indeed, was bound to happen at a con sooner or later.

[Senn555 242]

How do you lose $40, 000 overnight, even at Vegas?

Easy. This is Las Vegas we're talking about, the gambling capital of America.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if the facts came out to reveal that the con chairs simply gambled away all the money in an overnight drunken stupor.

[hawkflame 3,310]

Easy. This is Las Vegas we're talking about, the gambling capital of America.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if the facts came out to reveal that the con chairs simply gambled away all the money in an overnight drunken stupor.

 

Any convention staffer who gambles with con-related funds should banned from working for any convention in the future, even if they didn't lose the money.

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

Oh god, something like this happened in the flight sim community a few years ago. Some guy began holding massive (relative to flight simulation) conventions in both the US and UK, and it ended up all collapsing after about one year because of mismanagement, and a lot of the same stuff being brought up here mirrors what happened there, including rumors of scams.

 

Now, I'm not outright saying this con was a fly-by-night operation taking advantage of the fandom's boom, but...?

 

At the same time, I guess it could have all been an honest mistake. The brony community does have a tendency to inspire people to do things they don't often do (like getting into art and music, etc), to try to get a little fame within the fandom. Maybe these guys thought they could try to make a name for themselves in the fandom by taking a crack at forming a con, underestimated the work, and bit off more than they could chew?

Edited February 27, 2013 by AtomicBassCannon

[CloudFyre 848]

Now, I'm not outright saying this con was a fly-by-night operation taking advantage of the fandom's boom, but...?

 

At the same time, I guess it could have all been an honest mistake. The brony community does have a tendency to inspire people to do things they don't often do (like getting into art and music, etc), to try to get a little fame within the fandom. Maybe these guys thought they could try to make a name for themselves in the fandom by taking a crack at forming a con, underestimated the work, and bit off more than they could chew?

 

Indeed. I've often wondered when someone was going to take total advantage of the fandom simply because of how much money we're willing to spend on worthy causes. Perhaps this is the first great example.

 

And while it could have been an honest mistake, I'm still having a hard time finding out how one "honestly" loses $40,000. If the money is found, it needs to be given back to the community to help repair some of the damage that's been done.

Edited February 27, 2013 by CloudFyre

[Princess_Molestia 1,460]

how would you give it back to the community, and why?

were the average con-goer's hurt in anyway from this? It seems like it was just the guests and such

[Fhaolan 4,483]

*sigh*

 

Okay, I've been involved in the running of conventions, music festivals, and ren faires before. They all operate in basically the same manner, so my experience is relevant.

 

What I see here is what seems to be a textbook case of first-year convention being put together by people who have never done anything similar before. Murphy's Law in full effect. It's not really their fault, it's inexperience.

 

They relied on registration fees to pay venue costs rather than vendor fees (which are more stable and are normally collected *before* the con). They booked far more special guests than the pre-registration numbers indicated they should. They had no external fund set up to pay for the first-year-event shortfall that *always* happens unless you are extremely careful, experienced, and restrictive. And they tried to put on an event in Las Vegas which has a very rough reputation amongst con/faire/festival organizers, with truely punitive fees built into the venue contracts. If you don't read legalize, don't put on an event in Las Vegas.

 

Now, if they really did skive off with the funds half-way through the con once they realized their mistakes, that's a criminal charge right there and my sympathy evaporates.

 

And as a note to anyone thinking of putting on a con: Con organizers do not participate in the con itself. They have a job to do, and they should be busy doing that job. If a con organizer actually has time to go to the dances, panels, performances, visit the art show or vendors floor as if they were a regular con-goer, then they are not doing that job. If you are wanting somewhere to do this stuff, go to someone else's con.

 

how would you give it back to the community, and why?

were the average con-goer's hurt in anyway from this? It seems like it was just the guests and such

Likely they were (the average con-goer), if the con-goer used the special con discount rates for booking their personal rooms. If the con didn't hit the numbers in the contract with the Hotel for room guests, all the special discount rates went away and likely punitive fees were levied against the con as well. {and by guest I mean anyone who booked a room at the hotel, using the special con rate.)

Edited February 28, 2013 by Fhaolan

[Senn555 242]

Dear 4Chan (or whomever is moderating this document):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-G4JfFM-P8UUPj5CgfegwlIwlTIcAzOC-msrcbhHj7o/preview?sle=true

mlpforums.com report that $40,000 disappeared overnight from LPU’s funds (confirmation needed)

http://mlpforums.com/topic/51578-las-pegasus-unicon-crash-burn/

$40,000 disappeared overnight (nobody knows where it went)

As I originally stated, I'm just gathering info from places. I didn't attend the convention, therefore I'm not a reliable source to be trusted. I roughly copied and pasted these specific details that I found (the $40,000 reference) from here:

 

http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=333289#p333289

http://www.laspegasusunicon.com/

 

 

(I get the feeling that somebody higher up is going to yell at me to shut up now for spreading misinformation)

[~Asuka <3~ 867]

I'm very disappointed with the organizers on this.  Their first priority should have been to get their funds in order, and plan appropriately.   But then, this happens, and leaves most of the special guests paying for their own stuff, and then chipping in to help the organizers themselves.  

 

Considering that this was the first time the organizers tried to create a convention, it should have been less than what it was.   They tried to do too much, an they weren't experienced enough to pull it off.   

[Princess_Molestia 1,460]

I'd offer something but all I have is my precious writing talent which... unlike art is much harder to show is any good (unless you can toss around things you've been in)...

[Phoenix237 353]

Let me just say that I am fretful that you put up this because I was getting conflicted info as to what was going on.

 

In anycase something like this could have been avoided if things where more organized, but that's just me speculating.

 

In anycase I hope the situation gets resolved as to what happened.

 

I hope that this doesn't happen at the Appleloosa con that is going to be held in Phoeinx. I am hopeing to attend and it will be my first con.

[MrHaru 217]

All I know is I hope this doesn't mess up chances to meet any of the VAs at Bronycon or future cons in general. I plan on going to Bronycon in August which will be my first MLP convention I'd be going to and I hope there won't be any issues.

 

The part where the staff bailed on everybody though is the part that fires me up, considering I've staffed conventions before. That's extremely unprofessional.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

Well, time for some heads to roll. If this all turns out to be true we will have a rant to end all rants on my radio show, I guarantee you.

 

And for once, the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" defense isn't gonna cut it. <_<

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Just as an additional note. There have been fan-run conventions going on all over the world for about 75 years now. There's a huge amount of accumulated experience available.

 

If you really want to put on a con, stop. Find another con, be it sci-fi, anime, comic-book, video game, whatever, and contact them directly. Remember, it doesn't matter what the con focus is, they all work basically the same way. Tell them exactly why you are contacting them, and ask if you can shadow them and participate in putting on a con in order to learn the ropes. Most con organizers will attempt to discourage you right off the bat. They're not doing this because they 'don't want the compitition' or other nonsense. They are doing that because it's a huge amount of work, and if you start without fully understanding what you're getting into, you're going down the path that will lead to a Unicon-level disaster. And there's no guarentee that next time the fandom will bail your ass out like it did here.

 

And start a lot smaller. Think in terms of 50-100 people or so at most. Build up slowly. Remember that first Worldcon originated as a 30-40 person get-together, the first Gencon was held in Gary's basement, and SDCC started as a series of much smaller cons called the Detroit Triple-Fan Fairs. There's no compitition here. You don't need to reach for the Gold.

[Freewave 1,145]

And start a lot smaller. Think in terms of 50-100 people or so at most. Build up slowly. Remember that first Worldcon originated as a 30-40 person get-together, the first Gencon was held in Gary's basement, and SDCC started as a series of much smaller cons called the Detroit Triple-Fan Fairs. There's no compitition here. You don't need to reach for the Gold.

 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying but if you are going to have Hasbro and the voice actors you need to be at a certain size and have a certain level of people attending (likewise a certain amount of vendors and tables paying for it as well). Their competition is exsiting bronycons and while the NY Bronycon IS the yard stick on how to do these it's still small potatoes compared to something like the San Diego Comic Con. I do think that a lot of local conventions need to keep in mind that they won't have Hasbro, travelling musicians or artists but will only have a small gathering with local talent. And they'll have to be ok with that initially.  

[RockinRarity 1,605]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying but if you are going to have Hasbro and the voice actors you need to be at a certain size and have a certain level of people attending (likewise a certain amount of vendors and tables paying for it as well). Their competition is exsiting bronycons and while the NY Bronycon IS the yard stick on how to do these it's still small potatoes compared to something like the San Diego Comic Con. I do think that a lot of local conventions need to keep in mind that they won't have Hasbro, travelling musicians or artists but will only have a small gathering with local talent. And they'll have to be ok with that initially.

Here is the thing. Fhaolin literally just said that there is no competition. And you are concerned about the competition.

 

I kept seeing news after news after news about LPU on EQD over and over and over again and how amazing it was going to be because there were so many guests and everyone and their mom should go. Normally I don't care about that sort of thing. But something deep inside me was a bit peeved about all of this. A first year con bragging about its amazingness and guests and crap. It didn't sit right with me.

 

I don't think that it was jealousy. I have had lots of great con experiences. I know that there are more con experiences to have. I can see pony stars later in life.

 

It all just seemed too good to be true. I didn't really have any way of knowing. It was just a feeling, a hunch. It is weird that that feeling was actually legit, though.

 

That being said, to those of you who are worried that other cons will have the same fate as LPU. Stop for a second. Do you realize how many different kinds of conventions have been going on in the world for how long? How many do you hear of that fail? And how many do you know that succeed? Chances are that you know about more that succeed than fail. SDCC? NYCC? Anime conventions? Youmacon in Detroit started in 2005 and only last year did it become one of the top ten largest anime conventions in the US. And they still grew at an abnormally fast rate. Bronycon is an incredibly successful convention and none of you have to worry about anything similar happening to you.

 

LPU is an anomaly. It is not the norm. Great convention organizers keep it from being the norm. And there are more great conventions than not.

[Freewave 1,145]

Well what I'm saying is that many people are trying to get their first local cons to be on the same size as the NY bronycon and i agree that is going to mostly be impossible w/o the right organizers (which Las Vegas did not have). That technically is competition because Hasbro will only attend a limited amount of conventions and those are planning to cater to a certain size crowd. It's not surprising that we've encountered our first crash & burn of a convention because it was bound to occur (I think we've seen too many successes without planning for possible failure and times where people expect other bronies to bail out their oversights). Even Everfree (which was successful) did have a lot of detractors so it's up to those cons that start smaller to start smartly and then expand with success. Also what may occur is everyone will pool their money to travel to Bronycon or Everfree (and they will continue to grow) rather than something more local or newer because they are guaranteed a better experience at it.  But people should look to support or start local conventions but with some level of skepticisim that these are both expensive to put on and may not necessarily be a success overnight.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Freewave

[Zenoctilles 102]

The Anons have looked into the matter. They've interviewed some of the con volunteers, and it's looking more and more like a case of mismanagement rather than outright fraud. Also, some people who live in Vegas have done some diggining, and one of them noticed that a police car was parked outside of where the con organizers live (they are a husband and wife duo). 

[Fhaolan 4,483]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying but if you are going to have Hasbro and the voice actors you need to be at a certain size and have a certain level of people attending (likewise a certain amount of vendors and tables paying for it as well). Their competition is exsiting bronycons and while the NY Bronycon IS the yard stick on how to do these it's still small potatoes compared to something like the San Diego Comic Con. I do think that a lot of local conventions need to keep in mind that they won't have Hasbro, travelling musicians or artists but will only have a small gathering with local talent. And they'll have to be ok with that initially.  

 

In my opinion, if you have to compete with other bronycons for potential punters in order to be successful then you are probably shooting too high for a first-time con. Or you have realize the market is at the moment saturated and you should be spending your time/energy assisting an more distant bronycon to grow and improve, or getting involved with the local sci-fi con (which there probably is one) to pull in brony events and build the base up so that a local bronycon will become viable.

 

This is actually a current problem with Ren Faires in the Pacific Northwest, and has been for many, many years. There are too many little Ren Faires in the area competing with each other so much that they can't grow the market. They're splitting the punters so much that none of them can make enough to do more than barely break even at best, which means nothing in the pot to roll into improving the faire in the next year. And they refuse to work together due to personality conflicts and, let's be honest, ego.

 

Basically, my advice is to not leap into thinking you're going to have a current Bronycon-level event right away. The first Bronycon only had 100 attendees or so, and had 1 fan guest (the founder of Rainbowdash.net). The fifth one is going to happen this year, and they're estimating 6-8,000 attendees and who knows how many guests now.

 

Unicon tried to jump into having 2,000 attendees on their first year, didn't get near that number, and had more than twenty special guests, and it appears that many of which were contracted to get paid and comped like pro guests and guests of honor. That's shooting *way* too high for a first year con.

[Lady Leopardess 393]

I really hope there's a class action lawsuit against the hotel. They should have not charged people for rooms who had already paid for them through the con. They gave their credit cards up only for incidentals , there's no way that should be legal to then charge them for something else. From the reviews it sounds like it's not a terribly good hotel either. The fact they didn't have a credit card or something from the actual convention just reeks of fishyness. I think people wouldn't get much out of going after the convention owners though since it sounds like they overspent.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Lady Leopardess