Aug 03 2009
TwiCon 2009 Convention Report: Fan Feels Ripped Off and Mistreated
As some of you may recall, I’ve posted quite a bit of news about TwiCon 2009 here over the past few months (some of it not so good). On Saturday, I was contacted by a TwiCon attendee named Jennifer, who told me that she hoped I would write a follow up report on the con, because she wanted the attendees to have a voice somewhere and a place to vent about how bad the experience had been. I told her if she wanted to write a convention report about her experience, that I’d be happy to post it.
Below is her convention report. The TwiCon photos that accompany this article were also taken by her, and are used with permission. If you attended TwiCon, please post a comment with your experiences - whether they were similar or not. I believe providing a convention with feedback - whether positive or negative - is a good thing. However, please note that any “Twilight fans suck” or personal attacks against this attendee will not be approved.
TwiCon 2009… in a Word, “Con”
written by TwiCon 2009 attendee Jennifer (last name withheld by request)
Being a mid-thirties Twilight fan, I was overjoyed at the prospect of attending TwiCon 2009 here in my hometown of Dallas, TX. Moreover because the dates would coincide with my eldest niece’s 19th birthday who is also a huge Twilight fan. The $255 price tag, though steep, was no hindrance to our attendance and we looked forward to four fun days with fellow fans and the stars of our favorite franchise. I purchased our tickets in November 2008, just days after the sale started. This would be the last happy experience with the TwiCon 2009 brand that I would have.
Just days (4 to be exact) before the event, my niece was in a serious accident and would be unable to attend the convention. I attempted to contact the TwiCon organizers to find that all of their point of contact emails had been put to automated response with NO way to contact any member of staff for questions, concerns, etc. Upon scouring the website, I found that not only had they completely shut down registration as of July 12th (nearly 3 weeks prior to the event), but had placed on their site an “included autograph” with each registration without notification to attendees which had been timed out in late June. Which means that only attendees who regularly checked the TwiCon website would be privy to such information.
After contacting someone on my local Craigslist who was selling their registrations just days before the event, I was at least given enough information to HOPEFULLY transfer my niece’s ticket to someone else as to not have to eat the $255 ticket.
We arrived on Thursday July 30th (opening day) at approximately 4pm. Registration had been opened at 3pm, but as we entered the registration area, the line was snaked around the building at least 3 times over as volunteer staff and/or paid staff walked down the lines barking orders at waiting registrants. At 4:50pm, a volunteer walked by and stamped us with “faxed” stamps telling us this would get us into the opening ceremony (starting at 5pm) and we could come back to register afterward.
The opening ceremony was started by a quirky and cute parody by the Hillywood Show kids (always great!), but quickly deteriorated into “amateur hour on national public radio”. The two coordinators READ the rules off slideshows running to the side of the stage as they attempted witty banter betwixt themselves. This entire part had the feel of a junior high school orientation meeting at best. A few minutes prior to our release from this captivity, I tried to slip down and register before the crowds came out. I was cursed at and told that I should just go back up to the ceremony and they would re-set registration upstairs when they were ready. Another woman who’d come down as I had, was given similar treatment by the worker next to mine and huffed “I am SO tired of being yelled at by these people”.
When the ceremony was finally over, we stepped out to register only to enter yet another line (our third so far) in which we stood, without moving, for over a half hour. A worker walked past a little later to tell us they would be processing all VIP registrations and then would start working on our line. It appeared the registration workers just stood and waited for any VIP attendees to come out of the ceremony and after they felt they had waited long enough began to process the rest of us. The whole while, the line has snaked around the length of the ballroom, approximately 400 feet.
When we finally reached the registration area, we found that the convention tags were scattered across the tables in a hodge podge array. Apparently unable to be contained in something as simple as shoe boxes, I suppose. We weren’t given any trouble making a substitution with my niece’s ticket, but I noticed quickly that there probably wouldn’t be much trouble of doing anything right about now as half the workers (volunteer or paid, I’m not sure) were working hard on Corona’s and mixed drinks as they worked the table; always a sign of good staff.
Friday was riddled with lines to each and every breakout session as attendees crammed into rooms after waiting in lines for up to an hour to get into crowd favorites. The sessions were poorly planned and in much too small of venues, meaning most attendees only got to go to 2 or maybe 3 sessions for the entire day. I, myself, attended HALF of 2 sessions, as they were overlapped and singularly offered. Another issue of poor planning was that all the musical acts were playing at the same time as the afternoon breakout sessions, so again, a choice had to be made as to priority.
As I left for the day, I overhead the protests of several attendees as to the oddly increasing ticket prices to the 100 Monkeys concert, originating at $10 per person and settling at $25 per person at time of show… this being on top of the original $255. Although the show was quite entertaining from what I was told, I had already had quite enough of the nickel and dime show that was being laid out each day. Plus the fact that the band had announced to the attendees that they would be playing a show Saturday night at a local venue there in Dallas, that would NOT cost them $255 + $25 to see.
Saturday hit an all time low in the world of conventions, in my opinion. After belittling attendees over where they could stand, where they could sit, where they could look, etc., we were lined up in order of ticket purchase for seating for the Q&A session with the cast members from Twilight/New Moon. For myself, and many others unwilling to shell out $40 per picture with a cast member or $16 per autograph, this would be the highlight of the convention in terms of seeing the personalities.
At 1pm (the Q&A was to start at 1:30) they began lining us into the ballroom and putting us into our seats like an elementary school program. Apparently 2500 people take approximately 1 full hour to fill into a ballroom as the cast was introduced and brought out at a few minutes after 2pm. Now, the photography sessions were handled in the morning, but the autograph sessions were scheduled for 15 minutes after the scheduled 2:30 ending of the Q&A, but we assumed, wrongly, that they would move everything out at least a half hour to compensate for their poor planning at seating. Just 25 minutes into the Q&A, the moderator announced that she was asking the last question, at which the entire panel of actors snapped their heads up and said “what?” I can only imagine how ridiculously handled this whole thing has appeared to them.
The final blow for me was after the cast was dismissed we were told by the moderators, “if you don’t want an autograph, you can just leave. But if you want to get your autographs then you’ll stay seated until we dismiss you by row the same way we brought you in”. It was demeaning and obnoxious and I might have excused it if we were a room of thirteen year olds behaving badly, but as you can guess by ticket price, the majority of attendees were women of age who were behaving quite politely even considering the hateful manner we have been treated all weekend by the staff.
As I walked out at 2:45, my companion asked me what time I’d like to head back to the hotel for the Volturri ball this evening. My reply “I’ve had enough, I’d rather just go home and rent a movie” and that, my friends, is just what I did.
Now, before you think I am some super nut obsessed with griping, I have some compliments to distribute as well.
K. Anita Wheeler, the Quileute storyteller was amazingly funny and entertaining. She answered questions with grace and kindness and warmed her audience as though we were all friends.
The vendors (aside from the TwiCon peddlers) were all friendly and accommodating. I spent quite a bit of money on some finely made items that will kindle a kinder memory of my experience.
The Hillywood Show cast saved the show in many instances as they came through with hilarious and spot-on parodies of Twilight. They dutifully manned their table throughout most of the convention and genuinely smiled through countless photos and autographs. I will admit the only autograph that I bothered to obtain this whole weekend was from them.
All of the cast present (Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone, Alex Meraz, Kellan Lutz, Billy Burke, and Christian Serratos) were funny, endearing, and made a genuine effort at drawing their audience into the Q&A. Peter and Jackson carried most of the conversation but it was lively and entertaining to the thrill of the crowd. The crowning moment, albeit the last of levity, was when Peter pretended to throw a paper airplane into the crowd and instead ran off the stage, all the way to the back, and back to the front again. We were all on our feet and as for myself, I have a new Twilight favorite!
Most of all, I’d like to compliment us, the fans/attendees. We have been treated poorly, talked down to, sucked dry to our last red cent, and mishandled, but through it all, we’ve found comrades in arms as we stood in endless lines, laughed with each other when our tempers were soaring from lack of planning, and stood up for each other when bullied by staff. We talked about our favorite books and movies and made this convention our own, by disregarding what wasn’t done right and taken it upon ourselves to bond together over a common enemy. Maybe we’ve all learned something from Carlisle, “we’re with Edward now, we’re part of this family.”
I just got back last night from TwiCon. It was completely and utterly beyond disorganized. I didn’t hear one good thing about it from any of the other people there. The highlight of my trip was getting Peter Facinelli’s autograph and then meeting him again later, along with Kellan and Alex, at the Meet & Greet (at which I was one of 200 attendees who were suppose to get to meet ALL the cast, but again, piss-poor planning and organization on TwiCon’s part).
The volunteers were, for the most part, beyond rude. One woman did nothing but scream at you. No one knew what they were doing.
My sister and I opted to skip the Q&A since the line was loooong. (Mind you, our TwiCon ticket numbers were 74 & 75, and out autograph numbers were 4 & 17.) We arrived where we were supposed to be at 2pm (autographs at 2:45). We were told we HAD to be in the Q&A to get on the autograph line (where that came from, who knows, it wasn’t posted anywhere that Q&A was required). Once in there and the fiasco that was the Q&A was over, they started barking orders at us about sending us out in groups of 100, that if we left we MUST come back in or no autograph, etc. Needless to say, someone opened a door and there were hundreds of people on line out there already. When we did get released, we were told to go to the front of the line because those people should have been in the Q&A, etc. Well, as you can imagined, that caused lots of not so friendly remarks from others. AND the staff/volunteers were screaming at us that we need to go to the end of the line, what the woman in the Q&A room was saying was wrong. (Couldn’t wait to see what the hundreds upon hundreds of people in that room had to say about that.) Eventually we were allowed to stay, I got my autograph and we left.
Headed to the meet & greet. Cocktail attire. YET, the girl that came in late and sat next to me was in cut-off shorts and a t-shirt. So much for enforcing the rules. The celebs didn’t come in until well over 30 minutes after the start. Two minutes at each table. Ha! We were suppose to meet each person. Our table saw Kellan, Peter, Alex and some of the fandom celebs. We missed out on Billy Burke (I was really disappointed about not meeting him), Jackson and Christian. (Mike Welch, I heard through the grapevine–because why would anyone at TwiCon make an announcement–was at home really sick with the flu.)
The celebs were really great. Too bad they had to overcompensate for the lack of manners from the volunteers. I had gone to the 100 Monkeys concert (pre-paid $20 for an 18+ concert at which TwiCon opened it Friday morning to all ages since it didn’t oversell) but we left early. Good thing too. Turns out some fan threw a t-shirt on the stage and the volunteers threw on the lights an whipped the band off the stage. That was after 5 songs.
I won’t be going to another one, that’s for sure.
I, too, was disappointed a bit with TwiCon. I went to the one in Atlanta and was bored to tears aside from going to the Q&A session, which had crazy fan girls standing on their chairs a lot. There were far too many people to fit in such a small area. The vendors were all super sweet and great to just chat with.
Now, I only paid for general admission. A sign directly in front of the registration table said “Saturday, $30!” to which we had to pay $35 because “The sign was printed wrong” (from a staff member). So, fix the sign!!!! She was pissing me off cause I wanted to pay my $30, because that is what the sign said. Why should I pay more?
It was such a mess. There was nothing to do. It definitely wasn’t like any convention I have ever been to. It was boring and I hated being ushered from area to area. It was like the staff was making up the rules as the day went along. We stayed for maybe for 5 hours then left. It wasn’t worth staying any long. I’ve been thinking about going to the next one, but now i’m thinking about passing and saving my $$ for something else.
I had the exact same experience as Jennifer. The volunteers were beyond rude and immature. When I tried to take a picture of the 100 Monkeys, I was yelled at TWICE because I used my flash. Are we in a zoo? Are the band members likely to be incited by flashes of light and attack the crowd? I assume not, since they were all smiling at me and posing for a picture. I almost lost my temper right then and there. I haven’t been treated so disrespectfully since I was in middle school.
I didn’t attend any of the events because the free ones were lame (Fanfiction? Bella’s self-defense? Really?) and the other ones cost at least $30 extra. I was only able to meet Christian Serratos because she happened to be staying on my floor and I ran into her in the elevator. She was very sweet and had no problem posing for a picture (for free, mind you). So I guess my $255 paid for a lanyard with my name.
I did attend the ball, which would’ve been fun had the DJ not been a perv. I do believe that a song that incites the crowds to do the “stanky leg” should be withheld from a function with children present…or any function, really. The ball felt more like a ghetto club than a formal dance.
I believe a refund is in order for every member of TwiCon. I didn’t meet one person who was having a good time and I met a lot of people.
Very detailed review. I’m not a Twilight fan myself, but if I were, this would definitely deter me from going to one of these things.
My roomies and I were volunteers for this event. I assure you, we were not paid and not compensated in any fashion (we had first been promised discounts on our registration, then gift bags, then just the t shirt we wore for days straight and a keychain).
I will tell you I was never rude to anyone, but saw lots of it - including one of the volunteer supervisors shoving my room mate when she asked a question and slapped another room mates arm when she didn’t like the position she was holding it in.
We were denied the opportunity to attend most of the events as we were working - mind you we PAID our full $255 each plus the extras too. One room mate was denied one of her paid autographs because she was a volunteer.
We were not allowed time to eat, or get ready for other events either unless we ran REALLY QUICKLY to get it done. If they didn’t like what we were doing, they told us they would fire us and revoke our registrations and escort us from the premises.
The rules changed from moment to moment as did the need for money. I think the most amazing thing I saw was the 100 monkeys autograph session where they tried to charge for Jackson’s autograph because “we never told you he would be included” He is part of the band and anyone would have figured him to be part of the program.
Like most people, I have good memories from this event - the talent was incredible and I enjoyed them, and I enjoyed the time with my friends. I will not however attend another event handled by these people.
The angry volunteers had good reason to be angry. They were all unpaid and forced to work long hours. To add insult to injury, they had to pay the full $255 REGISTRATION for the privilege of working blindly without property instruction, and unable to enjoy the convention themselves. The only compensation they received were Twicon T-shirts. OUTRAGEOUS! Also, I saw a post by one of the Twicon managing partners where she stated that they would only just break even on this convention because of the added security they needed for the actors. I’d like to point out that the ONLY security I saw for the actors were the uncompensated volunteers who had to pay $255 for the privilege. The only other REAL security I saw was the 2-3 officers at the entrance for the Voluturri ball Sat night.
OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!
Very sorry to hear about the negative experiences! NEVER, I repeat NEVER, go to a TwiCon unless it’s sponsored by Creation Entertainment. They’ve been doing them for ages and know how to do them right. My friends are huge Star Wars and Star Trek fans and have been going to the CE conventions for those movies for years and made me aware of how very well organized CE is! I went to the CE TwiCon in L.A. in May and it was SO much fun! I have already purchased my ticket for the TwiCon in March in L.A. because my experience in May was just terrific. I won a backstage pass and was able to hang out with the Twi stars all day! Please don’t give up on TwiCons just find the right people who know who to organize them! Check out the creation entertainment website.
Sorry, I have to say, your post is the exact reason I do not attend conventions… I have a short temper, so this first time a volunteer, or employee snaps at me, curses me, or is rude to me after I paid close to $300 to get in there, I would knock them on their butt (I didn’t want to be to offensive) And they would probably be wearing that mixed drink
I too could type 3000 words about the horror that was TwiCon but I think I’ll just say “same here” and save the energy. What I can tell you is that I met some absolutely amazing people there and had several experiences that I will never forget. None of them were directly related to the convention, of course. Sam Bradley, Marcus Foster and Bobby Long are wonderful performers and it was a pleasure to see them play.
All I wanted to add was that when we were told to stay seated in the hall after the Q&A so that we could be released by number, many attendees just got up regardless of number and went to stand in line. We were told repeatedly by SEVERAL staff members that they will be going in numerical order and that if people are in line when they should not be they will be turned away until their number is called. We sat in the room like we were supposed to until they stopped calling numbers. They got to #350 then never called anymore. We went out to find that everyone was in line and we had been repeatedly lied to and when I asked someone higher up she told me that they couldn’t do anything and I had to go to the back of the line even though everyone in front of me had a higher number. She said well we can’t control you guys if you won’t listen so… After the Q&A had been cut short by over 30 minutes (even to the cast’s dismay) then that, I was really upset. The highlights of the con for me was the music. The 100 Monkeys concert was AMAZING. They each took turns at different instruments and on vocals. Jackson sang lead vocals, back up vocals, played guitar, drums, and keyboards. I loved seeing the cast and hearing the panel but it was still a let down.
The saving grace of the con for me was Sam Bradley, Marcus Foster, and Bobby Long. I had the privilege of getting to meet them and get their autographs Friday during the break out sessions (the whole time having rules blurted at me by staff and volunteers). Then got to see them perform at the ball (which was boring besides their performance) and again at the late night performance Saturday at Poor David’s Pub. That was the best concert I have ever been to. I have never seen musicians perform and it be so personal ( I mean they do write and perform all their own music). They covered some really fun songs that they knew the crown would love. They are so endearing and talented.
i guess everyone had a bad experience at twicon…
but i agree with the writer..peter fach(carlisle) is the best, he did the same thing at london comic con..and i just loved him, hes a great entertainer and he’s really funny..:()
I was shocked and disappointed at the utter lack of organization of the event. None of the workers knew what was going on. I’d ask a question and the staff would just look off into the distance, like they didn’t know what to say so they just didn’t say anything. This really wasn’t a huge convention. I’ve organized larger conventions before and just couldn’t belive how this one was mishandled.
I can’t believe how terrible TwiCon was mismanaged. I expected there to be problems bc it was their first year but nothing to this proportion. There were several warning signs even before the con started with the way the had things organized & what they said one day then changed the next on their website.
Please don’t confuse TwiCon with the TwiTours put on by Creation Entertainment. I have only heard good things about TwiTours from friends who have attended.
TwiCon Partners LLC is headquartered in North Carolina.
Those wishing to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau can do so at:
http://www.bbb.org/us/wwwroot/sitepage.aspx?site=113&id=46a6a9cd-5402-454e-9476-e4df22e6f371&n=TwiCon+Partners&src=gbox#middle-result
I also attended Twicon. I have never been treated so badly as I was treated at this convention. The volunteers were rude and it was completely disorganized. This convention was all about making money, not celebrating the Twilight series of books or the movie. I have gone to many conventions, this was the worst in my opinion. I was originally supposed to have Ashley Greene for my free autograph, she cancelled about a week before the con. Alex was the replacement, but we were told we would have the chance to change if we wished. I got up early to get down in line for 8 am, by the time I reached the front I was told that Alex was my only option. When we were standing in line for the autographs, we were told that Billy Burkes line was empty and he was leaving, if Billy was sold out why was his line empty a half an hour into the autograph session? It seemed to me that people just did not want to be bothered with changing the autograph. I really could go on and on, but Jennifer really nailed it all on the head. I do want to say how wonderful the cast was, Kellen made eveyone feel welcome, he took his time with each person. In fact he was still signing autographs a half an hour after the session had ended. Peter was personalizing his autographs even though we were told no personalization. Jackson gave everyone a free cd and autograph if you went to see his concert at the Palladium Ballroom on Saturday night and put on a wonderful show. The cast wanted the fans to have a good experience, at least it seemed that way to me. On Sunday, I ran into some of the volunteers who were on the Twicon committee, they wanted the con to be something memorable for the attendees, but all their suggestions were vetoed by the management company. I will not be attending this convention in the future.
I had so many problems with Twicon.
The thing that was the worst was the Meet and Greet. It starred an hour late, leaving us a limited amount of time with the stars. TWO MINUTES. Some weren’t even at the table for two minutes due to them being at other tables over the time limit. This is what made me so mad that I refuse to ever attend a Twicon run by these people again: Neither Jackson Rathbone or Kellan Lutz, the two people I was looking most forward to meeting, came to our table. It wasn’t their fault, it was the people who ran it for starting late. This made me beyond angry and there will be a complaint letter coming from me.
ON the bright side, as we were on our way to our room, we spotted Kellan walking with his guard to leave. We were the only ones who saw him. I yelled to him and he said something back, so that made me happy, but that doesn’t change how upset I am with Twicon.
So I agree with alot of the things that some people were saying. It was disorganized and that was to be expected at a convention of this magnitude in its first year, but of course nothing to this magnitude.
But i would like to say something about the volunteers. I myself was a volunteer at Twicon. I paid the $255 for the conference (even more because I was coming from Canada) and I gave up my time to help make sure that Twicon would run smoothly. But the volunteers that had signed up and were contacted to help were not given alot of instruction. The instruction that was mostly given was “Crowd control. Man the line.” What is that supposed to mean? But we tried our hardest and I got yelled at by alot of attendees and nothing to do about it cause i myself didn’t know what was going on. Me being only 19 it was slightly scary being yelled at by adults in their 30s and 40s. And as a volunteer I was one of the last people to be seated, or not even getting a seat at all. And I will say that some of the head haunchos could have been a little more happy. i know they were stressed but…it really didn’t make it enjoyable for them to be yelling and not smiling at all.
It was disorganized but don’t blame all of the volunteers because I know we tried our hardest and tried to be the best we could be with limited information.
But I don’t think Twicon should stop. They’ll learn from their mistakes this year and try again. I know it’s slightly discouraging because of the amount of mistakes. But keep trying cause I think it’s amazing that a bunch of people came up with this idea and actually got it off the ground. That deserves a big round of applause!
Another thing that should probably be added is the venue itself. I was in the North Tower and in the part I was in both of the elevators were not working properly or not running whatsoever! I think that the venue itself had something to do with the discouragement as well.
But I don’t want to sound so negative. I thought the attendees were great and I think Twicon could be a great hit if they work out the kinks that were brought up!
I had the same experienances as above. It was awful. I am a single mom and I spent more money than I could really afford on this. And I feel robbed. The only parts that were worth anything were the fans that were so kind and we made friends easily, and the talent, the Hillywood show, The Bella Cullen Project, the cast, And especially the Brit pack, Bobby, Marcus and the very incredible Sam Bradley. Without these folks this would have been the worst birthday of all, I know that I will never be exploited like this again!
I plan to go to Comic con next year which with first class airfare, motel and tickets will be less than what I spent in Dallas this year. That is really sad if you ask me.
I think it was so bad that Jackson actually felt sorry for us and that is why he and the Brit pack did so many shows outside the venue.
There are other tours that are run by more experienced folks. Also the venue itself it an important factor in how a convention works. Orlando, and the TampaBay beaches area, are well suited for conventions such as this. We are a tourism community and succesfully handle conventions year round. Affordable airlines into the Tpa and orlando markets, not to mention accomodations for all budgets are walking distance to many con suitable establishments. Folks can come in early and enjoy the beaches, or the attractions. I’ve attended work related conventions all over the US, but I have to say, My hometown knows how do them right. They really need this feedback sent directly to them so they can improve if they plan this again next year.
I too went to twiCon and took my 10 year old daughter with me. We were lucky to have family close so the only thing we had to pay was parking at 10.75 a day! I was told we had free parking, wrong. We didn’t get to goto any of the break out sessions because after sitting in line for an hour we were told they didn’t have enough room for the rest of us. On Saturday, the photos were very well done I thought. We met Kellen who after stepping on his toe told me “hey, no worries”. Alex was kinda stand offish is my only word. He smiled for the photo but was not real..friendly. I wanted to ask about his part as Paul but never had the chance. Peter was awesome, he talked to my daughter while I was putting our things on the “BROWN CHAIR” and got down on her level. Even after having to retake our photo he was still really talkative and asked my daughter “is this your sister” I am sooooo Team Carslile now! The photos were great but not sure if they were worth fourty bucks! What really got on my nerves was the Q & A session. My little one did not want to go in because she had a headache so we waited out in the lobby. We were told that if we wanted our autograph we HAD to get in the ballroom and wait until our number was called. So what does that mean when we had four different numbers? We waited in line for Alex for about twenty mins or so then had to break up for Peter and Kellen. But lucky enough I finished with Peter in enough time to get in line and stand with her to get Kellen’s autograph. He was just so sweet and funny, I love him to pieces. The ball was a blast, my daughter was beside herself. Everything was “oh mom it’s wonderful, oh mom I love it, oh mom do you think that cute boy would dance with me?” Even though I feel like we did get taken a bit with all the nickle and dimeing I had a really good bonding time with my daughter and have some great memories. I do think the volunteers were really disorganized (not their fault, upper managment) and kinda rude but all in all had a blast. I plan on trying to hit a twiTours in the future. I would like to know how the cast felt about what they witnessed. Oh yah and gave up my 100 Monkeys tickets when Jackson bailed on the autograph signing. But did find out he was told he wasn’t allowed to go out there or something.
@Kaleen: As a repeat congoer, I can say that there are no excuses for this many mistakes to be made at a convention this size. If they couldn’t handle it then they should have started at a smaller scale. I repeat- there are NO excuses as to why this couldn’t have been better organized. If they didn’t know what they were doing then they could’ve VERY easily talked to any of the larger cons out there (DragonCon, Comic Con, ect) & asked for advice or gone to see how it was run. There’s no excuse for them not staying in better comunication with their volunteers (uh, hello? walkietalkies aren’t that expensive) & there’s also no excuse for them not hiring proper security. Con volunteers are not security forces nor should they be. Them demanding that you pay for your ticket is also not common & them “firing” you & throwing you out is CERTAINLY not anything common. The only way you get thrown out of cons is if you cause scenes & huge problems. (i.e, if you started humping one of the stars’ legs or throwing hotel furniture into the pool)
Despite what the con heads said, it sounds very much like they were in it for the cashola & I doubt that they “just broke even”. With them charging $255 a pop, plus with all of the extra things they were nickel & diming it for, it sounds like they’d have to have made quite a pretty penny for this con. The only way I’d be convinced that they didn’t make money is if they were to publish their accounting statments online. (Which they should do anyway to show how honest they are.) Besides, if they couldn’t afford all of the things they were doing they should’ve started on a smaller scale & worked their way up.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE CON BEING THIS DISORGANIZED! Saying it is a first con is no excuse. I’ve been to plenty of 1st cons & similar events that were very well planned. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t have been any hiccups, but there’s no excuse for the con to be this poorly run. These are supposed to be professionals after all. These weren’t Ma & Pa Average-Citizens running the con. These were people who were supposed to be used to running events like these. Seriously, there’s no excuse for this to have been so poorly run. Don’t “look at the bright side”. You were gypped & you have a right (in fact, an obligation) to show your displeasure!
Please, if you were unhappy with the con- complain about it. Contact the BBB in the link someone provided above. Vent your frustrations on the TwiCon comment boards. Tell your friends about it (online & IRL). I have a feeling that this will be the norm for any of these people’s future conventions. They may “improve” certain elements but I’m predicting that the con experience will be the same- you’ll pay through the nose to be treated like cattle & talked down to like you are subhuman walking piggy banks. I implore everyone to go to the far better Twicons out there or to go to the larger conventions such as Dragon*Con & ComicCon where almost all of the stars (and occasionally the author) go & where you won’t have to pay NEARLY as much just to get into the con.
Take a hint from the celebrities. They were not happy & from their reactions you should surely be able to tell that this was far from the way things should have been- even for a “first” con. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the stars declined any future invitations from this con. It looks like they were treated just as badly!
I agree with all of the above. I have to say I had a great time though, IN SPITE OF TWICON! All the fans are wonderful and I’m glad I got to meet some of you! And the cast was beyond phenomenal, not only in meeting us, but in all they had to put up with. I’ll be surprised if any of them sign on for Twicon 2010. I know I won’t. So, for my two cents worth, if weren’t for the wonderful fans and actors, Twicon would’ve been an EPIC FAIL! And Bailey was such a snot the few times I met her. Excuse me, missy, but I paid a lot of money to be here and I do not work for you, nor did I come to see you! So there!
This is horrible! I attend Harry Potter conferences, and even when Narrate Conferences stopped doing them (the last they did was Terminus), I had never had an issue like this!!! Check out LeakyCon 2011 if you want to have your faith in conferences validated. I’m not a Twilight fan, but I know several people in the HP fandom who are that I will be telling about this. I can’t believe it!
Unfortunately I had the same exact experience as everybody else. Also, regrettably, I found out about another convention in Phoenix that I wish I could afford now, but since I’m broke as a joke now I can’t. I did enjoy all the time I spent with the fans and the actors, they were all very sweet and endearing. My opinion of us TwiFans has only grown fonder. My opinion of the actors was just reinforced- they’re all amazing! My opinion of conventions has been tainted. I have been informed that other conventions are definitely run better than this. The girl I went with and I are no longer friends, and I believe that the aggravation of the event is partially to blame here but now I finally know the extent to her immaturity, so that is one of the few things I thank TwiCon for. I’ve already vented all of my frustrations on the TwiCon forums so I’m not going to repeat all of that. TwiCon=sucks, TwiFans=rock, Twilight actors=phenomenal. End of Story.
@ duvy: You really should put Twicon in just so you can tell everyone how horribly run it was. If they don’t know what a humongous mess it was & how poorly everyone was treated then they may be suckered into going to one of this company’s future offerings.
@Craig: I know you said the 6 Pee Rule, but supposedly these people were professionals who knew what they were doing. They knew full well how many people were going to be attending from the pre-reg they did on the site & anyone who has ever been to a con or an event of any type or set up for one knows that you should expect around 1/2 the amount of pre-regs to show up at the door. If these people were Bob & Brenda Average then I’d give them some slack, but from the getgo they were talking about how they knew what they were doing.
I second most of the experiences and comments here and have my own horror stories that I won’t bore you with.
Someone mentioned the 3000 attendees - it was originally limited to 2500 but the organizers kept taking on more and more until there were upwards on 3000 registrants.
An “intimate brunch” (yes, extra cost to attend) with one of the celebrities was originally touted as a 200 person limitation but that increased to 500.
Many of the sessions (no signups for sessions) were limited to 20-40 people. And no, there weren’t enough sessions available at any given time to accommodate 1000, much less 3000 attendees.
What hasn’t really been noted here so far are the “Official Statement” posts both prior to and after the convention. Finger-pointing, excuses, and reassurances that the organizers are “professional” and have done this type of thing before. Clearly, the professionals did not do their research on how to run a fan-con. They blamed it on the genre, saying that it was the first Twilight convention of this size and they didn’t know how Twilight fans would react. They stated that the organization was amazing (or brilliant or whatever the exact word was) but didn’t turn out that way because of the fans or the volunteers or this or that.
It was way too much money for what the attendees received. I was okay with spending that amount based on what we were told we were getting. DOLLARS to VALUE. The organizers claim that they didn’t do it for the money but they did it for the fans.
IMHO, if the organizers did NOT make a large amount of money then they made as many costly errors behind the scenes as the visible errors in the forefront.
I attended, and granted I should have read everything a little closer, but still had no idea that I would receive a ball ticket or a free autograph (I literally had to beg for this for my daughter because it was all she asked for). I also had no idea I had to pay extra for everything! Who was invited to the meet and greet? I asked one of the ladies in charge, and you would have thought I was a bum off the street with the nasty look she gave me. I got the same answer I got every single time I asked a question–”It’s a ticketed event!” In fact, there was nothing available that wasn’t–aside from the Q and A–which was a joke. I was there very early, but because my ticket was a high number, I was like 100 rows back– I nearly left. It was totally frustrating and pointless. This whole process was so stupid, and, yes, the volunteers were rude and yelled–a lot! I have yet to figure out what I paid $255 dollars for. I got NOTHING for my money. My husband was with me, and he attended every event aside from the Q and A with me, and he paid nothing. I love Twilight, but I will never do a TwiCon again. However, I will try the TwiTour with Creation Entertainment. You can get a Gold ticket with preferred seating for like $269 with autographs from all the stars, but photos are still $40 each, which is still a rip off, for anyone other than Rob!
Just a quick follow up: I received a follow up to a BBB complaint I made within 3 days of writing this review and my response summed up to: “Complaint was highly opinionated and biased and cannot be taken as valid. Majority of 3000 fans were very pleased with their experience, a small minority were upset as Ms. ***** (me). Those that were unhappy brought up their concerns during the convention and they were handled with excellent customer service. No refund policy was clearly stated up front and will not be amended for any reason.”
Thank you TwiCon for putting the last nail in the coffin, in my highly opinionated and biased opinion! ComicCon 2010, here I come!
@ Jennifer,
As a follow up, send them this link! 30+ comments to back you up.
I also filed a complaint with BBB and according to them my complaint was resolved but I never received any notification of the resolution. When I contacted them they said it was Twicons responsibility to contact me with their resolution which they didn’t, and also didn’t respond to my e-mail inquiring on the resolution (I also sent one to twicon). However, after reading Jennifer’s response she received, I’m assuming I would get the same response. I will never give this company any more of my money!! I can’t believe this! Again, showing poor customer service by not responding to me it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I filed this. So please, tell me twicon about how awesome your customer service is. Psh.