SMOF News, volume 1, issue 41
Paramount forces a cancellation.
Who Killed Destination Star Trek?
Destination Star Trek London, scheduled for September 30-October 2, was to be run by, as its website states, “Massive Events Ltd, in association with Media 10 Ltd under license from CBS Consumer Products.”
The page now hosts an “Important Update”:
We have decided to run just one big Destination Star Trek event this year.
This means that Destination Star Trek Germany, taking place from 23rd to 25th September, will be the one official European Star Trek event in 2022.
We know that this will be disappointing to some of you, but we look forward to new Star Trek events in the future in the UK .
However, there is also some good news for our loyal UK fans, as you will be able to enjoy a tribute to Star Trek at this year’s London Film & Comic Con, 8-10 July, where many of the guests that were to attend Destination Star Trek London this year will be attending.
Trek Central picks up the story of fans’ attempts to get refunds:
Fans who brought tickets to DST London 2022 are now being offered tickets to this upcoming event. Additionally, it seems that ticket transfers are happening automatically, regardless of if fans have asked for it. But man fans want a refund, especially those with expensive ticket packages or vouchers from the previous cancellation. …
At the time of the announcement, the cancelled Destination Star Trek event did not have information on cash refunds immediately available. However, they are now suggesting fans contact Eventbrite. This doesn’t seem correct, with fans contacting Eventbrite only to be denied their refunds.
The London Film & Comic Con is run by Massive Events’ sister company Showmasters Ltd. Trek Central further reports that fan inquiries are being redirected to the German event.
It also got a statement from Paramount Global admitting to being the force behind the cancellation:
Statement attributed to Paramount Consumer Products & Experiences
Given the unpredictable challenges of in-person events at this time, we wanted to focus all of our resources towards delivering one strong show for European fans as opposed to two events that are a few weeks apart. We look forward to celebrating with the fans later this year in Germany.
This was followed up by a long post from Jill Ubdegrove, Marketing Director at Massive Events and Showmasters, pinning the full blame on Paramount Global and claiming that Massive Events was forced to lie about whose decision it was. The key was a change of team handling relations with fan events:
Then in January a zoom meeting was requested to meet the new much younger team that myself, Mark and Jason [Woolard and Joiner, owners of Massive Events] attended. It was very clear things had changed. We were challenged on the need for so many guests (are they really that important? Don’t you think maybe 6 guests would cover the event’s needs? There should be more selfie spots with star trek branding etc) it was fair to say I left the meeting unimpressed, feeling we would have some work to do to ensure that fans would get what they actually wanted and what they have come to expect from DST over the years.
This was followed in February by word that the Paramount team wanted to cancel both Destination Star Trek events, and then in May that it had relented on the German one but not the London one.
The upside of running an official branded convention is that the brand owner can give you marketing support and access to all kinds of official goodies to help pull in the fans, along with the halo of having its blessing. The downside is that it can choose to pull the license and leave you hanging. Paramount may have chosen to cancel “their” convention, but Massive Events has the contract with the venue and is now on the hook for penalties for both 2022 and future years.
This can be mitigated by event insurance, but event insurance usually is highly specific about what circumstances it covers, and the move to offer vouchers for another event rather than refunds suggests that “licensor decides to not license after all” was not on the list for whatever insurance Massive Events had.
Event Calendar
Weekend of June 10-12
Robert E. Howard Days, Cross Plains, Texas, USA
44th Superman Celebration, Metropolis, Illinois, USA
NEWh3re (music), online
Heroes, Villains, and Blerds (art), Winter Park, Florida, USA
StratosFur (anthropomorphic), Houston, Texas, USA
Origins Game Fair 2022, Columbus, Ohio, USA
NordConline (gaming), online
Bayou Wars 2022 (miniatures gaming), D’Iberville, Mississippi, USA
AnimeCon 2022, Rijswijk, Netherlands
Anime Blues Con, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Space Coast Comic Con, Viera, Florida, USA
Anime Town: Utah, Farmington, Utah, USA
Anime Marathon, Königslutter am Elm, Germany
Anime Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas, USA
Oz Comic-Con: Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
North Country Comic Con, Watertown, New York, USA
SWFL SpaceCon (media), Fort Meyers, Florida, USA
Weekend of June 17-19
LibertyCon 34, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
YetiCon, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Pyrkon, Poznań, Poland
4th Street Fantasy, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
CastleCon 11 (anthropomorphic), Horb, Germany
Arcon 38: Multivertshuset (gaming), Oslo, Norway
Q-Con Lite (gaming), Belfast, UK
Congress of Gamers Summer Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA
South Texas Gamers Expo (video games), McAllen, Texas, USA
Wie.MAI.KAI (anime), Flörsheim am Main, Germany
YUMiCON (anime), San Antonio, Texas, USA
Anime Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Cosplacon 2022 (anime), Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
Desucon 2022 (anime), Lahti, Finland
Fan Expo Dallas (media), Dallas, Texas, USA
Sci-Fi Valley Con (media), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA
Austria Comic Con, Linz, Austria
Smallville Comic Con, Smallville, Kansas, USA
CanterCon (My Little Pony), Tempe, Arizona, USA
Weekend of June 24-26
SoonerCon 30, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
PortConMaine, Portland, Maine, USA
Cosplay America, Cary, North Carolina, USA
RAGECON 7 (gaming), Sparks, Nevada, USA
Magic City Con (gaming), Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Neo Anime Oasis:01, Boise, Idaho, USA
ExpOtaku Zaragoza (anime), Zaragoza, Spain
SunnyCon Anime Expo, St. James Park, UK
Anime Festival Wichita, Wichita, Kansas, USA
Kyokai Con (anime), Harlingen, Texas, USA
OMG!con 2022 (anime), Owensboro, Kentucky, USA
Anime Festival Orlando 2022, Orlando, Florida, USA
JAFAX 2022: Let the Games Begin (anime), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Heroes Convention (comics), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Forest City Comicon, London, Ontario, Canada
Sci-Fi on the Rock (media), St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
Mississippi Comic Convention, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Comic Con Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Rail City Fan Fest (media), Saint Albans, Vermont, USA
TrekFest 37 (Star Trek), Riverside, Iowa, USA
My Little Pony Fair, Tampa, Florida, USA
LeakyCon (Harry Potter), Orlando, Florida, USA
Mid-week event: SFRA 2022: Futures From the Margins (symposium), Oslo, Norway
Weekend of July 1-3
Westercon 74, Tonopah, Nevada, USA
InConJunction 41: The Next Chapter, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
XXXIV Semana Negra, Gijón, Spain
Festival Fantazie, Chotěboř, Czech Republic
BayCon 2022, San Mateo, California, USA
Anthrocon 2022: Aesop's Fables (anthropomorphic), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Paris est Ludique 2022 (gaming), Paris, France
Gem State Gaming Convention, Boise, Idaho, USA
Anime Midwest, Rosemont, Illinois, USA
BA-CON (anime), Alvin, Texas, USA
Anime Expo 2022, Los Angeles, California, USA
AnimeSHOW 2022, Bratislava, Slovakia
Fan Expo Denver (media), Denver, Colorado, USA
Eternal Con (media), Hampstead, New York, USA
Lewisburg Comic-Con, Lewisburg, Ohio, USA
Weekend of July 8-10
Finncon 2022 (Finnish national sf convention), Espoo, Finland
Festival Fantazie, Chotěboř, Czech Republic
Play On Con, Columbiana, Alabama, USA
Blerdcon (Black geekdom), Arlington, Virginia, USA
South Afrifur: Cyberpunk (anthropomorphic), Lanseria, South Africa
East Coast Gaming Expo, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
Dice Tower East (gaming), Orlando, Florida, USA
Bold Matsuri (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Rocket City Anime Convention, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Anime Friends 2022, São Paulo, Brazil
Comiccon de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
London Film & Comic Con, London, UK
Fan Expo Chicago (media), Rosemont, Illinois, USA
Greater Austin Comic Convention, Cedar Hills, Texas, USA
Mahoning Valley Comicon, Warren, Ohio, USA
TFcon Toronto (Transformers), Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Coda
Flying Cars and Food Pills: The Visionaries, Madmen, and Tinkerers Who Created the Future That Never Was (hat tip: Ansible)
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