Saturday, May 13, 2006

To Be Continued acknowledges its error on site

In a comment to this posting on my blog, Lis Riba provides this link to a photo on LiveJournal of a poster behind the registration desk on site at ToBeContinued, going on right now in Illinois (emphasis added):

To Be Continued 5
Changes


Due to cancellations and space issues the following items and people will not be at this year show:

Aaron Douglas
Bob Eggleton
Weta Workshop

Gaming
Luau
Consuite
Internet Café
Art Show
Critter Crunch

Finally, due to an error on our part Robert J. Sawyer will not be in attendance. Our apology to him.

We apologize for any inconvenience this caused you. We have a great show still planned with a lot of great panelists and Guests of Honor and hope you will enjoy the convention.

To Be Continued


4 Comments:

At May 13, 2006 5:33 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

And, just so it's not lost to history once the site disappears, here's the text of the apology that appeared on the ToBeContinued website, although you still have to scroll down on most displays to see it (apostrophe missing in original):

-Our Apologies for not booking Robert Sawyers travel on time to make his appearance possible and cost effective, this is the reason he will not be appearing at To Be Con this year. Sorry to him and his fans.-

 
At May 13, 2006 7:06 PM , Anonymous Chris Gerrib said...

(Cross-posted on my blog)
I live a few miles from the site of To Be CONtinued 5. Having nothing better to do on a cold and rainy Saturday, I decided to drop in for the day. Here are some random observations:
• The Con program book had been printed after they knew Rob Sawyer wasn’t attending, and had been scrubbed of his name. However, it still had stuff pertaining to the art show and consuite, both cancelled.
• The dealer’s room had, by my count, six dealers in all. They were not listed in the program.
• Gaming had been reduced to two tables in the lobby.
• Programming was down to two rooms, one of which was the hotel boardroom, which seated 12 or so around a long table. The first session I attended, at 11, I was the only non-panel member. It was nice for me, since all the sessions there were more informal discussions vs. the typical “panel sits in front and talks.” But since the largest session, a reading by Don Bingle, had 3 attendees, probably not so nice for the panelists.

Before I tell this story, I have to make some disclaimers. First, I am not “tied into” the Chicago fan scene. I go to Windycon and Duckon, hit the writer’s track and have a cocktail at the after-hours parties. I have no axe to grind. Second, this is all hearsay, and may be completely inaccurate.

So, one of the Guests of Honor was the artist Larry Elmore. At his noon session, which became “cons I have attended” Larry said that part of To Be CONtinued’s problem was that half of the committee, including the consuite group, had quit Monday of con week. He also mentioned that he didn’t get his tickets (from Louisville, KY) until Tuesday of this week, for a Thursday flight. He was of the opinion that this was a dying con. I tend to agree.

 
At May 13, 2006 7:17 PM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

Hi, Chris. Many thanks for the update -- fascinating!

At least you got to see Donald Bingle. He's a great guy.

Here's my blurb for his novel Forced Conversion: "Visceral, bloody -- and one hell of a page turner! Bingle tackles the philosophical issues surrounding uploaded consciousness in a fresh, exciting way. This is the debut of a major novelist -- don't miss it."

 
At May 14, 2006 2:40 PM , Anonymous Chris Gerrib said...

You're welcome! BTW, I just ordered Bingle's book, so he got at least one sale from the event!

 

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