Yesterday our friend
Further discussion over on Cheryl Morgan‘s blog (where a PR disaster is unfolding) seems to suggest that the spate of bad behavior was Pádraig trying to get the sound system fixed during a couple of panels where the movie playing in the panel room next door was piping in very loudly over the guest of honor’s speech and a subsequent panel. (Pádraig evidently yelled while trying to get this fixed. This would be because one couldn’t hear anything if it was spoken in a voice lower than a shout.)
I have to admit, all I can think of when this particular incident is brought up is
I could go on about this a great deal, but for me the long and the short of it is that while Pádraig has certainly been vocally critical about Octocon in the past (with, I’m afraid, good reason), this decision on their part strikes me as a terrible, terrible mistake, in PR terms if nothing else. The wiser course of action would have been to put on a truly magnificent con that would have left Pádraig and others cheering the convention’s turn-around–and I absolutely believe that if they managed to do that, they would indeed be cheered, even by, perhaps especially by, their most vocal critics. Instead, as someone at Cheryl’s blog said, they have now ensured that hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who had never previously heard of Octocon are now aware of it in a, “Wow, they screwed up,” way.
And they have George R.R. Martin/
Needless to say, we are facing the upcoming weekend with a curious sort of anticipation.
eta: Juliet has added some clarifying commentary about her own recollection of the 2007 mess. (Which, as she says, “shows how honest recollection of events by two pals can vary at even this comparatively short distance.”)
Actually, I think I got as far as failing utterly to convince anyone in the video room that the problem was the sound feed coming through the entire PA system, rather than just me complaining about sound filtering through the connecting partition wall – despite my best efforts. IIRC correctly, Padraig’s intervention followed that.
As to my dealings with a certain committee member, I am sorry that’s been mentioned. Yes, I did upset said committee member – by taking said individual to one side, entirely privately behind a closed door, and calmly yet firmly setting out the many organisational failings of that entire weekend, of which the PA snafu was by no means the worst. I have not gone public with any of that, and shall not do so now.
If any of the current committee wish to contact me privately to discuss that in a civilised fashion, I will be happy to respond.
At the time, I did this not in any sense to vent spleen but because I felt if that was the state of play in 2007, and if they were planning on having a worthy event for GRRM as GoH in 2010, the learning curve was going to be damn near vertical and they needed all the advice – unwelcome or otherwise – that they could get.
Since then my position has been until I get reports of two successive, successful Octocons from trusted pals, I won’t be spending the time and not-inconsiderable money to travel from the UK to the con.
That was and remains something I very much regret, given I have many friends among Irish fandom and had some splendid trips to previous Octocons.
I actually read Pad’s site, because it intrigued me. Nothing like a train wreck you know…
And the part that got me was the letter they sent basically said “this is not up for discussion, don’t even bother, we won’t respond in any way” and then on her blog, this Cheryl person is posting, poorly I might add, that “he hasn’t bothered to contact us to discuss this!”
Maybe I am misunderstanding what “don’t bother to contact us” means but… didn’t the letter basically say not to contact them?
W. T. F. mate?
So.. are you still going?
opps my bad, name mix up, not Cheryl! My apologies to you Cheryl for the name confusion.