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[Symp]

To those of you who know what Connecticon is, it needs help.



http://www.saveconnecticon.com/

In 2003, ConnectiCon opened its doors for the first time. Run by Matt Daigle and Briana Benn at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, ConnectiCon was a labor of love. Through blood, sweat and tears (and their own finances), they created one of the friendliest, most welcoming conventions in the Northeast. It caters to Anime, Sci-Fi, Gaming and more.

They ended their first year in debt, not entirely unusual for a first time convention. Yet despite their own financial losses, in 2004 they hosted ConnectiCon for a second time. The convention doubled in every aspect: attendance, guest appearances, and in fun. They finally broke even.

Due to a change in management and policy at the University of Hartford, where ConnectiCon was hosted for the first two years, the convention was forced to find a new home in 2005. Faced with a choice of canceling their event or taking a risk on a more expensive venue, Matt and Briana put everything they had on the line to throw the best convention they could. They moved ConnectiCon to the brand new Connecticut Convention Center.

Despite throwing another wonderful convention this year, they did not break even. In fact due to the Convention Center being so new, there were a lot of unforseen expenses tacked on last minute. As a result Matt Daigle is now $34,148.50 in debt. That is too much for one person to shoulder alone, let alone a person who was never interested in making money, and just wanted to throw a fun event for people to enjoy.

At this point it's not only ConnectiCon 2006 that's in danger; it's Matt and Briana's future.

ConnectiCon has earned a reputation amongst the webcomic community as being the largest supporter of our medium. There has never been another convention that treated webcomics with such respect and admiration. There has never been a convention that showcased such a huge number of webcomics in one place.

They have treated webcomics like royalty for the past three years and now, in their hour of need, dozens of webcomic creators and other artists have banded together to organize this fund.

We need to save our friends. We need to save our ConnectiCon.

And we need your help to do it.

I personally havent been to this seeing as I'm only 16, but I would like it to be around when I'm old enough to go.

If this isn't the right place in the forum, please move it mods.

[Mnementh]

Hmm, well I feel that this needs to go in the Comics forum.

My two cents on this.  Anyone with a half a brain saw this coming as far back as CTCon 2004 when it was announced that they were holding it during Comic Con International in San Diego.  Not exactly the wisest decision, most of the talent is going to go where they can see the most fans, sell the most gear, and get the most exposure.  Most of the fans are going to go were they can see more action.

In terms of webcomicing I think that the biggest name at CTCon this year was Tim Buckley, and I doubt he would be there if he wasn't personal friends with Brianna.  I think Aido might have been their too, but Dayfree and Dumbrella went out west, Dumbrella was at CTCon last year.  Last year Sluggy was at CTCon, I've no idea what he is up to these days.

It's their own poor planning.  I've got little sympathy for them running their enterprise into the ground.

[nihilist]

Yep, I'd have to agree.  While it's nice that they do something for the community, it wasn't a bright idea to eat that much cash themselves ("sorry guys, due to the fact that they'd rape us for 50k we have to push this").  And putting it on at the same time that the SD con is on?  Hurr.  That's just asking to be bent over.

[est]

i am partially sympathetic!  (i mean, one of those gals looked awesome in Chun Li's cheong-sam) but the fact is that i am absolutely shithouse when it comes to business and yet i still realised that having CTCon on the same weekend as ComiCon was probably a Bad Idea.

hopefully they will get the funds back somehow and be able to run CTCon 2006.  hopefully they will have learned something from this and will have it on a different weekend than ComiCon, preferably with enough time in-between either before or after so that the artists can rest up before heading to the other one.

i would say, though, that there would be a fine line involved.  i mean, if you wanted internationals to visit while they were over for ComiCon then it couldn't be too far away from it.  perhaps they could put it on the weekend before, as kind of a warm-up for the big one?  i dunno!

[nihilist]

Is that Chyna?  She has a scary vagina.

It's a tough call trying to put on things like that.  Since they're a good hoof apart, the odds are that you'll probably only have about 30% of people that can go to both, if that.  It's a fight for the other 70%, to ensure that they come to your big do.  CTCon isn't as large as the one in SD, so...  What to do?  Either way, that's a big batch of debt.

[est]

if my sources are correct (and they are) she has a clitoris that looks like a baby's penis.  absolutely no steroids in her workout plan.  no sir-ee.

[Mnementh]

(i mean, one of those gals looked awesome in Chun Li's cheong-sam)

That would be Brittney.  I believe she and Tim Buckley are boning.

Why do I know this?

[ebullientsoul]

Hmm, well I feel that this needs to go in the Comics forum.

My two cents on this.  Anyone with a half a brain saw this coming as far back as CTCon 2004 when it was announced that they were holding it during Comic Con International in San Diego.  Not exactly the wisest decision, most of the talent is going to go where they can see the most fans, sell the most gear, and get the most exposure.  Most of the fans are going to go were they can see more action.

In terms of webcomicing I think that the biggest name at CTCon this year was Tim Buckley, and I doubt he would be there if he wasn't personal friends with Brianna.  I think Aido might have been their too, but Dayfree and Dumbrella went out west, Dumbrella was at CTCon last year.  Last year Sluggy was at CTCon, I've no idea what he is up to these days.

It's their own poor planning.  I've got little sympathy for them running their enterprise into the ground.

Funny, when a pair of people near universally beloved by webcomics, puts in hundreds of man (and woman) hours putting something together for webcomics, anime and so on, you all become business majors.

Dude is $35,000 in the hole and all you have to say is 'running their enterprise into the ground'? It never was an enterprise. It is a labor of love that they only broke even on last year.

i'll be brief. The pair of people put on, out of their own pocket, a convention dedicated to webcomics and anime/manga esque things. They treat webcomic artists well, and the thanks they get when they're in the hole is "well, shouldn't have done it during comic con."

Hell, i don't even know these people, but they've got tim, hank, scott and ian all behind them, which is good enough for me.

[Mnementh]

I'm not debating how nice they are.  You need to have some semblence of business sense before you enter into something like this.  Unless of course you don't mind being tens of thousands in the hole.  Unless you've got tons money to burn then you need enough revenue to cover your expenses or the creditors will come knocking.

They should have seen these coming last year when they scheduled it for the same weekend as Comic-Con.  Believe it or not, a con is a product, and in order to make that product successful you need to make it something people are interested in.  They failed at that.

Fuck, I'm nice to the webcomic community.  I buy teeshirts, books, even the occasional bottle of whiskey.  Does this mean they owe me when I spend too much money and need help?  I didn't think so, but hey, I should host a con instead huh?  I guess this concept of fiscal responsiblity is an outdated one and I'm old fashioned.  Entitlement is the new black.

They're nice people, it sucks when bad things happen to nice people, but I have no sympathy for them creating a bad situation that should have been easily avoided.

[nihilist]

ebullientsoul: I've merrily run my own company for three years now, and in that time I've learned how very difficult it is to keep things afloat.  There are tons of things I'd like to do, but since I'm not going to put my personal financial situation in flux, I hold off.  I do what I can, when I can, for websites/... when I think they deserve it, sometimes even when I don't have the money.  But not to the tune of 30+k.  Bad planning or not, that's a HUGE hole to have not seen coming.