eponymous_coward

I'm modestly interested in attending but this is the kind of trainwreck that screams "stay away"- speakers saying they're not attending an event they are being advertised for, various miles and points folks going "gosh, this is too bad", it's the same weekend...

Seriously, I can't believe an event organizer wouldn't at least have a canned response to the situation, this is public relations kindergarten.

josephstern

Plus a Tahoe one the same weekend.

Gonna be fun to watch from the sidelines.

Glad I’m not at all interested in attending any of these three.

DELee

If one's intent is to "control the narrative", then perhaps. If, in this case, there's a difference of where to go next, then that's what we have and will be interesting going forward.

David

TWA884

Gary Leff of View From the Wing, who is listed as a speaker at the ZorkFest 2023 that same weekend, just published the following article:

FlyerJT

Totally understand your confusion. Let me explain from my perspective as someone who helped save Chicago Seminars 2022 and has already put hundreds of hours into helping plan Chicago Seminars 2023 (at Holiday Inn Elk Grove Village).

Stefan dropped the ball on organizing the 2022 Chicago Seminars, disappearing for months and failing to do any planning. Late last summer, Marty reached out to me to ask for my assistance in helping save the event, and I was happy to do so. It was a ton of work, but I'm thrilled with how 2022 turned out. Stefan re-engaged at the last minute, and we let him save face by leading the seminars. All was good.

I share that as a preface for what comes next: Stefan disappeared again. The last contact that I had from Stefan was in December 2022. For more than three months, he failed to respond to our WhatsApp messages, emails, texts, and calls. Assuming the same situation was playing out as in 2022, Chris, Marty, and I moved forward with planning the event. In March 2023, after having not heard from Stefan since November 2022, the hotel set an ultimatum for signing the contract or releasing it to another conference. Still no response from Stefan. So, Chris signed the venue contract to save the event. All along, we updated Stefan and invited him to re-engage when he was ready.

Unfortunately, instead of re-engaging and helping us plan Chicago Seminars, Stefan decided to announce a competing conference. He began selling tickets even though he didn't have confirmed speakers or a venue. In fact, he locked us out of the shared planning account that had all of the speakers and sponsors that Chris, Marty, and I had confirmed and were working with. Even though he had no contact with any of those speakers, he announced them as his own.

Stefan continues to act in bad faith, continuing to advertise speakers who have expressly told him that they wouldn't be speaking at his event. Then, he's been publicly lying about getting this notice.

It's a really unfortunate -- and highly avoidable -- situation. Unfortunately, he let his ego get in the way of helping make a single Chicago Seminars event successful. By signing another venue contract -- knowing full well that Chris already had a binding contract -- Stefan locked the community into having two different events in Chicago on the same weekend.

Note: I am not financially tied to either event. After having seen all that's played out so far, I am continuing to help Chris and Marty make the original Chicago Seminars at Holiday Inn Elk Grove Village a success.

baccarat_king

Tahoe was clearly and transparently explained.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35385721-post7.html

I also gave my "opinion" about the two events and negotiations in one of the other threads five minutes ago. I lose track.

MatthewLAX

Seeing that we have only heard publicly from one side, I had a chat with Stefan this morning. Here's another look at what is going on:

https://liveandletsfly.com/the-chica...ars-civil-war/

(disclaimer - link to my blog)

Miika747

So for some of who purchased tickets via Eventbrite back in April when tickets were first made available—which event will our ticket be honored for?

I was under the impression when I purchased my ticket a few months ago that it would be the same event & location (Elks Grove Holiday Inn Express) as previous years. Now it seems like there are separate tickets/events & we cannot get refunds if we still want to go to the Elks Grove event

SkiAdcock

Because it does not violate TOS I'm quoting myself from the other thread....

"Stop it. Both of you. Simply, stop it! Take it to PM.

I'm APPALLED that whatever chism came between the organizers of the various events that it has come to this & we all are being exposed to the he said/he said situation.

It's truly unfortunate that those who would like to attend an event of this type are being asked to choose & also to have the organizers issues (both sides) laid out in public. Shame on all the organizers - and that includes the 3rd party/other event who's also adding to this.

None of us knew of the issues - and none of us needed to. And for gawd's sake, even the bloggers are piling in on both sides & going out to their presumed gazillion followers, thus blowing it up even further. Shame on them too.

I chaired the CSE charify raffle for a decade and had great experiences (and we raised 100K to charities during that timeframe). It literally breaks my heart to see this happening.

I will not be attending either event or helping w/ the raffle for either event this year - but that has nothing to do w/ the events & more to do with my own personal circumstances.

As someone else noted, given the situation it looks like both Chicago events will be smaller this year (and can't be canceled due to contracts), but hopefully both sets of organizers can get their act together for next year & resolve their issues & next year will be a larger, single event. And hopefully both events will be wonderful this year as well.

This was a wonderful volunteer event (which this year still seems to be the case on both sides) contributing to those that attended, both in terms of knowledge & friendships. I would like to see that continue.

So again, I say enough is enough. Both sets of organizers (or all 3 if it comes to that), focus on your own events and put on the best ones that you can for the sake of your attendees.

Because it does not violate FT TOS to quote ones self, I am going to post this post in the other 2 threads as well & asks Oliver's indulgence to let those posts remain."

GUWonder

In the interest of the confused attendees, perhaps the involved parties should agree to enter into a contract to have a ticket exchange mechanism and a settlement agreement to honor each other’s tickets. If they can come to such agreement it would be a sign of good faith and an opportunity for confidence building measures toward not having this thing repeat next year.

MatthewLAX

Stefan told me:

"I am first working with existing ticket holders this week, who have the option to accept the new venue or, should they desire, a full refund. The new venue is near to that of prior years and we'll have all the feel and community from before so hopefully it will be acceptable to all ticket holders."

Sharon, I think it is unfortunate too, but please don't attack the bloggers. We are only covering this because it was made public and because there is great confusion over it. Better than shilling credit cards, right?

Herb687

I dunno. Has this forum ever been this entertaining? Or had this much traffic?

I'm pretty sure I'm getting more entertainment out of the he said/he said public airing of dirty laundry than I would out of either the Real Chicago Seminars or the Original Chicago Seminars.

Is it too late to book another conference room that weekend and start advertising the competing Original Real Chicago Seminars?

Adam1222

It's hilarious watching people post they are APPALLED at this. The entire premise of these events has always been elevating people who sell credit cards into self-professed experts, and/or who engage in borderline shady schemes. That these people would then get into fights and have duelling schemes where no one acts like a grownup is the least surprising thing ever. Remember the tantrums King Randy used to throw when people criticized his business empire? Remember the way organizers of the Chicago Seminars responded to criticism in the past?
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28765522-post12.html

Any event that has these kinds of terms and conditions about attending is basically telling you their worth
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35137191-post9.html

jphripjah

I've never been to one of these but now I want to go for the drama.

sannmann

I think all three events missed the fact that the previous weekend, October 6-9, is a three day weekend for many folks. October 9 is Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day, which is a day off for many of us who maintain full-time employment.