FedConUSA in Dallas this past Weekend

[Geekyfanboy]

Talk about a fiasco...I just feel bad for the fans out of town who came to this event.

Chaos At FedCon? Sure Sounds Like It

By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Jun-14-2008

FedConUSA started in Dallas this weekend, but it's probably safe to say it could be the last.

Cancellations, budget problems, minimal attendance at opening ceremonies, and a very public denunciation from one of its scheduled (and later canceled) headliners have put FedConUSA in such a tailspin, the German company that owns the rights to the FedCon name has already washed their hands of it.

Fans who bought tickets in advance this past week for the convention were told that headliners would include Aaron Douglas and James Callis, the SyFy Genre Award-nominated actors who play Chief Tyrol and Gaius Baltar respectively on the SciFi Channel hit show "Battlestar Galactica." However, neither actor showed up, and Douglas himself visited the FedConUSA boards to make sure fans knew it was not his fault at all.

"We are both still very hopeful that we are able to make it, but at this point, with less than 24 hours before my flight, I still do not have a flight or many of my contractual obligations met by the promoters," Douglas wrote on the boards Thursday. "My name is still on the Web page as confirmed, but I am not confirmed. I have agreed to come, as I want to, but no one is returning my calls or e-mails to my agent."


Convention organizer Tim Brazeal, who three years ago collected money from "Star Trek: Enterprise" fans through his TrekUnited campaign that claimed to be purchasing a fifth season of the UPN show, said the decision to ax Douglas and Callis from the schedule came down to one thing: money. And that was something, apparently, FedConUSA organizers were lacking just hours before the start of the event. Despite Douglas' request that he fly on the more economical Alaska Airlines, Brazeal insisted that guests take American Airlines or United Airlines, which had a difference of $6,000 he said. Douglas, however, said he was able to find a ticket on Alaska Airlines for just $1,600.

Douglas and Callis weren't the only guests taken off the guest list in the final days leading up to the convention. Jaimie Alexander, who plays Jessi XX on ABC Family's "Kyle XY," told fans on her MySpace page that she had been scheduled as a guest at FedConUSA, but as of Wednesday, her name had been removed from the guest list. She apologized to fans who had purchased tickets to see her at the convention, and said she didn't know she had been canceled until she saw that her name was removed.

Brazeal, however, said Alexander was an unknown and shouldn't have been booked in the first place.

"I did not book her," Brazeal said on the message boards. "Someone else on my staff that is no longer with us did. He said that she was well known and insisted on her being a headliner. Nothing against her personally, but she cost a lot, and to be honest, was not selling any tickets, photo ops, etc. Once I seen [sic] what she was being paid, it just did not make sense financially to keep her."

Other guests who were invited and then were canceled later on included James Cawley from the fan series "Star Trek: New Voyages," both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Adam Baldwin from "Firefly" and Dirk Benedict from the original "Battlestar Galactica."


Just 200 people showed up for the opening ceremonies Friday night that also marked the absence of both Anthony Montgomery from "Star Trek: Enterprise" and Richard Hatch, according to a poster named "Jodi." John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox in "Enterprise," said Montgomery was bumped at the last minute after not receiving a plane ticket and being told by convention organizers that they didn't have the money to bring him in. Organizers, however, were officially stating that Montgomery had "missed his flight."

Organizers also apparently told convention-goers that Hatch was having "flight problems" as to why he missed a scheduled 6 p.m. appearance.

"The opening ceremony sucked about as bad as it could," Jodi said. "No entertainment value and no organization until Billingsley got up on stage and took over kicking [the emcee] off stage and going with his own idea of what should happen making it fun."

Brazeal, who also was a no-show to his own convention because of what he described as health issues, said the hotel hosting the convention unexpectedly asked the convention for $20,000 up front instead of at the close of convention. That sudden cost, he said, tightened the purse strings of the convention even more.

Both Montgomery and Hatch were still listed as guests for FedConUSA on the convention's Web site as of early Saturday morning. At the same time, the American business manager of FedCon Gmbh, Marc B. Lee, posted on the FedConUSA message boards to make sure guests and attendees were aware that the German company had stepped away from the convention soon after it was announced.

"FedConUSA was an experiment that was early abandoned by its corporate offices in Germany for various reasons," Lee said of his company. "Tim Brazeal and his group were given permission for a one-time usage of its name for this event only. We had no reason to deny his request for we found Tim to be an honored friend of ours."

Lee said the German company wasn't distancing itself from the Texas convention, but wanted to make it clear that European conventions with the FedCon banner do not act the same way Brazeal's team has, and asked guests not to allow what's happening to them in the United States affect future appearances with FedCon in Germany.


Some fans planning to attend the convention are unhappy, and are even encouraging others to call state authorities in Texas to investigate the convention. Douglas himself said he would be consulting his attorney over the weekend to see how fans expecting to see him and Callis could get a full refund for their ticket.

"My wife said some of you are thinking about contacting the attorney general or whatever," Brazeal said. "If that is what you want to do, please feel free. We have done nothing wrong, illegal or immoral. What turned out from me trying to make sure you guys had a great guest lineup and a great show has turned to bite me in the butt."

Brazeal said he would be unavailable to talk to the media until Saturday. A late-night e-mail to "security director" Thomas Moore has yet to be returned. Moore also co-owns Galactica.com with Brazeal.

[Geekyfanboy]

Organizers Cancel FedConUSA After It Already Starts

By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Jun-14-2008

FedConUSA just opened 24 hours ago, but it's already over ... leaving those who traveled to Dallas and paid for tickets for an event they thought would give them a chance to hob-nob with science-fiction actors, writers and producers wondering what they are going to do now.

Tim Brazeal, the organizer of FedConUSA, announced Saturday morning that he had canceled the convention, despite the fact that it had already started the day before, plagued with missing guests, last-minute plane tickets (if they came at all), and attendees trying to justify the money they spent to get there.

"I have asked my son to shut the show down," Brazeal said in a post on the FedConUSA message boards. "It seems that nothing is going the way it should. I really don't think that it would ... have been done any better if I were there. I always said that good, bad or ugly, whatever happened here is totally my fault. I had really hoped it would be the other way around."


Brazeal said he sent his son to the convention in his place after he was admitted into the hospital over the weekend, but problems with the convention started to crop up long before that complete with sudden cancellation of guests -- many times to their own surprise -- and a very public rebuke from "Battlestar Galactica" actor Aaron Douglas who said he was sitting at the airport waiting for his plane ticket from the convention, a plane ticket that never arrived.

"I am not sure what happened exactly," Brazeal said. "I spent thousands on radio, print advertisements, etc., so it was not from a lack of trying. I don't see a reason in making everyone continue to suffer through this, so I told them to shut it down now."

Brazeal said refunds would be offered to everyone, beginning today for anyone who purchased tickets at the door. However, he said it could take time for other refunds to take place.

"There is still some money in the account and I do have money coming back in from other sources," Brazeal said. "But I see no reason to keep it going. It may take some time, but if everyone works with me, I will get everyone's cash back to them."

Brazeal and partner Thomas Moore, both of whom were instrumental in the controversial TrekUnited campaign that raised questions there about money being raised and lack of disclosure to campaign participants, announced FedConUSA last August after striking up an agreement with FedCon Gmbh, which has run successful conventions in Europe for the last 16 years. A post from one of the company's American contacts, Marc B. Lee, over the weekend, however, revealed that the German company had backed out of the partnership, but allowed Brazeal to use the FedCon name one time only. Lee said he made the status of the partnership public after guests of the convention -- many of whom also attend the Europe conventions -- were contacting him with complaints about how they were treated.

SyFy Portal questioned the viability of a Dallas convention using the TrekUnited founders as a partner in a column back in August. In that column, the site felt the convention was destined to failure, especially with the inclusion of such a controversial organizer who had a minimal fan following.

But the convention continued on anyway with a promise that guests would not be announced until contracts were signed. However, that didn't stop a continuing revolving door of guests that at one time included the likes of Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Adam Baldwin, Dirk Benedict, Richard Hatch, and both Douglas and James Callis.

Some attendees on the message board called for everyone to make reports to state law enforcement officials asking them to investigate, something Brazeal on Friday welcomed.


"My wife said some of you are thinking about contacting the attorney general or whatever," Brazeal said. "If that is what you want to do, please feel free. We have done nothing wrong, illegal or immoral. What turned out from me trying to make sure you guys had a great guest lineup and a great show has turned to bite me in the butt."

This cancellation does not affect another Texas convention with a similar name, FenCon, which is still on for October. FenCon is not related to FedCon in any way.

[Geekyfanboy]

FedCon Organizer: Problems With Brazeal Started Early

By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Jun-15-2008

FedConUSA, the disaster of a convention that tried to take the floor in Dallas over the weekend, is under a lot of fire from attendees, especially from those who thought the Tim Brazeal convention had the seal of approval from FedCon Gmbh, the popular European convention that had announced a partnership with Brazeal last August.

FedConUSA was cancelled Saturday morning while it was already in progress.

However, FedCon's American contact, Marc B. Lee, informed attendees after the problems erupted on the convention site's message board that the German group hadn't been involved in the convention in the last six months, and failed to tell anyone.

Dirk Bartholomäe, the head of FedCon Gmbh, said Brazeal ended up not being the person he thought he was.


"When I first met him two years ago, I thought, 'Wow, this guy is cool, he is running TrekUnited, he knows so many actors personally (which I also do, but I don't make a big fuzz out of it),' so when we first talked about FedConUSA, we thought that would be a wonderful idea," Bartholomäe said in a post. "Our convention experience, our main staff combined with his knowledge of Trek fandom in the U.S., his contacts and his big mailing lists. So we did this contract and put everything in writing."

Among the things Bartholomäe said Brazeal was bringing to the table included a mailing list of 800,000 people from TrekUnited, free flights for all the actors and main staff from Germany because of Brazeal's job with American Airlines, his many contacts with fan clubs and actors, and the fact that Brazeal claimed he could get any "Star Trek: Enterprise" actor "for free" because "they owe him one" for supposedly saving "Enterprise" for a fourth season.

Of course, Brazeal hadn't saved "Enterprise" for a fourth season. UPN has made it very clear that the show was saved because four seasons was easier to sell for syndication and continue to make money on the project than three, despite the fact they could've scored points with fans by claiming they helped save it.

Apparently, however, Brazeal has a habit of leaving people stranded in the airport, and it didn't start with Dirk Benedict, Aaron Douglas or James Callis. It started all the way back in the beginning when Brazeal promised to fly Bartholomäe from Frankfurt first class ... a trip that would cost as much as $12,000.

"I don't need to fly first class -- I never did actually, but I thought, OK, if he can book me into first, why not?" Bartholomäe said. "And this was when all the trouble started. I went to Frankfurt [at] 6 a.m. and there was no Dirk Bartholomae on the American Airlines lists. So I called Tim in Dallas in the middle of the night asking him what BS this is. He then booked me on an afternoon flight economy."

When Bartholomäe arrived, he said Brazeal was very apologetic, and promised he would fly first class home and that it was already set up. Apparently, it wasn't.

"Guess what? My name was not on the list, there was not even a space booked for me in the cargo bay," Bartholomae said. "So I had no other option then to buy myself a ticket," a ticket which cost him $4,200.

"I was angry as many of you would be, too," Bartholomae said. "I thought, 'Oh my God, if he is unable to book a simple airline ticket, how will he organize the whole show?"

But the German group stayed involved for months, leading up to January when Bartholomae sent Brazeal a threatening e-mail that if he didn't get so much work done, FedCon would pull out. Brazeal "begged" to keep the FedCon name for just the one convention since the contract and Web site already had the name, and Bartholomae agreed.


"I never in my life [met] an individual like Tim," Bartholomae said. "First he seems like to be a great buddy, but after a while, you discover a person who is constantly lying, apologizing and making things up. He was never straightforward, almost everything he said was a lie. I never in my life met someone who actually believes all this BS he says."

And why didn't Bartholomae share this with people who were buying into the FedCon name and trusting the convention would take place as planned because of the name?

"If I would have told the fans earlier, I would for sure got some legal problems," Bartholomae said.

Brazeal has been contacted just before the story was posted for comment, and the story will be updated if and when he does respond.

Douglas, who plays Chief Galen Tyrol in the SyFy Genre Awards-nominated role, has not publicly spoke about FedConUSA since Friday when he washed his hands of the convention. However, Jaimie Alexander of "Kyle XY," who Brazeal said was demanding too much money to attend, had some of her own words to say following the convention's cancellation.

"I am so frustrated with the representatives of FedCon," Alexander said in a MySpace posting. "Honestly, I have never been so annoyed in my life. I want you all to know that I wanted to be there, I wanted to meet all of you. For that organization to announce to everyone that I cost too much is such shit. I would have done it for free."


Alexander also reminded fans that FedCon never called her agent to cancel her appearance. She didn't find out until her name was removed from the guest list.

"This whole situation has been handled in a very unprofessional [manner] by the heads of FedCon," Alexander said. "This organization (as far as I am concerned) is nothing more than a sorry attempt to scam people [for] money. There were going to charge for autographs when naturally, I would have given them for free.

"I just want you all to know that I will never let this happen again, and I am embarrassed that I even signed on to such a joke of a convention."

[Geekyfanboy]

James Callis: FedCon Germany Has Done This, Too

By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Jun-15-2008

He might be busy filming his final scenes as Dr. Gaius Baltar for "Battlestar Galactica," but last week, James Callis was busy trying to figure out whether or not he was flying to Dallas over the weekend for FedConUSA.

But he knew it was clear he wasn't going when organizers told him that he could come as long as he paid his own way upfront, and was reimbursed later.

"These people are just brazen," Callis said in a note to the unofficial James Callis Web site. "After this kind of fiasco, I for one am going to be a lot more careful what I am going to commit to. All conventions on the material side are about making money. But on the other side there's something great about all these collections of people/fans and attendees -- a common bond through spirit of ideas and fantasy."

But FedConUSA organizer Tim Brazeal -- who later canceled the convention midway through -- wasn't the first person from FedCon to stand Callis up, it seems.

"Last year I was set to attend FedCon in Germany [and] at the last minute, the canceled me," Callis said. "But I was told I had canceled. I figured the organizers are getting so much for their convention, so at the last minute, why pay for someone else on the list who'll only cost them more money when [they have] got enough 'actor quotient' to keep the people who have bought tickets already happy. Needless to say, it's the fans that get the raw deal."

Brazeal, who also came under fire three years ago in his campaign to raise tens of thousands of dollars from "Star Trek: Enterprise" fans who believed they were funding a fifth season of the UPN series, posted a note on the main page of the FedConUSA site Sunday assigning blame for the failure of the convention.

"There are a dozen reasons that [led] to the downfall of FedConUSA, and truth be told, none of them are pretty," Brazeal wrote. "We could have been more organized. We could have communicated better with the public and staff and actors. We could have done more advertising. The economy was already headed to the pits a year ago when we started this thing. In the end, it all came down to money."

Brazeal has yet to answer specific questions about FedConUSA posed to him by SyFy Portal. Instead, he has asked the site to negotiate for his answers in an attempt to create better press for himself. SyFy Portal has denied that request, once again asking him to answer the original questions placed in front of him.

In the meantime, Dirk Bartholomae, who owns the German group that runs FedCon Gmbh, says he didn't feel it was his place to tell those interested in going to FedConUSA that his group was no longer involved in the convention, according to posts he made on the FedConUSA message boards.

His American representative and regular master of ceremonies Marc B. Lee, however, has been in damage control. He made a series of posts at the German Web site Caprica-City.de saying that he could never imagine Bartholomae cancelling a guest like Callis in such a way, and said after he got "to the bottom of it," would ask Callis to print a retraction. At the same time, he asked German convention-goers to visit a LiveJournal site of "Battlestar Galactica" star Aaron Douglas -- who first brought some of the issues with FedCon to light last weekend -- and anywher else "you see people doubting us."


Lee said he "won over" Douglas, and expects to have a "phone conversation soon, but I need to make sure he's convinced that we [FC Germany] are the 'good guys.'"

Lee did admit that "it was stupid" to let Brazeal use FedCon's name, "but it's too late to dwell on that now. Right now I am doing damage control."

Callis did share one tidbit of information that should be interesting. He and co-star Jamie Bamber are directing Webisodes for "Battlestar Galactica."

UPDATE: Dirk Bartholomae, who runs FedCon Germany, posted an e-mail he says is from a representative of Callis last year who said his shooting schedule would interfere with his appearance at FedCon and that he had to cancel.

[Geekyfanboy]

SciFiUnited Leaders Part Ways With Brazeal

By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Jun-16-2008

The partnership with Tim Brazeal during the fallout of the TrekUnited scandal has apparently come to an end.

Chris McKeown, considered one of Brazeal's and TrekUnited's larger supporters, announced Monday that he has dissolved the merger between his former sites SciFiUpdates and SciFiSite along with TrekUnited -- a merger that created SciFiUnited -- and is disassociating himself with Brazeal following the collapse over the weekend of FedConUSA.

"There has been no unity there," McKeown said in a post on SciFiUnited announcing the split. "There has been great unity with Thomas Moore and the sites he runs. We, the active admin staff here at SciFiUnited, have decided to pull all our content, images, etc., from SciFiUnited due to recent activities by Tim Brazeal and certain members from TrekUnited."

McKeown has moved the assets of the site back to SciFiUpdates.com. Although Brazeal is still listed as a co-owner of the site in its new home, it's likely that staff pages will be updated in the near future as the transition completes.


Brazeal has come under fire this past weekend when FedConUSA in Dallas was canceled less than 24 hours after its start, leaving a few hundred paying attendees in the lurch, and not bringing anywhere near the number of acting and writing talent he had advertised on the Web site and other places. Brazeal himself didn't even attend the convention citing health problems, and many actors -- including Aaron Douglas, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict -- said they were stranded at airports, or were packed and ready to go before finding out they were not getting a plane ticket to fly out.

John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox in "Star Trek: Enterprise," reportedly entertained crowds as best he could, and when convention organizers announced its cancellation, it was Billingsley who was said to stop the convention from being cleared until questions about refunds were answered.

Brazeal said in a letter on the FedConUSA Web site that he would work to refund all ticket sales, and would go into personal debt to make sure it happens. Brazeal also was forced to refund tens of thousands of dollars in donation money in 2005 to fans who thought they were funding a fifth season of "Star Trek: Enterprise" after Brazeal failed to disclose that he had been contacted by Paramount Television more than a month previously informing him they would never accept money from fans, and implored him to stop accepting donations.

Dirk Bartholomae, who owns FedCon Gmbh in Germany, said his group pulled out of the partnership with Brazeal in January, but agreed to allow Brazeal to use the name for one convention only. Bartholomae said he had no obligation to disclose his company's withdrawal to fans or vendors, a statement that some fans and vendors posting on the official FedConUSA message boards have disagreed with.

"We are for the fans, actors and anyone who like sci-fi, fantasy, horror and supernatural, and will not be a part of or associate with something or someone that takes advantage of them," McKeown said.

[moyer777]

what a mess. :(

[Rico]

Yeah - I talked about this a bit on the podcast yesterday.  Poor Tim Brazeal.  He seems like a decent guy that just got in over his head.  He was one of the guys organizing the save Enterprise campaign a few years ago.

[moyer777]

we may never know all the details to this.  Tim may have been a bad guy in all of it, and then again he may not.  Sometimes we don't get the whole picture.  It's probably horribly intricate.

[Ktrek]

Since I live just North of Dallas I had been thinking of attending this con until I saw how outragous the fees were to get in. I'm sure glad I didn't spend all that money now.

Kevin

[Rico]

Since I live just North of Dallas I had been thinking of attending this con until I saw how outragous the fees were to get in. I'm sure glad I didn't spend all that money now.

Kevin

They are refunding the ticket prices to all those that attended.

[jedijeff]

That is one big mess. I feel bad for the people who travelled to this, as usually the actual cost of the tickets to the event are a drop in the bucket to all the costs for travelling. Sounds like this guy gets some big visions, but does not have the means to pull it off. Hopefully it works out for everyone, but from all the stories, I doubt it.

[Geekyfanboy]

Since I live just North of Dallas I had been thinking of attending this con until I saw how outragous the fees were to get in. I'm sure glad I didn't spend all that money now.

Kevin

They are refunding the ticket prices to all those that attended.

I agree with Jeff... the cost of the event tickets are nothing compared to the cost of plan flight and hotel... they should reimbursed folks for that as well.

[Rico]

I was just responding to Kevin's comment about the high con ticket prices and that they are planning on refunding those.  I would say it's very unlikely anyone will ever get any travel expenses reimbursed.  Sometimes you take your chances and it just doesn't work out.  Although in the history of Trek conventions this type of thing happening in the middle of the con is highly unusual.  I've seen cons canceled prior to the event, but can't recall one being canceled midstream.

[Geekyfanboy]

Oh I know they won't pay for airfare and hotel.. I just feel bad for those folks.

[Bryancd]

I was just responding to Kevin's comment about the high con ticket prices and that they are planning on refunding those.  I would say it's very unlikely anyone will ever get any travel expenses reimbursed.  Sometimes you take your chances and it just doesn't work out.  Although in the history of Trek conventions this type of thing happening in the middle of the con is highly unusual.  I've seen cons canceled prior to the event, but can't recall one being canceled midstream.

Well, I suppose you "take your chances" but you also proceed under the assumption that the people running the venet will deliver the product. It doesn't matter if this Tim is a "nice guy" all that matters is he failed to deliver a product, people spent time and money to get there and have EVERY right to be angry. I was surprised to hear you say on the podcast that people should "calm down." I wouldn't and I think they are more than justified. Why be an apologist for the guy who was responsible?