*excited noises* Our crowdfunder is up and running! If you’re so excited you just want to go there right now and pledge straight away, here’s the link: http://igg.me/at/Oneforall/x/11739785
If you want a little more info first, stick around so I can go over a few things. First of all, I know there’s been a little confusion over the when and where of this event, so to reiterate: the event is planned for 4-6th March 2016 in Bristol UK.
As we’ve said before, we need your help to get this up and running. The crowdfunder has different levels of funding. The lowest is £5, so even if you can’t afford to attend the event but still want to contribute, there is a way for you to do that. If you do have every intention of attending the event, please look at the crowdfunder as a way to pre-book your tickets. It not only gives us the funds we need to get things sorted, it also gives us an idea of how many attendees we can expect. Below is a list of the tickets as they will be priced when our website is up and running. If you would prefer to wait and book your tickets later then you are totally welcome to do that.
N.B. We may be asking for volunteers to help us crew the event at a later date. Please be aware that volunteers still need tickets to get into the event.
Tickets
BASIC – £50
This ticket will get you access to the stage talks and parties, but comes with no added extras. This ticket is ideal for children (Under 5s come free) if they are coming with you, or if you want to volunteer and/or are not worried about autographs.
STANDARD – £90
This ticket gives you everything the Basic does, plus autographs from all the guests. This can be either on personal items such as DVDs or on photographs available at the event.
GOLD – £150
This ticket gives you everything in the Standard package, plus access to one Coffee Lounge (a small group chat with a guest) and a group photo-op.
PLATINUM – £250
This ticket comes with everything in the Gold package, plus access to a Meet & Greet with the guests, priority seating in the hall and queue jumping for autographs and photo-ops.
Volunteers will also be given queue jumping,and there will be a commemorative group photo at the end of the event.
Autographs, photo-ops, coffee lounges and Meet & Greet tickets will also be available to purchase separately,but they may be limited.
I hope this has explained everything. If not either leave a comment or tweet us and we will try to help in any way we can.
becomingdoublerainbow 
I have had a number of Musketeer fans ask me about the convention you are planning in Bristol next year as there have been many concerns about it come up. I only became aware of it this morning so have had some catching up to do of things that have been posted about it over the past few days. Thank you for contacting me on Twitter and suggesting that I leave a message here with the questions that have come up in the fandom, it is greatly appreciated.
Having had a look at the donations page, there is a lot of concern over the non-refundable aspect of the money raising side of the Crowdfunding. Can you explain why money will not be refunded if the event doesn’t go ahead, and what happens to it? Fans would also like to know what kind of investment the company itself is putting into the convention on top of the donations?
Your post here on the blog from 9th July (a mere 5 weeks ago) states that you have been changing your minds regularly on what your ideas are. This is a little worrying when you are asking our fandom to now pass over £10,000+ in funding when we do not know your company or its current reputation. What kind of guarantees can you give us of your commitment to this event taking place as advertised? I think that many fans minds would be eased if you could detail your past involvement and experiences with similar events of this scale.
In the same post from 9th July you say that you have been sending out emails because “It’s never a good idea to make pledges you may not be able to follow through with.” Does this mean that you have received replies from those emails and are able to confirm that the pledges on the fundraising page, and the packages that are sold with the tickets, are actual likely to happen? If so, which cast/crew members are you expecting to attend the event?
I know that many fans would love for this event to happen, but we all know that it is a hard thing to put a convention on in the first place. Going by your blog, this does seem to be your first one – well your second going by your post from 3rd May, where “the whole thing was quietly forgotten” after setting up the fundraising. It just feels as though this is a big ask from us – £10,000 – for something that at present looks like your company may struggle to pull off.
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Hi, thanks for your message. I will try to go over things as clearly as I can for you. First things first – we are not as yet a ‘company’. We are Musketeers fans who want to run an event for the fans and know we cannot achieve that alone. As for our personal investment, our savings and personal credit are part of the funding for this event. As you can imagine if we tried to fund the entire thing ourselves and then had it go wrong we could potentially bankrupt ourselves and ruin our credit ratings. We would ideally like to have set this up as a business but with the current financial market as it is banks do not just give money away. As a long term goal we would like to be able to take evidence of our success in this venture to a bank and then be able to set it up as a business. As we have said, all profits from this event should it happen will being going to charity, as we don’t feel right about taking any profit from other people’s money.
The ‘no refund’ on the crowdfunder is not a personal choice. Indiegogo does not refund money on any of their successful campaigns, regardless of who is running them. For our part, if the event were to go ahead as nothing more than a big party for Musketeers fans in a hotel over a weekend, we would look into refunding money we did not use to those who pledged large amounts. My suggestion would be if you are unsure about it, to pledge only a small amount and if enough people believe in it we will at least have a chance to make it happen. As we have yet to receive a donation we do have the ability to change the funding to an ‘all or nothing’ scheme. This would mean that if we do not hit our target all the money is automatically refunded. It also means that if we miss our target at all, no matter how small the margin, the whole thing will stop dead. This is what happened last time to the ‘quietly forgotten’ event.
In terms of the ‘changing our minds’ aspect, we simply meant things we have thought of doing at the event itself. E.G. Karaoke, etc. We would not want to announce we were going to do something, only to have to redact it and disappoint people.
We have sent emails out to a variety of different potential guests, and as much as we would love to have everyone answer us within a few days, publicists and agents are busy people. As yet the only definite we have is that Maimie McCoy is unavailable for the dates we have proposed. Keep in mind it is still early days, and just as with any other event things can change quickly and often.
With regards to our previous experience, each of us has volunteered at previous conventions, and I myself have hosted small events for charity before: Can’t Stop the Serenity being one of them. In that instance I did pay for everything out of my own money, which is how I learned that this is not a good idea. The organisational side of things is the easy part. Getting guests is, as you can imagine, more difficult and is also the part that most attendees care most about.
Crowdfunders are designed entirely for people who believe in something to provide the makers the means to make it a reality. It is understandable to be worried that things may not work out; indeed there is a chance it may all go wrong. Sadly we, just like any other fledgling company, have no control over outside factors. If you have doubts, you are under no obligation to pledge any money to this event. Just like any other crowdfunded project, it will only succeed if enough people believe it is a good ideas do are willing to put money to it.
If there is anything else you are concerned about, please do let us know.
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Cheers for the reply rootmesh.
I wasn’t aware that you were Musketeer fans yourselves, I don’t think that part hasn’t been made clear in the promotion of the event. It certainly not something that the other fans that I’ve spoken to have mentioned either, sorry. I think the proposed date of the event possibly threw a lot of people off as it would most likely clash with S3 airing, therefore we assumed that you just weren’t aware that fans would most likely be missing an episode if they attended!
I understand what you are saying about the Indiegogo site, but there are other sites out there which would be more practical perhaps? There are also other ways of raising capital for ventures which don’t require loans from banks in order to start up a business. I do understand how tough it can be setting up a company from scratch, especially in today’s climate, but I feel that it’s best to start small and work up in manageable steps rather than risk it all on a large venture at the start – whether it’s your own money, or ours, that is used if it does goes all wrong at the end of the day. And if it succeeds, then a bank is more likely to invest in you if that is the way you do wish to go.
Getting guests can be the hardest part, which is why many fans are wanting to know what the score is there. The packages you are offering with the tickets and pledges sound lovely, but not very realistic in some cases – lunch or coffee with guest, especially any of the main cast, sounds dubious to say the least, and has many wondering what the ‘con’ or catch is. I realise that this is probably not the intention you have here, but when fans read something that seems too good to be true, they will question it I am afraid.
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I completely understand the concerns, and apologise that we weren’t more clear in our love for the show (appearing professional and fangirling do not always mesh) – we have chosen March because the series films between April and November, and we thought a December/January event would be too close to Christmas.
From our research we have not been able to find any other crowdfunding site that allows refunds outside of the ‘all or nothing’ module, mainly because the websites take a cut and if they allowed refunds after the fact they would have to give back their percentage. By all means if anyone has more experience with either crowdfunders or any other method of raising money for these things we are more than happy to hear from them – we don’t for a moment think we have it all figured out yet. We are just going with what we have.
As we did state on the crowdfunder itself, things such as meals with guests is entirely at the discretion of the guests. Some are happy to mingle and others less so. As for the coffee lounges, the name can be misleading. These are smaller gatherings within the convention where fans get a chance to ask questions to guests; they are moderated like any other Q&A panel, and are employed by most UK conventions currently.
I know considering the size of the amount it may be hard to believe, but this event is in fact a small one in relation to how these conventions usually go. If we were planning an event for a large American show, £10,000 would not even cover one guest’s attendance. The fact that The Musketeers is a UK show with mostly UK based cast and crew makes it more manageable. To give an example, the hotel itself costs more than £3,000 to rent for the weekend, and that is the cheapest we were able to find – one hotel we inquired about wanted £3000 per day to rent out the required rooms. This is before we have even factored in the cost of lighting, sound systems, etc. While those of us who are planning this event are working for free and paying our own personal costs, hotels etc are not willing to lose money on our behalf as you can imagine.
We have set the crowdfunder at two months to give us the time to receive replies from potential guests, obtain final quotes from all who require payment etc, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone who may be wary leaving it right until the last moments to pledge. We will post updates as and when we get them, and in the mean time if anyone has concerns or questions we will answer them as best we can.
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I think one of the best ways to get some capital behind you (other than the obvious work as many shifts as you can and save, save, save!) is to start off with smaller local events. Hire a pub corner or hall, invite a couple of singer/songwriters, DJ’s and/or comedians (or whatever fits the local scene) along and start building up your reputation from there.
If you’re good it won’t be long before you get people asking to take part and travelling from far afield to appear, and the money will soon start rolling in. Then it will be much easier to start planning for larger ventures as you will have hefty deposits, a ton of useful contacts in your addresses book to call on, and investors will be easily attracted to you.
The main issue I think fans have regarding the possible guests goes back to what was in your blog post only 5 weeks ago – “It’s never a good idea to make pledges you may not be able to follow through with.” Yet here we are, in that exact situation. Therefore it gives the impression that there could well be a certain amount of back-peddling in the future too.
I’m afraid that I won’t be pledging any money, there just seem far too many risks involved as it stands. I wish you luck 🙂
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