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2018 Update
7 years ago
~~ Registration now open. Check out https://furthersouth.uk/registration ~~
For those that have not been keeping up to date with the news on our Twitter profile as things unfold, a quick summary-
Earlier this month, I received an email from our venue announcing that they would be cancelling our booking and not allowing us to go ahead with any subsequent events there. Very little information was given in the email, so I inquired further, and was invited to a meeting with the hotel manager, which I assumed would be a chance to discuss what we were proposing and to reassure any concerns they had.
Instead, the manager, his mind already made up, used the opportunity to go over in detail his reasons, someone had contacted the venue with a series of false accusations about us, claims that I had previously been involved in 'fake convention' scams to take money off people, and allegations that we were planning an event with adult content in public areas, and that our fursuiters would all behave in ways that would need segregating from other guests.
I have spent the last three weeks searching for an alternative venue, most that are available are either far outside our budget or do not have suitable facilities for an event of this size, others are already booked up, this close to our required dates. After a year of work put into this convention, and mountains of help and support from volunteers across the country, three months from our scheduled running date I am forced to admit that we will not be able to find suitable accommodation in time.
With the only remaining option being to put together a completely different style of non-residential convention, reworking the whole plan within a few weeks and giving our attendees a likely less than satisfactory experience as a result, the reluctant decision has been taken not to run this year. All attendees have been refunded in full, and work has already eagerly begun on finding a more reliable venue for next year.
Earlier this month, I received an email from our venue announcing that they would be cancelling our booking and not allowing us to go ahead with any subsequent events there. Very little information was given in the email, so I inquired further, and was invited to a meeting with the hotel manager, which I assumed would be a chance to discuss what we were proposing and to reassure any concerns they had.
Instead, the manager, his mind already made up, used the opportunity to go over in detail his reasons, someone had contacted the venue with a series of false accusations about us, claims that I had previously been involved in 'fake convention' scams to take money off people, and allegations that we were planning an event with adult content in public areas, and that our fursuiters would all behave in ways that would need segregating from other guests.
I have spent the last three weeks searching for an alternative venue, most that are available are either far outside our budget or do not have suitable facilities for an event of this size, others are already booked up, this close to our required dates. After a year of work put into this convention, and mountains of help and support from volunteers across the country, three months from our scheduled running date I am forced to admit that we will not be able to find suitable accommodation in time.
With the only remaining option being to put together a completely different style of non-residential convention, reworking the whole plan within a few weeks and giving our attendees a likely less than satisfactory experience as a result, the reluctant decision has been taken not to run this year. All attendees have been refunded in full, and work has already eagerly begun on finding a more reliable venue for next year.
