BOBW 22: June 18, 19 & 20, Canberra Australia

[pfalcon]

Dates: June 18, 19 & 20 2004 Note the change in dates. This was so we could re-use the Chifley, which was such a great venue for our recent LOTR event.

Venue: The Chifley on Northbourne, 102 Northbourne Ave, Canberra City.

Line up

Don S Davis - General George Hamilton
Carmen Argenziano - General Jacob Carter, Selmak
Alexis Cruz - Skara, Klorel
Frida Bertrani - Lya of the Nox
Alex Zahara - Michael in "1969" and others.
David Winning - Director

Workshop:

Following the success of the WETA Workshops at LOTR we have approached Alexis, Carmen & David to see if they would run an acting / directing workshop, so Friday June 18th we will have a workshop.

Contact Adele for more details on pricing and accommodation or visit our website

Photos of our previous events can be found here

 

[Jack O'Neill]

BOBW 22 is Over

It has been cancelled much to my constant rage, i was looking forward to going to that so bad, why could'nt 200 more of you bums have booked for the convention so that i could have gone.

Multiverse is gone
BOBW has no more stargate events (for the next 2 years at least)

Is the stargate culture in Australia going the way of the dinosaur

 

[ShelbyS]

No, it's just that everyone knows that BOBW are ****.

 

[pfalcon]

Now now Shelby, you are firmly in the minority on this opinion.

The simple fact is that conventions in Oz are getting less and less bookings. Sydney (FSF), Melbourne (Multiverse) and BOBW are all finding that bookings are down for pure sci-fi events.

Whether it is saturation, or just everyone finding the net is satisfying their need for interaction with fellow fans I don't know.

I was at Armageddon in Auckland, NZ recently, and while they get umty dozen thousand through the doors, that fact is that next to no one is there for the (sci-fi) guests, only the gaming stuff. Corin, and all the others were practically sitting on their own for most of the time. The only queue for ANY autograph was for John Rhys Davies, and even that never grew to more than about 20 people the entire time I was there (the Saturday).

Friends of mine who went to Supanova in Sydney indicated that numbers were no where near what was expected there, and the only queue they found was for Richard Taylor (and many people there just wanted to say hi and get a photo since he was not charging).

 

[Aardie]

Originally posted by pfalcon
Now now Shelby, you are firmly in the minority on this opinion.

The simple fact is that conventions in Oz are getting less and less bookings. Sydney (FSF), Melbourne (Multiverse) and BOBW are all finding that bookings are down for pure sci-fi events.

I think I haveta agree with Peter on this one, Shelbs. The Corky Con in Brisbane didn't even get that many people, and it was a lot different to the fun and eccentricity that was Amanda in Sydney a couple of years back.

I think a lot of this has to do with the timing as well, and with the response to science fiction by our darling free-to-air TV stations. They downplay science fiction a lot, and with Stargate on and endless hiatus until Goddess only knows when, the public interest is left to those people who have cable (where they are showing mainly repeats) or to the blessed souls like us who take the time to go on the Net and get the episodes that way.

Science fiction is a dying breed in Australia due to lack of support from our free-to-air programming. We have to admit that, I'm afraid. The stereotype of sci-fi being 100% unadulterated "nerdy" is a big issue. And yeah - Stargate was probably one of the first shows to combat that with the ever-so-much-fun humour and the ability for viewers to just watch if need be. It's Sci Fi Lite - twice the laughs, half the guilt, 100% all-round good taste.

As for BOBW? Sorry to say it, but I have always been told to not bother booking anything there, and yeah - this mainly has to do with things getting cancelled SO EASILY due to lack of ticket sales, or the guests simply not rocking up. Is it their fault? Meh - I dunno. I just know what I have been told.

From
Aardie

 

[Nekhen]

No more Stargate cons for at least the next two years???? I was kind of thinking that since the last two Stargate cons held by BOBW were cancelled it might be some time before they try again.. but two years?? As my friend in Germany said, let's not forget that the show finishes after this season, so there may not be another one.
I must say I was disappointed that BOBW cancelled this con, as I really do hope to meet Alexis Cruz one day and if I had been able to find someone to travel with me, then I would have been there. They cancelled the con when there was still 8 weeks to go, so is it possible that they could have given us some warning eg "Ticket sales for this event have been slower than expected. We need to sell x number of tickets by a particular date , or we will have no option but to cancel. Good tickets are still available, if you are intending to be there, book now!" ... or something like that, instead of just cancelling without notice.

Nekhen x

 

[pfalcon]

The last two cancelled?? Aren't you forgetting BOBW 20 last November (with Michael Shanks)?

I think this is the first Stargate event they have ever cancelled. the last event that was cancelled was back in 2001 - the proposed Babylon 5 event. I've been attending since BOBW 8 or 9 or so.

The reasons for the 8 weeks cutoff is simple. Its around now that everyone starts to book their flights and other travel arrangements (so you get the discounts). If we leave cancellation any later, you end up with a large number of ****ed off people with unrefundable travel bookings - very bad karma!

Notifications went out several times over the weeks leading up to the cancellation. If you did not receive these then you should contact Adele and ensure the correct email address is on her lists.

IAC, since you can lay-by tickets, and tickets are refundable if an event is cancelled, its isn't exactly a risk or a huge cost to book early. Note: they only got about a third of the required bookings, so hoping for a last minute "rush" here would have been foolish.

 

[Nekhen]

Yes, but the LOTR con that was in March was originally supposed to be a SG-1 con, until it was changed - I am more than certain that the plan was for a Sg-1 con in March and another later in the year around September or October.... there was even talk of having a special event at that con to mark a significant birthday for a major cast member.

Nekhen x

 

[pfalcon]

No, the SG convention in June was fluid date-wise while we waited for Teryl Rothery to confirm when she could come (as of last November the dates were still not confirmed). However she kept changing her mind, and then could not come anyhow because of work committments.

By that stage we were looking at a May event and had signed contracts with the other guests. But since almost no tickets had been sold for the SG1 event by March, it was decided to push it back to June to give more time for advertising to kick in.

The March event was always going to be a LOTR event - that was announced at BOBW 19.

There were rough plans for an October event once, but that because we couldn't get Don Davis out at the same time as Teryl. When Teryl was out of the picture, and we moved to June Don was able to accommodate us.

There were a couple of birthdays in May I think, which would have been serendipitous, but that never went beyond wishful thinking. I had the same feeling about the October event

As I said before, if you want to get accurate information, please ensure you are on our mailing lists.

 

[Rowan]

mailing list

And a great mailing list it is, too.

The only problem with it is it make me 'homesick' for Australia.

Rowan