Ok were moving on!

[graystone]

I swear

this is some shit. This is getting worse than who shot JR. Kevin I think you may be playing the Kristine here you remember she shot JR. Kevin what can you do to correct this? Also I need you to get with me on the Buyer Association. We might be like the Hatfields and the Mcoys. Shane

[bodybagging]

Kevin you are right I was not there, but after reading a email that threatened to blackball me and inform the hauntworld that I was untrustworthy if the word got out about a subject that I had already been informed of by a few others outside of the VENDOR COALITION, prior to receiving said email.
heres a small excerpt of the email:
"And I am sad to have to say this, but if we find out someone has released the information we are about to discuss you will be banned from the group and we will make sure everyone knows you are not to be trusted."
Perhaps this too was a feeble attempt at humour, but when something is addressed directly at me well....Again this subject was already the talk of the town prior to me receiving this email.
Kevin I respect you, but gotta be Honest, I dont appreciate threats from anyone, and personally for a BRAND NEW ASSOCIATION, I dont think SCARE TACTICS is the way to gain members.

As for me not being in any discussions, yes you are right about that, BUT BIG BUT , in the Very beginning of the Coalition, I let all of you know, I would not download Yahoo to receive messages seeing how it fraks my machine every time. But i realize I am only one vendor who would have preferred a private forum instead of a email system that blows my computer up, compared to all of you that like 100 emails a day.

[Gore Galore]

Shane,
The only way to fix any of this is for everyone to grow up, stop acting like children fighting at a playground and making this industry what it needs to be. Stop all the political bashing, and work together.

The lack of professionalism in this industry is unacceptable.
All the back biting and bickering.
We are professionals, so lets act like it.
Whining and complaining is not professional.
I never noticed it so much until I began working to improve our vendor situations.

That is why the HHVA was started. So, Vendors can communicate on a professional level and discuss what needs to change in this industry and how to change it.
That is what the HHVA is doing.
We see things in this industry we think needs to change, and we are changing it.

I know we may be ruffling some feathers. Change is scary. I can understand that. But this has to happen if we want to continue to grow.

I hope everyone can respect that.

[Gore Galore]

Rob

That statement was not directed at you, or anyone specific.
This was sent to the entire group. You are one of 60 companies who received that information.
But this is exactly what i am talking about.
How is this for a lack of professionalism.
We started a group and tried to keep our conversations private just so we ALL could help each other formulate our own opinions of our industry without anyone meddling in our private conversations. Just so no one felt manipulated to side with any one perspective or another. It is all about collecting all the information and forming our own personal thoughts.
And someone or more than one were forwarding our communications to persons outside the group and those individuals were harassing group members and trying to sway group decisions with the information.
And all I can say is I and the entire group felt betrayed.
So, that post was to help curb that behavior.
That is also why all members have to agree to keep group discussions within the group until a decision is made by the group to go public with the information.

I hope you can understand all this. And I am sorry if you felt personally attacked in anyway. The only reason I am posting this to Hauntworld is you also choose to post this information here.

If you want to have a conversation about this more then lets please keep this kind of content off the list. YOU have my email.

This stirs up drama. And you already stated you want to avoid drama.

[graystone]

Kevin

Just a thought. But why cant the buyers have a say its like we are being talked about and things being talked about behind our backs. Its like do it now and apologize later. I know its a Vendors show but Kevin its A BUYERS MARKET!!!!! I think what Rob done is great it shows us potential customers that hes going to be honest and keep us informed of things that not only effects him but us buyers as well. Rob man I am honored to see you post here. Kevin dude come on help us out here secrets can hurt people!!! Nut, Sean anyone give me some feedback here men!!! Shane and its hurt Shane this time!!

[Gore Galore]

Shane,
There are no secrets.
I swear you are such an instigator.
I don't want to waste my time posting, but you keep drawing me in because you make me feel I have to defend what we are doing.
we are doing everything to build the best show we know how.

we are working on the
"Crowne" of St Louis
Larry is working on the "Darkness" tour.
Mark is working on a possible party at Creative Visions.
And many are working on the best seminar series ever.
Good hotel costs.
Expanding the type and # of vendors
Expanding the type and # of buyers

that is all I know right now.

[graystone]

Kevin

Looks like all you lil Devils are working on all kinds of things! Kevin don't forget one of the biggest projects yet the "We Are The World Video" with you, me , Larry, Sean, Nut, Paul, Jason, Rob even little Tyler and the whole HauntWorld industry. Remember were putting out a video to raise money for Larrys Darkness and some of you Vendors will get a good chunk off the rolities from this video too. You need to call me we have got to go over this damn music!!! We are the world! We are the children!! We are the Haunt Industry and were going to make the world a brighter place in St. Louis!!!!!!! Come on sing it with me!!!!! Shane and its Record Producer Shane this time!!!!!

[Spookyfinder]

"... I wanna teach the world to SCREAM... " -Tyler, who's singing an old tune!

[hauntedhousenut]

Shane

The bottom line here is that the vendors have way more to lose that buyers, when buyers come to the show sometimes they buy, and sometimes they don't, and all their out is airfare, hotel, and food.

The vendors on the other hand, are out that and more, remember they get there days before buyers show up, and leave usually a day later.

Shane let it play out.

[drfrightner]

Kevin,

Shane now reminds me of the new Joker, in Batman Dark Knight. Watch the interviews of the cast, they will tell you the Joker is not com committing crimes for money, or any motivation, he has no empathy, he just wants to watch the world burn, you can't reason with The Joker, there is nothing you can leverage against him to make him go in the right direction. The Joker just wants to cause as much chaos as possible.

Batman asks in the movie "why do you want to kill me" and the Joker replies back "I don't want to kill you what would I do without you". Shane doesn't want to kill the show, he doesn't want Larry his current nemisis to fall off a cliff, I eventually figured out he didn't want Keith to resolve their problems, he just wants loves to keep this issues out there for his own amusement.

So there is no point to attempt to reason with him...

Most of the citizens of Gothem choose for the city to be crime free, happy, no gangs, no violence, it is only a handfull of gangsters that want crime and chaos to continue. The only thing you can do is ignore it... Most of the haunters in this industry want this show, can't wait for this show, are already booking hotels, EVERY SINGLE VENDOR I've spoken to is DOUBLING the size of their booths, and when I say double well i should say some are going four times bigger. This show will be THE BOMB not A BOMB!

Shane will be in St Louis wearing a St. Louis Cardinals hat and and a t-shirt that reads 'I visited the Arch today' LOL... so what is the point to argue with him.

Shane...errrr Joker.... errr Shane did you already book your hotel, flight, tell us what airline, what hotel and what time you get in so I can come down to the bar and buy you a drink but nothing high in caffiene because I doubt any of us could take you on 3 or 4 red bulls!

LOL

Larry

[Monster-Tronics]

Hauntedhousenut, you are so right about what it takes to be an attendee vs vendor!!! I’ve attended many a tradeshow as an attendee your prep time is buying an airline ticket or filling up your car with gas and packing some extra undies in a bag. After you get there you wake up when you feel like it, have a leisurely breakfast (or lunch) and stroll into the tradeshow floor.

As vendors we are busting butt for a month or two straight getting new products finished, putting together flyers, catalogs, pricelists, website updates, announcements, building stock, working on booth displays, banners, flooring, power, air, electric, packing, shipping or renting a truck, driving some junky truck 30 hours straight, unloading, getting railroaded by some union jerk, sweating like a pig setting up your booth till 2am with no air-conditioning or power or air so you can’t test anything…. I have a tradeshow list that is two pages long of things-to-do before the show. I also don’t sleep for two months before a show…

When I worked for a real company, we had a group of about a half dozen people that only worked on tradeshow stuff, plus they would pull in help to man the floors. As haunt vendors, I can guarantee you that NONE of us have a half dozen employees only doing tradeshow stuff. It is normally the owner doing most of this.

Larry, I like your analogy of Shane to the Joker, it is very fitting.

Shane, you are way off base here. As the end user you should be kissing Kevin’s ass right now for what he and many others have done so far to get and keep this vendors group together. We are NOT conspiring together on how to screw customers, it’s just the opposite, we are working to keep customers from getting screwed or buying a product that blows up in your face, or working to keep yours and our tradeshow pricing down so your not paying a fortune for the next haunt widget you buy.

Just like a haunt owner, a haunt vendor has a lot of issues, insurance, employee issues, product issues, product delivery issues…. Some of our groups goals are to have a Good Vendor Seal so you can buy from those vendors in March and get your product in time for the season and when you call a vendor they answer the phone, or if you have a problem, the vendor acts quickly to resolve it. That is the bottom line here, end of story. I’ve seen and heard so many customers getting screwed by some companies that it is just blows my mind you all take it year, after year, after year. It should not be that way. You know from experience what one has to go through when you have problems with a company just get product that you ordered. Your goals and needs are the same as HHVA’s.

Rob, man buddy, where do I start, I’m at a loss again. In the beginning when Kevin and I talked about starting the group you said you wanted to participate.

You keep blaming Yahoo for the reason you are not participating, but you are signed up to the Yahoo group, I can see your profile in the members list. Those emails you get just don’t drop out of the sky and are not directed only to you. Yahoo is an email broadcast service, that means that everyone that is signed up to the group gets broadcast emails as someone posts. It is also web based, there is nothing to download to your computer, you sign up from the web and depending on what you select is how you get the posts. If you are getting the emails there is nothing else you have to do. If you want to respond to the group you just hit reply on your own email program and everyone in the group gets your response.

You say you heard the info from someone else and not for the group, well if you’re getting the emails then you heard it from the group or if you didn’t read your emails, from someone that is in the group or has attended the meetings.

If it was not for the group 98% of the vendors would not have a clue of what is going on. If vendors sit back and don’t participate you get what you get. Also, those vendors that sit back will also not be vendors that will rise to the top of the haunt industry the way I see it. As the old saying goes “If you’re not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem!”

Ok, I’m done for now, guess I’ll go back to not sleeping….

[bodybagging]

Jeff, yes I signed on to the yahoo group in the beginning, because yes I wanted to be apart of something that would perhaps help the industry, against my better judgement I tried the yahoo thing, Once again Yahoo fraked my system, and I deleted yahoo from my computer. I do not recieve any emails from the yahoo group.
The One email I recieved was addressed to me at my AOL email and did not look like a group email, seeing how it started with ROB.
As for me getting emails regarding the supersecretivesubject that to was not from yahoo.
Kevin if I mistook the intent of that email, then Im glad that I did not send you my reply that I wrote, again I was not pleased.
Im sure the Vendor group is a good thing and will most likely help the industry, but I will not be downloading yahoo onto my system again, Ive tried it twice, one for this and one for theMCHC group, both times my computer frakked out and I deleted the yahoo from my system. This being the way the group communicates simply leaves me in the dark.

[graystone]

Larry

Could it be that you may try to out smart me! Hummmm anyway Larry, Kevin, Jeff what about the music video? We need to meet and set this all up its going to take us all to pull the official Haunt Show Video ' We Are The World" off. Kevin one thing I can say is I never ment to imply that the HVA was trying to screw us buyers. Actually with you heading it up I think the opposite I know your honest and hard working and I know with your group that will be passed on as a must. What I was saying is wrong to do some of the hush hush things without consulting with buyers. If you say you do ok but I would like to know who they are? I can say no one I know. Also I think you need to call Rob and talk to him because its apparent that the "threat" weather of not it was ment that way came off that way. And there is things going on in the HVA that hes not comfortable with. Kevin I want to put my blessings here but there is already a scandel on the horrizon and we need to map this out and get it cleared up. Rob if there is anything I can do on my end man just let me know. Shane and thats " Have You Ever Danced With The Devil In The Pale Moon Light " Shane this time!

[Monster-Tronics]

Rob, We should take this off-line, but like I said, there should be nothing you need to download to your computer. If you want help, one of the admin’s from the group can get you hooked up.

Sometimes there are browser add-ons that can mess with your browser but you do not need them to use Yahoo Groups. If you don’t have email selected in your profile you will only receive “Special Notices” that are sent from the groups moderator.

[Speculo]

Hey Jeff!

Being a vendor sounds just like opening a haunted house!

All of those sleepless nights in preparation are the same, The Tradeshow is opening night, and all the months of building and shipping orders are like the season.

When you ship your last order is like our November.

So Haunt owners when you walk the show floor next year and you see that mix of exhaustion, terror and pride on a vendors face, you can bet it is pretty much the same look you have on opening night every year!

Thanks!