A possible CSI Convention

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ashura

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Hey everyone,

A group of CSI fans in Toronto is planning to put together a CSI convention in town. We have the resources to put a con together, and we were just wondering how many people are willing to attend; locals, Canadians and non-Canadians are all welcome.

Our tentative date is the weekend of May 11th (so that's May 9th - 11th), but that's open for debate if the majority of the willing participants decide that another date would work better for them. It will take place near the airport so that transit and flights won't be too big of an issue.

We have planned out some activities, and will be showing movies and episodes throughout the entire thing. We've also planned out some raffle prizes for the attendees. There are other things in the works, but until we're positive that this will get off the ground, that's all we can really say that will happen. There's a more detailed outline of what can happen at the LJ community for the con:

This is really just a post to see if people would be willing to attend. If we get enough people, then hopefully we can start nailing down more details.

Thanks for your interest, guys.
 
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I'd be interested, but it would depend on the cost. If I can swing financially, I'd go.

I think it would be great to meet other CSI fans and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Oh, I hope you don't mind, but I post the links on the IMDB boards, for the orginial CSI show and the casts. Not the for CSI: Miami or New York. I don't watch those. You might want to post your link on their boards.
 
The tentative itinerary is up at the LJ community. The cost for con attendance for non-locals (that is to say, those who are attending who are not living in Toronto or the GTA), is $20 dollars, and it will be $30 for locals.

Rest of the itinerary can be persued
 
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Hey guys,

I'm not exactly sure what the real level of interest is, because I'm sure that some of you are just sitting back and waiting for more news. Our ultimate goal is to try to get one or some of the cast members to consider attending. For us to achieve that, we need to show CBS that our fanbase is committed and serious.

We don't want to force you to attend, but it'd be awesome to have you guys attend. We want to be able to show CBS that we love this show, we're willing to get together to celebrate it, and that we would like to express our gratitude and love to the actors by celebrating their work with them.

Please help us make this big! Pimp it out, spread the word, tattoo it on your forehead, anything! We want to make this a memorable experience for us and you, so please help us as much you can in getting the word out. :)
 
i just joined these forums to respond to this -- i'm in montreal and i would certainly come down for this! count me in.
 
um. wow! yeah, i would totally go to the convention. i don't live very far either so it's all good.

just one question: would this csicon be for the three csi shows?
 
Let me say first off that I think a CSI convention is a great idea. I think bringing fans together is a cool idea and there are definitely a lot of CSI fans around the world.

That being said--and this is meant respectfully--conventions on the scale you're talking about are often planned by companies. This:

ashura said:
Our ultimate goal is to try to get one or some of the cast members to consider attending. For us to achieve that, we need to show CBS that our fanbase is committed and serious.
Click to expand...

is a cool idea, but actors and talent are usually paid to appear at conventions. You'd have to coordinate with their PR people and managers, and I imagine they'd want to know how many attendees are committed to coming (i.e. have purchased tickets in advance) before they wold consider being guests at a convention.

Have you booked a venue yet? It's hard to do that without an idea of how many are coming.

I'm not trying to be discouraging, but planning a convention takes a lot of work, advance planning and funds. And if you're asking people to pay money, it's important to make sure things will go ahead as planned.

Have you thought about starting with a meet up of CSI fans? We did that last year in the New York forum, and we're currently planning one for this summer. It's nice because we set a schedule and people who attend can pick and choose what they want to do. It's also nice because we don't need to collect or put out any money beforehand, which keeps things much simpler.

Just some advice offered in good faith. I think getting fans together is a great idea and I wish you all the best of luck in it. :cool:
 
Hey guys

Sorry for the shy away for a bit with this. Just to let everyone know, the CSI Conference is STILL happening, we’ve been buckling down and booking and we’ve finally nailed down prices and a place to stay. So bare with me for a bit while I hash this out to you guys.

First of all: The conference will be hosted at the Sandman hotel and conference center. Pam & I are going tomorrow afternoon to look over everything. It is a beautiful hotel and super cheap.
The price for the room is- $99 PER room per night. Now remember, you can split these rooms between 4 people. (It’s in Canadian funds). That’s for a regular 2 bed suite. This is amazing for this high of a caliber hotel.

Second of all: Admission is cheap. For general admission to the CON for the whole weekend. It’s $20 for anyone who is flying internationally. $30 for those from here (Canada but staying at the hotel) and $40 for those who are local and going home at night. That covers your initial welcoming package (ID and cool stuff) and basically to roam free around the con and partake in activities and such.
We are having a few shops come in to sell their merchandise as well. Comics, books, collectibles, memorabilia etc.

Stars: We’ve gotten e-mails asking if cast members are coming….
We’re pulling for you guys... We did send out formal invites to a few of the cast members and writers not too long ago (those who we thought would probably consider showing up because realistically, not everyone would come, since the con will be paying for their hotel rooms and such). We don’t expect to hear anything for another few weeks. We’re hoping for at least one or two for you guys *crosses fingers* It would be nice.

More importantly, this is a great opportunity for a whole load of CSI fans to come together and really just have a fun time.

RIGHT NOW; we’re looking for numbers, we want to see how much interest we have before we go and book the hotel and food and guests and stuff. Because in order for this to get off the ground, we need to make sure enough people come to fill the conference room.

AS soon as we see we have enough interest and numbers, we will be giving you numbers to call for reservations and places to book the admission tickets, forms and extra con ‘goodies’ you’ll need in order to really experience this.

Guys, this can be huge and amazing fun.

Any questions, you can direction them to me specifically. By e-mail.
or the con e-mail:

Have a great week :)
 
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Okie-doke, we have some numbers!

Location: Days Inn & Conference Centre, Toronto Airport East.
Price per Room: $95/night (This is a special price that we've negotiated with the hotel, but nothing has been set yet, so please DO NOT BOOK until we say so!!)

Convention Attendance Prices:
(all include the convention package)
Non-Canadian attendees: $25 for the weekend admission
Local/Canadian staying at hotel: $35 for the weekend admission
Local/Canadian commuting from home: $45 for the weekend admission.

The money coming from that will go towards the room rentals and paying for our 'special guest(s)'.

As soon as we get a headcount, we will announce the ticket sale dates. Payments can be made via PayPal or Money Order. We will email out forms to fill in, as well as one for any allergies/health/dietary concerns.

We have sent out invites to cast members. They include the principle CSI cast, plus a few writers and Carol Mendelsohn. We will update you guys as we get responses from them.
** Robert David Hall will not be able to attend due to a prior engagement.

For Americans hoping to attend:
Flying directly into Toronto is pretty expensive, but there are alternative options. Since domestic travel is much cheaper, you can fly into BNIA (Buffalo-Niagara International Airport) in Buffalo and take the Greyhound bus from Buffalo to Toronto. The bus ride is approximately 2.5 hours, and it will land you in downtown Toronto. Directions from downtown to the airport is very simple. It's a complicated route, but it will definitely save you money. A round-trip ticket via Greyhound between Toronto and Buffalo is about $45USD.

For non-Ontario-residents hoping to attend:
Pearson Airport's an expensive place to fly into, apparently. The alternative is to fly into Hamilton airport (WestJet and AirCanada both fly into Hamilton airport), which is about maybe 1.5 hours away from Toronto, and either take GO Transit, Greyhound or a cab into Toronto, and take the TTC to the airport area.

You can check out more details at the LJ community:

If you have questions, comments or other issues, you can PM/email me or leave a comment on the LJ community, or on my own LJ.

Thanks!
 
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just before things get started, i will let you know you may not ask for payment here or link to a site that is collecting money. then this thread would cross over from gathering interest in your convention to advertisment which is not allowed on the board.

if you put up the paypal information on the lj community, the links to that site on this board will have to be removed. please keep this in mind. it is alright to use this thread to assess intererst in your event, but any form of payment collection or advertising must remain off the board.

thank you, and best of luck with your event
 
Thought you should know, asked for permission before posting this entire thread. Before we posted it privately messaged one of your moderators about it, they even told us WHERE to post and that we were able to post it here because it IS CSI related.

In order for us to actually MAKE the convention happen FOR the fans, people obviously need to be aware of everything including prices, which is fair. We're fans doing this for other fans because we have the resources too, and it would be a good time for everyone. We're not SELLING the convention or anything else, none of the profit is going to us, it's going towards, the rental, the food and the guests. The only we're gaining from the convention is an extreme amount of stress and an excuse to skip work and classes. If anything, more money will coming out of OUR pockets.

How exactly does this fall under the category of solicitation? Since the only actual rule under your advertising section IS about solicitation.
 
As long as nothing on your site or over here is soliciting money, it's okay to discuss the convention. If you start linking to PayPal or asking for money prior to the convention, then we can't allow that.

I'm sorry to disappoint, but that leaves us open to both liability and hassle in case of problems. I know you have good intentions and are working hard, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Plus - allowing solicitation, for however good a cause, opens us up to demands for more in the interest of being "fair". We can't go down that road. It's too risky and too fraught with trouble.
 
OK well we both know there is going to have stick the purchasing link in the live journal obviously to sell the tickets, because due to our guests, it's going to be first come first serve, because the understanding with the agents and guests was that the convention capped at a specific capacity. That's a given, since that community is the main source of information.

As a moderator of a site I know where you're coming from, believe me I do it's also easy to misconstrue that rule, considering most major sites, CSI/actor sites that have buttons and links to places where you could a) buy their merchandise and b) donate and I'm sure, there are links in signatures and posts to those sites.

Tickets won't be on sale until next Friday, we can leave this up until then, then I guess you'll take it down once that's up.
 
Hey :)

Just a heads up that we are planning on selling tickets to the convention this coming Friday which is April 18th.

The prices for the convention:

Local residents (not staying in the hotel) - $45
Local residents (staying in the hotel) - $35
Non – locals - $25

To main payment method for this will be through Paypal (since it is the safest and easier to refund money should something come up and you need to cancel) but other methods will be listed once the tickets go on sale on the LJ community so keep an eye out. Once you have bought tickets, we want you to email () stating that you’ve bought tickets and how many and we will send out a form that needs to be completed.

We have seen and visited the hotel and really like what we were shown. We are told that we can have our own little section of the hotel where the con space and hotel rooms are so we won’t have to walk all over the place just to get to one room. PLEASE DO NOT go and book a room at the hotel just yet, we still need a confirmation of how many people are going to attend so that we can plan accordingly which rooms to book for the convention. We will let you all know when to book once we have a good amount attending. There will be a special price for rooms for the convention so it won’t be too expensive if you are coming from outside of the province/country; and it’ll be even cheaper if you bunk in with 4 people.

Again, just to reiterate, guest(s) ARE NOT 100% confirmed so do not come to the convention expecting there to be a special guest. Things do not always work out as we want them to. If guests do confirm, we are planning something that will require you to purchase tickets to attend the events. First we are planning on doing a general Q&A session where everybody has a chance to attend and those tickets will be sold at the door on the day of (prices are still being determined when things are finalized). Second, we are planning a Q&A drink night session and that will be restricted to people 19+ because that is the legal drinking age in Canada. These tickets will be sold in ADVANCED on a first come bases so keep a look out for that on the LJ community.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate and contact us at OR check out the


Thanks!!
 
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