SBE Show Canceled

Scott Greczkowski

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Sep 7, 2003
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I just received a very sad email from Marty Bentley, informing me that the SBE Show (which was scheduled to open tommorow) has been canceled.

Below is a copy of his email.

Dear SBE 2007 West Attendee,

It is with an exceptionally heavy heart that I am forced to send this email to you, people I consider my friends.

I spoke with the decorator and with the convention center late last night and it seems the terms of me using the convention center have changed to the point I cannot meet the obligation they are requesting that I meet. To make a long story short, I was informed at 6 PM tonight they would not allow Champion (our decorator) into the building to set up tomorrow without a credit card payment of $17,500 tonight. I had a verbal agreement with a now departed rep to pay for the convention center via cashiers check upon my arrival in Reno. My departure for Reno was delayed by my wife undergoing gall bladder surgery this morning (Mon Morning). I offered to overnight the cashiers check and that was acceptable except it would delay set up one day which is not acceptable since hundreds of people are flying in for the training courses set to be offered on Wednesday. It would be impossible to hold these classes if we could not set up until Wednesday and would not be fair to allow everyone to come to Reno to attend classes that were not going to be held.

I’m sending you this email letting you know I have no choice but to cancel the show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. As I see it, at this point that is the only option available to me. Once you have it available, please send me an itemized bill showing the amounts lost because of the cancellation of the show. I will work something out to make sure you do not lose a cent, somehow I will refund every penny you are out because of air fare etc. Some of you all have supported my efforts since 2005 in Memphis, and I have never let you down and have tried as hard as I know how to give you the kind of show I promised I would. Everyone says that you have always been able to take whatever I told you to the bank, this would be no exception; you will not lose a dime over this, no matter what I have to do to make it right. Once you have everything together, please fax your refund requests with the appropriate documentation to: 866-691-5340 or email them to me at: Info@JEMcommunicationsinc.com.

Again, my apologies to you, my friends for whatever part I might have played in causing this. You won’t have to worry about this happening again; we have produced our last show. I wish all of you nothing but the best, and hope I can still call you my friends.

Marty
 
Is anyone going to go anyway- say for STARS meeting or .....??
I have non-refundable tickets.
Bob
 
Wow. If he had the money for a cashiers check, why didn't he just do a bank wire transfer, hell even sent it Western Union.

Good luck getting any money back from him. If he can't get $17k to the convention center, how is he going to get tens of thousands to the exhibitors & attendees?

Sounds like he didn't have the cash and was in over his head.


wescopc - while your tickets are non-refundable, you can cancel your flight before departure. You will then have a credit for the amount of the ticket minus the change fee good for one year.
 
Something doesn't seem to line up in his explanation. A convention center would be more willing to work with them versus lose their entire 17k fee and have an empty center for the week.

If it really came down to that, why not just cancel or postpone the Wed classes and continue with the rest of the activities.

I'm not attacking anyone, but as a bystander on a first read something seems out of place.
 
I am sure there is more to the story then we see here. Marty tried his best.

While I sort of expected this would be the last SBE show, but I did not expect this show to get canceled.

I will still be heading to Reno, I have my tickets already as well my car rental and hotel all booked any paid for.

I am still trying to put together a SatelliteGuys Get Together in Reno. If you are still going and would like to get together please email me at reno@satelliteguys.us. I will see what I can pull together.

Marty while he has always been a little hard headed has always been sincere in his offerings and his desire to give the indusrty, the dealers and installers their own show is to be admired.

I have been to EVERY SBE show and have enjoyed each and every one of them.

While some may call for Marty's head on a stick, I take a different approach and say THANK YOU Marty.
 
Wow. Thats a terrible way to do business. Marty should have sent someone to deliver that check. He's worried about hundreds of people arriving before the setup is ready yet hundreds of people may have already bought their plane tickets and reserved rooms!
 
Something doesn't seem to line up in his explanation. A convention center would be more willing to work with them versus lose their entire 17k fee and have an empty center for the week.

If it really came down to that, why not just cancel or postpone the Wed classes and continue with the rest of the activities.

I'm not attacking anyone, but as a bystander on a first read something seems out of place.
Doesnt make sense to me either.
 
Obviously everyone is welcome to think what they will. But keep in mind the convention center loses nothing..they still get their $17,500. And it's pretty hard to do a wire transfer from your bank when the bank is closed for a holiday plus it was late yesterday evening when they told me they would only accept the payment via credit card payment. I assure you no one hates the cancellation more than I do...the whole thing has nothing to do with how much cash I do or do not have. It's whether or not I had a credit card with $17,500 available.

Also thanks to all of you for the emails of support I have already received this morning, there are some fantastic people in this industry.
 
I have heard from some others who put on shows at the convention center they have had similar things happen to them at the last second. I can't believe the casinos allow the convention center to be run this way.
 
I think there is alot more than a $17,000 cashiers check here that caused the show to be cancelled.

The casino wins either way on this, because there are still people who paid for airfare, rental cars and have their room paid for. Show or no show they are still going to go to Reno and spend money at the Casino.

The only other thing I can think of is that the convention center was given to SBE at a reduced rate, in an effort to fill the hotel and bring more people to the casino. For the convention center to be given to SBE at a reduced rate, the Casino would expect X amount of hotel rooms to be reserved by now and to be paid for.

If attendance was low and there where alot of empty hotel rooms, then its very possible that the Casino could have made some demands that the SBE show simply could not make good on which forced them to cancel the show.

Again, pure speculation on my part!

Myself I was about 75% set on going last minute this weekend depending on the initial reports from the show!
 
Western Union is not as easy or cheap to deal with as you might think. Plus, I just checked their online system, and the most you can send by "money in minutes" is $2,999.99.

ACH normally requires money in the bank, free and clear of any hold periods. Not sure how they'd accept a Cashier's Check, especially with all the Cashier's Check fraud going on. Certainly not after hours.
 
I think there is alot more than a $17,000 cashiers check here that caused the show to be cancelled.

The casino wins either way on this, because there are still people who paid for airfare, rental cars and have their room paid for. Show or no show they are still going to go to Reno and spend money at the Casino.

The only other thing I can think of is that the convention center was given to SBE at a reduced rate, in an effort to fill the hotel and bring more people to the casino. For the convention center to be given to SBE at a reduced rate, the Casino would expect X amount of hotel rooms to be reserved by now and to be paid for.

If attendance was low and there where alot of empty hotel rooms, then its very possible that the Casino could have made some demands that the SBE show simply could not make good on which forced them to cancel the show.

Again, pure speculation on my part!

Myself I was about 75% set on going last minute this weekend depending on the initial reports from the show!
I haven't had a contract with the hotel since May. They were booking rooms using the show code at $109 while selling the same rooms online WITHOUT the code for $72. They were notified that we would leave them on the website but was cancelling our agreement with them which I was within my terms to do until the first of June.
 
I was always wondering about that Marty. My wife ordered our room from one of the travel sites and she booked through them as their rates were lower then the "show special".

I actually felt bad about that as I knew you made some of your money on the hotel rooms. In fact as we have been talking over the past few weeks I have always felt guilty that I didn't book through your link.
 
I haven't had a contract with the hotel since May. They were booking rooms using the show code at $109 while selling the same rooms online WITHOUT the code for $72. They were notified that we would leave them on the website but was cancelling our agreement with them which I was within my terms to do until the first of June.

Well that SUCKS!
 
Never went to SBE as it really has nothing to do with my business, but just curious, who all attends this event? I'm asking about cornerstone booths, like Panasonic at CES. Then how many little guys also attend with booths.

At this late stage of the schedule, It would seem most of these booth displays have been shipped and are waiting to get in to set up. Hope you have a good lawyer, Marty, or at least a fast private jet to Rio ( AKA "Leo Bloom") Just kidding, as I was watching the Producers.


As for $17500 on a CC, far be it from me to know all the scoop on CC but I have financed over $50,000 in TV Production costs for a week and I just received a call from AMEX to verify that it was me. I knew a guy who did his entire business startup on a AMEX over $35,000 and never was questioned. He spent it on a booth at Comdex. Got no sales and filed Bankruptcy as soon as he got home Point being is that AMEX is real good about carte blanche on AMEX corporate cards
 

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