- Joined
- Dec 17, 1999
- Messages
- 3,412
Hey Gang
The announcement that Mousefest has been cancelled this year came as a shock to us as well. While no definate plans had been made, Pete and I already decided that we would participate in this years Mousefest event again as well as host a DIS/DIS Unplugged/Dreams Unlimited Travel event similar to last years TSM event.
Again - no details were discussed, just that we would do something. With that said I see no reason why we can't go forward and continue to plan on some sort of event around that time for this year.
I know we all like to name stuff so we can use acronyms but I'm not a fan of calling this DISFest (sorry Mindy). It feels disrepectful to the folks who worked, and may still work, on Mousefest.
I'm thinking DIS-A-Palooza.....and 'DAP" doesn't seem to have any other meaning that I'm aware of.
Now I know you are all type A personalities and you MUST have all the details now or your heads will explode. I'm sure you can understand that I can't offer any details as we don't have any. Don't ask....don't beg.... and certainly don't email, PM or post that you want to be entered onto some sort of pre-pre-pre-waitlist.
We learned several lessons from last years event and we will make some changes you should be aware of now.
Pete and I spent a great deal of time talking to the event services people at Disney. We discussed the issues we had with the last event. They were very responsive and assured us that if we did a similar event in 2009 changes would be made. We're still not 100% sure what we will do and where but that made us feel better about hosting another event like the TSM event at Disney.
The check-in process at the TSM event didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated. This was totally my fault. I think we recovered well and got everyone signed up before the event started but we will need to change that for this year's event (whatever that might be). Most likely people will receive credentials by mail before the event so no sign-up at the event itself will be needed. Again, I have no details so please don't ask the inevitable questions like 'what if I'm not home when my credentials arrive' or 'what if the dog ate my credentials' - we will work all that out as the time gets closer.
We had some 'no shows' at the TSM event. While I understand some people's plans may change it just made me sad that we might have been able to allow more folks to attend if we had a more accurate idea of who would be attending upfront. We had several people approach us at the Mega Meet asking to attend and we had to say no because I thought we were over our limit on attendees. If I knew for sure some people weren't going to be there we could have let more people come that night.
Because of the credentials issue as well as the no-show issue we will most likely be charging a small fee this year for any event we do similar to last years TSM event. Obviously any meets set-up by listeners or something similar to the Tree Lightening at Epcot would be free - but if we do another major event like TSM we will need to charge for it. I anticipate it would be a small fee - just enough to cover the production of the credentials and shipping. Dreams Unlimited Travel and other companies would sponsor the event same as last year. The fee would be more to ensure people who sign-up have every intention of attending. We will make sure everyone who signs up for the event will be able to pay the fee (i.e. we will not limit it to just checks, we will accept credit cards and paypal payments as well) and we will ship credentials outside of the U.S.
Of course anyone who books a resort stay through Dreams Unlimited Travel during the timeframe of the event will automatically be invited/have a reserved spot at the event - same as TSM. Many of you last year said you wish you knew in advance this would happen - now you know - Dreams Unlimited Travel clients will get first crack at signing up for the event.
This is all I can tell you at this point. I know you want more info but I just don't have any. Hopefully once we finalize the events on the podcast cruise I can start working on this, but until then please be patient...as hard as that is for some of you.
Thanks
John
The announcement that Mousefest has been cancelled this year came as a shock to us as well. While no definate plans had been made, Pete and I already decided that we would participate in this years Mousefest event again as well as host a DIS/DIS Unplugged/Dreams Unlimited Travel event similar to last years TSM event.
Again - no details were discussed, just that we would do something. With that said I see no reason why we can't go forward and continue to plan on some sort of event around that time for this year.
I know we all like to name stuff so we can use acronyms but I'm not a fan of calling this DISFest (sorry Mindy). It feels disrepectful to the folks who worked, and may still work, on Mousefest.
I'm thinking DIS-A-Palooza.....and 'DAP" doesn't seem to have any other meaning that I'm aware of.
Now I know you are all type A personalities and you MUST have all the details now or your heads will explode. I'm sure you can understand that I can't offer any details as we don't have any. Don't ask....don't beg.... and certainly don't email, PM or post that you want to be entered onto some sort of pre-pre-pre-waitlist.
We learned several lessons from last years event and we will make some changes you should be aware of now.
Pete and I spent a great deal of time talking to the event services people at Disney. We discussed the issues we had with the last event. They were very responsive and assured us that if we did a similar event in 2009 changes would be made. We're still not 100% sure what we will do and where but that made us feel better about hosting another event like the TSM event at Disney.
The check-in process at the TSM event didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated. This was totally my fault. I think we recovered well and got everyone signed up before the event started but we will need to change that for this year's event (whatever that might be). Most likely people will receive credentials by mail before the event so no sign-up at the event itself will be needed. Again, I have no details so please don't ask the inevitable questions like 'what if I'm not home when my credentials arrive' or 'what if the dog ate my credentials' - we will work all that out as the time gets closer.
We had some 'no shows' at the TSM event. While I understand some people's plans may change it just made me sad that we might have been able to allow more folks to attend if we had a more accurate idea of who would be attending upfront. We had several people approach us at the Mega Meet asking to attend and we had to say no because I thought we were over our limit on attendees. If I knew for sure some people weren't going to be there we could have let more people come that night.
Because of the credentials issue as well as the no-show issue we will most likely be charging a small fee this year for any event we do similar to last years TSM event. Obviously any meets set-up by listeners or something similar to the Tree Lightening at Epcot would be free - but if we do another major event like TSM we will need to charge for it. I anticipate it would be a small fee - just enough to cover the production of the credentials and shipping. Dreams Unlimited Travel and other companies would sponsor the event same as last year. The fee would be more to ensure people who sign-up have every intention of attending. We will make sure everyone who signs up for the event will be able to pay the fee (i.e. we will not limit it to just checks, we will accept credit cards and paypal payments as well) and we will ship credentials outside of the U.S.
Of course anyone who books a resort stay through Dreams Unlimited Travel during the timeframe of the event will automatically be invited/have a reserved spot at the event - same as TSM. Many of you last year said you wish you knew in advance this would happen - now you know - Dreams Unlimited Travel clients will get first crack at signing up for the event.
This is all I can tell you at this point. I know you want more info but I just don't have any. Hopefully once we finalize the events on the podcast cruise I can start working on this, but until then please be patient...as hard as that is for some of you.
Thanks
John
