Over the weekend, an email was sent out by the HamCon organizers:
Great Lakes HamCon 2.0 scheduled to occur this October at Michigan International Speedway has been cancelled. Failure to come to a final agreement for the use of the speedway led to the difficult decision to cancel the event. With just two months remaining, the issues caused by the lack of agreement are insurmountable.
Refunds for event tickets purchased will be made. Purchases made via PayPal will be mad through PayPal. Arrangements for refunds for cash purchases are being formulated and will be announced soon.
The support of our affiliated amateur radio clubs and their members was very much appreciated. We share your disappointment that this year’s event cannot be held. Thank you for your understanding.
This is a shame, but I’m not surprised. Last year’s event really wasn’t a success, not matter how much we all wished it to be. There were a lot of rationalizations. “It wasn’t too bad for the first year” and “The vendors that did attend sold a lot of stuff” were the two that I heard the most often.
The reality is that it was a big disappointment. Attendance was poor, none of the big amateur radio companies showed up, and there were fewer vendors in the flea market than at some local hamfests.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the way that the finances were handled. Our club here in Ann Arbor, MI was cajoled into donating $500 in seed money for the first HamCon. Dinesh, AB3DC, our club president said, “They asked us for $250 and never for more. But we wanted the event to be a success and the Board decided to give them $500 instead. I believe a lot of other Clubs did the same.” Part of the spiel was that we would share in whatever profits HamCon generated.
We never did hear from the HamCon organizers after the first event. We were never shown any financial statements for HamCon 1 or any projections for HamCon 2. The shame is that $500 could have been put to much better use.
To be fair, putting these things on is a LOT of work. I think that the HamCon committee just underestimated the amount of work involved. It was a great idea, though.
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