Group Lunch on March 15, 2011 - 1pm

[VinnyT.]

I like a seating chart online. But but if everyone can do it, it will become a mess. Maybe request your seats to the organizer?

I think maybe make a poll. If most people has no problem with pay for the registration we can book a room at CP maybe. Or just an extra hour in PH.

 

 

Honestly I think most of fans agreed to partecipate to the meeting cause it was for free, now I think things will change

[Alex_Incognito]

We all know that nothing is "free." If that changes people's minds, so be it. We don't need a welcome gift. As I said earlier, no one should go broke and we should keep it non profit.

[Bellamy]

I agree nothing is free, especially in Vegas.

[Ronny83]

I agree nothing is free, especially in Vegas.

I agree: nothing is free. But when I (and many others) subscribed to the meeting we accepted the conditions (still) advertised on the website:

 

The meeting can be attended free of charge, every participant in the meeting will receive a welcoming package with some gifts, everyone will also receive an exclusive, custom made, identification badge and a detailed programbrochure as a reminder of this meeting.

 

The dinner, lunch, breakfast, other (paying) activities will be charged at cost. No profit will be made on this event.

Now, if you tell me I have to pay for the meeting, sorry but I can't. I did already pay for the lunch - which I obviously didn't (and never for a minute) think it could be offered for free.

 

And, as you can see from the number of people attending the meeting and the number of people participating to the lunch, many considered to join the meeting because it was free.

 

I think the best solution would be to meet directly at the lunch.

Edited February 19, 2011 at 08:26 PM by Ronny83

[Alex_Incognito]

I think the best solution would be to meet directly at the lunch.

 

That's probably the only solution, I agree.

[becca]

I don't see why everyone cannot pay $15 for a once in a lifetime chance to meet everyone.That's about the cost of a CD. So many of us are traveling to be together for this one moment in time, and a little more money shouldn't be a deal breaker. The organizers have done a lot of work and they shouldn't have to pay out of their pockets. Things happen...you have to be flexible. Let me know if there is extra cost.I will gladly pay!

[Ronny83]

I don't see why everyone cannot pay $15 for a once in a lifetime chance to meet everyone.That's about the cost of a CD. So many of us are traveling to be together for this one moment in time, and a little more money shouldn't be a deal breaker. The organizers have done a lot of work and they shouldn't have to pay out of their pockets. Things happen...you have to be flexible. Let me know if there is extra cost.I will gladly pay!

I will meet everyone 2 hours later at the lunch anyway.

[Koolan]

Relax everyone. We never planned to make it a requirement to pay for the renting of the room. If we did go the route of asking for money, it'd be optional for those wanting to help.

[Michel75]

Hi everybody. How is everything organised. I did not hear antyhting after my registration. Please advise. Kind regards

[ennostiel]

I agree that $15 alone is not a lot of money, but I'm paying for my trip (including all tickets, hotel, group lunch, food & stuff) a total of approx. $1500, so now I'm really caounting all the costs carefully. So I know that for some people it can be a problem to pay some more extra money.

 

Anyway, Koolan already explained noone will be obliged to pay for anything else, so relax people

[angelil78]

We need a "like" button like on FB

[J-Man]

I'm sorry now, but in all fairness it is a bit rich to expect some people to pay extra to help cover the registration/welcome pack part of the day and for others to get the same thing for free. I'm paying for my own trip too, and who's to say I'm not counting the pennies as much as everyone else. But I'm prepared to give the extra money, cos it's just what we need to do, as a community to help each other out.

 

How can anyone come on here and say that another fan should be expected to subsidise them? I bet everyone who says that will still end up buying a program or some memorablia from the shop for an over-priced amount, but when it comes to helping to pay for a fan based meeting, they're suddenly unable to cough up $15 or $20.

 

Look guys the fact is the organisers have worked hard to try and give us a memorable premiere, and they have found themselves in the situation where they are digging deep (a lot more than a few dollars no doubt) into their own pockets. This isn't some big company that you can just say "well that's their tough, they should have factored in the costs better", these are our forum members, regular Joes like you and me. We're not really going to start screwing each other over are we?

 

Have a bit of moral respect for other fans and either say "yes I will pay the extra money" or "no, I will not, but neither will I expect another fan to pay for me" So if this does come down to a private donation thing it will leave a very bad taste in my mouth and I'd prefer to forget the whole idea. Neither do I think we should just pretend that the revelations of the last couple of days ever happened and continue to let the organisers foot the bill.

 

Let's work together to sort this out as fairly as possible for all concerned. I know it's a cliché, but think about what Celine would think if she was reading this.

[Ronny83]

Okay, then. No, I will not pay, but neither will I EVER expect another fan to pay for me.

 

This thing has been offered to me by organizers for free. I didn't ask them or force them to do it for free.

[Alex_Incognito]

I agree with John 110%. They don't "Owe" us anything because we signed up on the webpage.

 

I say we either do it 100% in fairness, or not at all.

[Ronny83]

I agree with John 110%. They don't "Owe" us anything because we signed up on the webpage.

 

I say we either do it 100% in fairness, or not at all.

Sure, they don't "owe" us anything. But if the webpage says...

 

The meeting can be attended free of charge.

...I expect to register for attending a "free of charge" meeting. If things change, am I free to decide whether to participate or not?

 

Edited February 20, 2011 at 09:44 PM by Ronny83

[Shirin]

As Ronny83 said, if in the webpage was written "free of charge" I was attending something like that...

Now, the things have changed and I can change my mind too.

Personally I think there's no need to pay if two hours later we meet at The Planet Hollywood (yet payed)...

[J-Man]

Absolutley everyone should be free to decide wether to participate or not Ronny. I just want to voice my opinion that it is not moraly acceptable for someone to continue to attend this event for free if they know that others are paying.

 

Vic and the organisers are doing the decent thing and standing by the original agreement as best they can, even though it is costing them more than just their free time. I think that it is incumbant upon us to do the decent thing and tell them that is not neccessary for them to suffer financialy on our behalf.

 

The costs of hosting the event have gone up, these things happen let's sort it out quickly. We could just wait for the day and people could pay the extra money at the door. It's done then and we can move on and start enjoying one of the best days of our "Celine" lives.

[Ronny83]

Absolutley everyone should be free to decide wether to participate or not Ronny. I just want to voice my opinion that it is not moraly acceptable for someone to continue to attend this event for free if they know that others are paying.

I agree. It won't be moraly acceptable to participate this event for free after Jane posted that she might not even make it to Las Vegas because of that. So, I'm here to say I won't participate at all. I'll see all of you at the lunch anyway.

[Irinaxx83]

...I expect to register for attending a "free of charge" meeting. If things change, am I free to decide whether to participate or not?

 

I gree with it. if things are changed in the organization, we are free to change our mind.

I'm very excited to meet all the international fans, and to see again some amazing person, like Tracy, that I've met in Montréal. But I don't see the point to pay more money, when we have a room in the restaurant and we could meet a couple of our later If renting the room was our only chance to stay togheter, I would say let's go for it. But we have the lunch 2 hours later, so I don't want to waste more money. I mean, I can use this money to pay the trip to salt lake, or another lunch or something else.

[Roberta1985]

Hi everyone!!

Right now i'm working hard for this journey and I'm waiting to know if I can afford some of the trips I want to do...

so I was so happy knowing that the meeting was for free!

I didn' expect anybody to pay for me...i only thought that there was a sponsor or donators or something like that that could help organizators to raise money for the rent of the room!

 

But if the programme is changed I don't see anything strange in changing my mind...

I will always thank the organizators, who have put their efforts in this meeting,so I will be glad to just meet the others fans at the lunch!

 

For italians lunch is a very special moment of meeting and conversation XD

So I'm relaxed because I know there will be another occasion to stay together!!!

a lot of kisses

=**********************

[Bellamy]

I think it's could be free to attend, but pay to get a nice gift bag. I have to confirm this with Jane and others.

[Bralo20]

Sorry for my late reaction

 

I have to admit that I was one of the people that wouldn't want to ask for money from the participants... From the start of the planning of this meeting it did cost us a bunch of money... I won't go in details but it runs in several thousands of Dollars... (Logo, website, database, personalised nametags, meeting room, (snail)mail, phonecalls, the "grand price", which alone is worth thousands USD, and many many more...) Yup, that's right, this meeting have cost us, the organizers, thousands of USD... But we were fine by that, from the start we knew that this meeting would cost some serious money, like someone said nothing is for free in Vegas... (OK, you can get free rooms, drinks, etc... but then you have to gamble quite a bit )...

 

Everything is payed for except for the last part of what we promised... We promised a FREE meeting and trust me, the meeting will be FREE! No doubt about that! But we made the promise for everyone to receive a gift package... We promised this because we had hoped for some sponors... Actually we were confident that at least one sponsor would be found for such a meeting. Since we don't have sponsors there is a slight problem in funding the gifts... Every member of our team has given a lot to make the biggest meeting possible... Money, time, nothing was to much for our team... And as one of the organizers I would personally like to thank everybody involved in this meeting for everything they did... It's thanks to the wonderful team that we will be able to make this work...

 

Now we've reached a point that we'll have to decide what to do next... One thing is allready certain: the personalised ID badges will be ready since everything is delivered I just need to print them (yes, it will be the promised plastic personalised badges). The gift bag is something different... While some of us, organisors, can still donate a little "extra" I doubt it will be sufficient to cover for everything...

 

So while we discuss this behind the screens I think I (we all) can make the following promise:

 

 

- The meeting itself will be FREE

- A personalised namebadge will be provided for FREE

- It will be a meeting as good as previous meetings!

- It will be fun!

 

 

We'll need to discuss the "gift package" however, no promises about that at this point...

Edited February 21, 2011 at 08:08 AM by Bralo20

[missgrey]

I do really hope you keep your promise if the meeting is free that's ok

 

For gift pack .... well I can do without it, it's already a gift meeting so many people from all over the world

[maxceline]

This should be all free 'cause if it'not it wont be a PASSION! Hope everyone will understand that the most important thing is not the place but the people who are attending all this and share our emotions and not our money!!

[Cheerfuljane]

Well, the conference room at Imperial Palace is already paid for, so we are meeting there regardless.

 

That is a much better place to come and get to know the other fans, because it is a wide open space and we will have ice-breakers and practice the flash mob. Once we're at the lunch we'll be sitting at tables so it won't be as easy to mingle.

[florisd]

I read the entire topic and I remember perfectly that the meeting it is free of charge.

It doesn't have sense to pay if we will see each other for the lunch .

 

I remember that in Montreal we didn't pay at all.

We meet all together at Nickel's and we payed for lunch after .

So I do not understand why we have to pay before and above all why all of you said that was free of charge and now you're saying that we have to pay.

 

So I agree with italian moderators, anyway we will see each other at luch on 15

[Bralo20]

Like Jane said, everything is paid for... The meeting will definatey go on...

 

The only thing left open for discussion is the gift package... I think it's in our best interest if no sponsor is found in the next week to keep it simple. The personalised name badges will be offered (they are allready delivered, I just need to print them) including a small token of appreciation for those who attend the meeting.

 

I think it will be a good solution for everyone. No need to beg for money and everybody will get something to remind the meeting (and the pictures/videos also ofcourse).

 

 

[J-Man]

I'm not being funny, but I keep noticing that the people who keep talking about how this part of the event should remain free all seem to have one thing in common....

 

Anyway, I've been banging on enough about this. Just let me know if additional payments are required. Thanks guys!

Edited February 21, 2011 at 06:23 PM by J-Man

[Bralo20]

OK... To make it very clear:

 

 

The meeting will be FREE of charge. There is absolutely NO discussion about that!

 

 

The only thing that is changing is the "GIFT PACKAGE" which will be "only" a small token of appreciation for attending the meeting. I think everyone will be OK by that?

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Stijn

co-organizer

ICDFM.org

[VinnyT.]

I'm not being funny, but I keep noticing that the people who keep talking about how this part of the event should remain free all seem to have one thing in common....

 

what do you mean?

Edited February 21, 2011 at 06:31 PM by VinnyT.