SEMC Vs BMC
Ian Wragg
received this mail today and decided to post it here to see if it will start
a bit of discussion in the group. There's loads of name calling going on in
various forums lol.
See what you think.
Ian
Southern England Magic Convention
Statement For Information
This statement is released on behalf of The Southern England Magic
Convention by Black Swan PR. It has been sent to all parties we believe may
have an interest in the situation arising, in order to inform and update.
For more details contact
Collin Richardson, Geoff Pescud, Convention Organizers - 0800 118 2688
collin...@virgin.net
Black Swan PR, PR Agency, 07760236762, p...@blackswanpr.com
<Statement Begins>
The Southern England Magic Convention has been started to progress magic in
the UK. We firmly believe that the south of England is in need of a large,
multi-national magic convention. The UK has always been a strong centre for
magic around the world, and we feel that having more than one large magic
convention here, can only be of benefit to the UK Magic Industry.
However, during the organisation process for the convention, we have come up
against problems caused by Blackpool Magicians Club Ltd, hosts of the
Blackpool Magic Convention.
Blackpool Magicians Club Ltd issued a letter to all their dealers, stating
"Dealers exhibiting at any other British convention 5 weeks prior to the
Blackpool convention will not be offered a dealer booth at Blackpool".
They have issued the same clause to all their performers, in some cases
stating that those who choose to perform at the SEMC will be banned for life
from Blackpool Magic Convention.
Following these clauses being made, we have had 4 dealers remove themselves
from our program.
We believe that these clauses are unfair and unlawful, and place undue
pressure on dealers and performers from around the world, to make decisions
they should not have to make. We believe that these trade restrictions have
the potential to severely damage the UK Magic Convention industry.
We have since started to instigate inquiries to the Office Of Fair Trading
(Trading Standards) and the Monopoly's Commission due to the clauses being
introduced by BMC Ltd. We will also be looking at taking legal action
against those who have damaged or seek to damage the new convention by their
actions.
We feel that Blackpool Magic Conventions actions are unilaterally out of
line with the spirit of the brotherhood of magic, and that their actions are
likely to damage the UK's reputation as the world leaders in magic
conventions.
We have no problems with getting along with the Blackpool Magic Club, and in
providing and receiving healthy competition. The UK has enough magicians,
dealers and artists for more than one large magic convention, and we wish to
prove it.
We are aware that the BMC have tried to divert the attention away from the
real issue at hand, by quoting members of forums and private letters, and
attempting to directly associate them with the SEMC, however we now wish to
bring this back to the real subject at hand, and alert people to the
situation currently arising.
We are not asking you to take or choose sides, we are simply asking that you
do what you know and believe is right for the UK Magic Industry. In the long
run, without a strong UK magic convention scene, we all lose out.
Take a stand for what you believe in, and help keep the spirit of the
brotherhood of magicians alive.
<Statement Ends>
This statement is copyright free, and may be reproduced in any form.
Ray Haddad
and "Ian Wragg" <ian....@ntlworld.com> instead replied:
That's pretty underhanded, Ian. We had a convention in Perth and we
had performers who we paid a lot of money to bring over. As a
condition of their employment, they weren't allowed to book other
lectures in other Australian cities until the first day of the
convention. Knowing them all personally helped a lot but we couldn't
risk having people not show up at this Australia-wide convention
because they were going to see their favorite guy next week.
At the convention, they were free to accept offers of lectures in
other cities. Only one did.
That's a little different but I related that as an application of
professionalism which seems to be what is missing from this
conflict. There seems to be the valid concept that some will choose
one or the other and both will be diminished for a second
convention. While this may be true, the organizers should use a
method other than threats to compete. There are ways.
--
Ray
roge...@btinternet.com
I've been reading quite a lot in the English chat groups about the way that the
BMC are acting.
While Ray's comments about booking's close together make sense, the relevant
thing seems that the BMC is threatening to give a life ban from their
convention to any artists and dealers attending the SEMC show. This is
bullying tactics and certainly anti-competitive.
I understand that they have already banned for life the organisers of the SEMC
from their future conventions, and the BMC are well known for their life ban's
for what seems like minor infringements of their rules and regulations.
Certainly the dealers are not able to make any criticisms public, as they know
that they would be banned from attending for life.
I attended the BMC convention last February, and I was extremely disappointed
with the evening shows. They used some of the same performers in both the
Saturday and Sunday shows, & I got the impression that it was being done 'on
the cheap', possibly to pay for the expensive meeting hall that the BMC are
buying for themselves.
The dealers hall and the lectures were good though. I'm hoping that the new
convention will spur the BMC to do much better next year.
However, if they intend to spend their income in bribing dealers & acts, and in
lawyers fees, then it can only reduce the quality of their convention.
I tend to look at the web site of my local dealer (I'm lucky enough to have an
actual magic shop locally www.mikedanatasmagicstudio.co.uk ) to see what the
SEMC show features.
At the moment, the BMC site has no details of the shows or lectures. Perhaps
they are devoting too much time to trying to kill any competition?
roger_tmi