Before I dive into any potential TL;DR, I just want to highlight this:
I missed out on the ticket scramble for Pomingham Palace (though I live in hope yet), so I'll be going to the next event for sure. The ticket sales just fell at an awkward time (late payers and several cheques, fucking maddening), plus it was 2pm when the ticket sales started and I was at work and not all of us use a computer at work, le sigh.
Not sure where I'm going with this now, I want more Kupo!
I bought some of the cheaper tickets a few hours after tickets went on sale.
Consider one reserved for you
I'll help answer a few queries (I've this strange habit lately of not posting for 1/2 week periods - my apologies for any delays). Please feel free to ask anything specific - likewise, we could turn this into some sort of interview, should anyone ever feel like doing something of the sort
So, the reason there is even a third UK event is as a result of the demand for the second one, P. Palace. That is, having sold out so soon---so very unexpectedly soon---a lot of people were left without being able to get a ticket. Obviously, to accommodate this, another event had to be in the UK, and considerably close to our original locale of demand (in this case, London), but we also know we're going to get overlapping attendees - thus, there's a fine balance to be found in trying to deliver new elements while also trying to keep elements that will be in P. Palace, as this new UK event is primarily a reaction to those unable to get a ticket for P. Palace. It's not our aim to have these two events so close to each other. In the greater future, UK events are likely to be on a larger scale to accommodate more people at a time.
Regarding the notion of demand, the above is a different type of demand than how lots of individuals look for KC to come to lots of different location. Bottom line is it's not that simple. Consider the size of our event and team, and that we don't make money on any of this [surplus funds go into future events, hence initiating the growth]. We have to find the most suitable of locations, those where we don't risk having to shell out thousands of our own dollars/euro to cover costs on account of lacklustre ticket sales (none of this is cheap, that's for sure). Fortunately, KC is lead very well in this regard (at worst, we've only ever had an underestimation of ticket demand, which of course was P. Palace's unprecedented sellout).
As an example, we haven't forgotten the US. I had
a lot to say about this, but I didn't want to come across too harshly, so I'll summarise and say as an international team it's one of our riskiest locations to work with, but we still plan on making it work again.
Honestly, I could go on for ages about so much more, but I don't want to pick on everything mentioned here bar what has been the core of the discussion so far (i.e., the third UK event and locations). I don't want to risk coming across as defensive or even argumentative - and I sincerely apologise if any of this did. If people forward specific questions/concerns/curiosities regarding anything of anything, I would be more than happy to do my best to answer them
@Yop - I'm glad to see elsewhere you've since got your travel covered for this month!
Knowing the nature of TLS---that is, of its members---I suspect TLSCon might not be the word for it. Not unless, of course, you want some of us to set up some appropriate...displays or events...then, sure, you got it
(Yeah, this is very crap sexual innuendo. I'm ill and exhausted; leave me alone, ha!)
On a different note, Vancouver's event will be taking place on April 21, 2018.