A Statement Regarding SOS 2014.

[Tani Coyote]

If time constraints and the workload can't be reconciled, I'm hopeful that extra staff will be brought on board for the next event, whenever it would be. It sounds from the statement that SoS has a slight labor shortage... if Sonic Revolution, new and small as it is, is close to being overstretched in terms of staff, I can't imagine the sort of manpower SoS requires.

I know a lot of planning goes into SoS given it is planned enough in advance it can be announced a year in advance, so I'm hopeful that the hiatus will allow for some restructuring that will allow SoS to return even bigger and better than before. I will try my best to fly out for the 2016 event, assuming there is one... I can only imagine how spectacular it will be.

I do hope the SoS staff aren't so busy they can't relax a little during the hiatus, though! Everyone deserves a break.

[SuperBrandon]

Aw that really sucks as I wanted to go this year for the first time . It's understandable why there will be a break. And whenever the next SOS will take place I'll be there.

[Badnik Mechanic]

A what?

[Tani Coyote]

The About Page on that is blanking out, could you give more information?

It sounds like not one single event, but musical performances all around the world?

I know I'm an outsider, but I think I can say with certainty that while that's a neat idea, it's not Summer of Sonic.

[Tani Coyote]

Hmm, that actually doesn't sound too bad an idea.

The only issue is if it's a multi-day event, it's probably going to have to charge. While SEGA Europe is able to bankroll a one day event for free, two or three would likely be pushing it.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Ok here's the deal:

 

 - Extend the event to three days and let each day have a theme within the realms of Sonic and fandom.

 - Let a bigger association, such as Boiler Room, take care of music-related issues such as PA systems and broadcasting.

 - Open up the event to the press. Invite the bigoted Guardian writer who nerd-shamed us for no apparent reason, for example.

 

The deal is that because SEGA Europe has been downsized and some important folks have been "retiring" from the fandom, we have to get help from the outside to sustain this event. Boiler Room is just one of these that can help us.

 

 

 

Hmm, that actually doesn't sound too bad an idea.

 

Ok... here are the problems with that.

 

1: Extending the event to three days will treble the cost of the venue hire. Whilst I'm not at liberty to say how much the venue hire is, I'm sure if you think about the cost to hire out the Westminister Hall for three days, you can probably get a very good idea. 

 

Secondly, the cost to put on a three day event is radically increased when you factor into it the following.

 

• Time in which has to go into the planning of the event.
• Time which goes into creating content for a three day event.
• Cost of having guests over for a three day event.
• Cost of having paid for staff at the event (Sega payroll staff that is).
• Cost of having SOS volunteers physically get to and stay at the event.
• Time in which goes into planning and cost of making content for three themes which are unique enough to justify a three day event.

And those are the few things which come to mind at 00:50am in the morning.

 

There is absolutely not reason at all to make SOS a three day event since that's not what it is and there's no justification at all to make it a three day event.

 

2: Music/PA/Broadcasting has never been an issue before so I do not see why this would be a problem or an issue. 

 

3: SOS is already open to and is regularly attended by the press. This isn't unknown knowledge since after every SOS there's usually a number of press articles about it, one year there was even a magazine article on it.

[Tani Coyote]

Ok... here are the problems with that.

Good ideas aren't necessarily smart ideas. A three day event is a fantastic idea, but good luck securing the funding for it. I only support the idea in principle because I understand the funding is not there and probably never will be there.

 

1: Extending the event to three days will treble the cost of the venue hire. Whilst I'm not at liberty to say how much the venue hire is, I'm sure if you think about the cost to hire out the Westminister Hall for three days, you can probably get a very good idea.

For reference for any outsiders, an 1800 capacity space here in Vegas is 10,000 dollars a day. And Vegas has a lot more open space than London.

 

And those are the few things which come to mind at 00:50am in the morning.

 

There is absolutely not reason at all to make SOS a three day event since that's not what it is and there's no justification at all to make it a three day event.

Now you have me wondering, costs aside, why SoS wouldn't be a three day event. "That's not what it is" implies that even if the funding were a non-issue, it still wouldn't be one.

As for costs... ohhhh yes. I've only planned a two day event myself (for 600) and watching those zeroes accumulate is just buckets of fun. I can't imagine what a three-day event of SoS' size would look like.

[Detective Shadzter]

SoS news has made it on to Digital Spy.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a573218/summer-of-sonic-event-to-skip-2014-confirms-sega.html#~oFasDke9SoOCL1

 

Shows how big and relevant the convention's got. 

[Tani Coyote]

There's always crowdfunding!

 

Money wasn't the issue, though. As Shadzter said, SEGA was fully behind SoS. SEGA bankrolls most of it, so I presume funding was already there.

The issue was time if I'm reading it right - there wasn't enough of it in the SEGA and SoS staff's schedules.

[Jolt_TH]

Well to be fair, I imagine for the past 6 years the SOS staff havent really had a break from organizing. An event that big probably started planning straight after, if not initial planning BEFORE the previous SOS had even started. the guys deserve a break and im sure they will be back soon enough in a year or two with another amazing event for all of us! and if they require additional help im sure many members here would help (although im guessing UK members would be better for help, being a UK event and all). I mean heck i'd love to help run one of those!

[Tani Coyote]

Making SoS biennial actually isn't too bad an idea in my view, as it would allow for an even bigger event.

 

Though with regards to staffing, I'm actually surprised it would present an issue; I imagine there's no shortage of fans who'd be willing to volunteer. Sonic London alone has 300+ members.

[Rurifuu]

 

Though with regards to staffing, I'm actually surprised it would present an issue; I imagine there's no shortage of fans who'd be willing to volunteer. Sonic London alone has 300+ members.

 

I'm going to speak up here, as this is an issue I'm currently dealing with for WSS. There are what I consider three groups of people that could be found. Group 1 would be the fans that are interested in attending the event, but aren't willing to do anything towards it. Group 2 are the ones that will want to volunteer, but at the end of the day, might just be looking for easy entry into the event and may not make things easier at the end of the day. Whilst group 3 is your group of good volunteer staff, which make the day fantastic!

 

WSS is looking for new staff to help with the running of the day. But we're weary about selecting new staff without some form of track record or proof of their skills. It's like selecting a new employee for your business. On paper they may sound perfect and meeting them might make you believe you're picking the right person for the job. But that person ends up doing as little work as possible, turning up late to work and finishing earlier than their shift end time, taking dozens of bathroom breaks just to get out of doing work, hiding in a quiet part of the workplace with a mate and just chatting for as long as it takes for a manager to find out they've gone missing. I'm guessing the SoS wouldn't have the spare time to check on staff to make sure they're doing their roles.

 

I'm not saying everyone is like that. The SoS team currently is fantastic! It's easy to pick people to volunteer, but it takes even more work to find out which people would make the whole event run easier in the long run. Ideally you'd need to put them through a trial run before the big summer event.

[Tani Coyote]

Oh, I know that last bit all too well! While Sonic Revolution has leadership already, I regularly work to make sure everyone stays on task so as to ensure everything's ready the day of. When there's tons of time to prepare, procrastination becomes a real menace.

I guess we'll find out how everyone works on the floor in a few weeks.

With regards to SoS, I'm hopeful they'd be able to find some more individuals in Group 3; with as many fans as there are in the UK, I'm sure there's at least a few who don't work with SoS yet. My main idea is that any event should look to have backup staff members; if Person A is unable to find time to do their part, there's a Person B who could do so.

[T-Bird]

Just thought I'd drop a little message here.

 

First off, I want to thank everyone for understanding the decision, as it is not one we made lightly at all. We know that you guys love Summer of Sonic, and it is what has kept us coming back year after year.

 

The decision this year was not made because of any dictation by SEGA and it was not made for financial reasons. One of the reasons Summer of Sonic works so well is that the team behind it are such a tight-knit group of talented individuals; together we brought to the table all the skills needed to put this event together. Not only this, we are all now good friends, and we all work together as colleagues and as kindred spirits. Last year Svend retired from his role as coordinator of the event, as his work commitments dictated otherwise. While the event went ahead, I had to quite quickly jump into Svend's shoes as organiser, resulting in many long days and sleepless nights, acquainting myself with new contacts, learning procedures and coordinating many aspects of SoS I hadn't before. Fortunately the team came together once more in to create possibly the most clockwork SoS to date, and with no technical hitches or fires to note!

 

This year however, we've found there are just too many people involved in SoS who can't commit fully as far as time obligations go, myself included. We have decided that rather than pull something together for the sake of running another Summer of Sonic, we should put it on hold for a while until we have the time to dedicate again.

 

I know some folks have talked about getting other people involved; there is an army of fans out there dying to get involved in SoS. Personally, that makes me feel confident that when the day comes that we can't commit any more, there will be others to take up the reigns. Unfortunately, there will probably need to be a few years where we show "the next generation" the ropes, because until there is someone who can literally step into one of the many involved roles, particularly those that are technical, those people are irreplaceable. I don't know anyone who could fulfill a role like B'man's and create a bitchin' SoS site year after year, or create a fantastic live stream that the guys from the Sonic Show put together. As much as it looks like my obligation to SoS is to stand on stage like a plonker every year; there are 4 months before this of sleepless nights, endless meetings, email exchanges and involved coordination or every facet of SoS.

 

All this being said, we will be back. I still feel I have another Summer of Sonic in me, and I think after a bit of a break we will be willing to fly back at 110% and conjure up and even more fantastic event than ever before.

 

During this sabbatical, I plan on being at both Sonic Fest (Tokyo) and Sonic Boom (New York) this year; I'm really keen to see what SoA and SoJ have planned (I loved Sonic Boom back in 2011, been itching to get to another) and hopefully meet fans from other continents to get their opinions. Perhaps there will be some inspiration for a future SoS out there!

 

SoS will return. Until then, go support all these other fantastic meets springing up all over the place (I've lost count of how many there are now!). Summer of Sonic as a convention grew out of regular pub meetings of a handful of people - get the right people together and you too can make something special.

 

T

[MamboCat]

<3 TBird, thankyou. I've never been to SoS but I know a fair few of the guys of STCO that do go; it looks more amazing each year. However having helped friends organise big events in the past, I can understand the amount of work that goes into it is phenomenal.

 

Have a great summer!

[Tani Coyote]

Thank you for the input, T-Bird! I hope the team enjoy their break and will look into apprenticeships of sorts in the future, so a day can come when a newer generation can be handed responsibilities without concern; it is a given a lot of work must go into such a large event, and an unpaid at that!

In the meantime, I hope a positive of SoS' hiatus will be the strengthening of the meetup movement, as you mentioned. Boom 2013 moving to St. Louis helped encourage western US fans to try and get an alternative going, so I'm optimistic those fans in Greater London and Europe will likewise feel inspired.

Above all, the silver lining is that this is only a hiatus; usually when time is a concern, projects like this can get axed entirely. It says a lot about the team's dedication that they still want to make this work another year, when they (in my view) would be well within their rights to let this be permanent as this is all volunteer work.

[kimplix]

to be honest, if the event was a plan ahead for this year, I would entirely expect some Anniversary to be part of the day for either Sonic Heroes or Cream and Vanilla. Something similar to last year's Metal Sonic & Amy Rose 20th Anniversary

[Tani Coyote]

A part of me ponders if SoS won't return until the 25th anniversary in 2016. It gives time for lots of planning as well as searching out some new blood to lessen the workload on more busy individuals.

Three years to plan it would make for an awesome party, to say the least.