Fl.International Reptile Show?

This is even more messed up than Atlanta. Anyone planning on going to Clearwater,
to vend or attend, call the venue. Please. I am going to do so myself and confirm
what's going on, and post what I find here (though I will not be attending).

I spoke to Andrea just now (8:30 AM ) And the show is BACK ON.

As of NOW, the Clearwater show is back on. Still, I'm not going to be there. As much as I could use the money.

I just spoke with the people at the Harborview Convention Center too, the show is back on, BUT still may be cancelled yet again. The deadline for Tony is next Wednesday. So, I was told if I wanted to know for certain to call them back again on Wednesday 29th by the end of the day.

According to the Convention Center, the only reason they extended the deadline for him was because its to late to try and sell the venue to someone else.

Previously Cancelled show - Reinstated - The show was officially called off (removed from Harborview and Sun Festival's websites) for a variety of reasons that I will not discuss. Louise did however attempt several times to sell the promotion to Gila Productions and myself since mid last week. Gila turned it down for a variety of reasons and I turned it down because it is too close to Gila's highly successful "Tampa Mania" show at the fairgrounds (wouldn't want the 200 mile limit enforced lol) But seriously these shows are about the vendors and the attendees. Money was already collected from sponsors, vendors, and attendees and it is out of consideration for them, and them alone that the show has been reinstated by the fine folks at the Harborview Center. I hope all of the sponsors, vendors, and attendees do well for they, and they alone are the lifeblood of our industry. Here is the email sent to me this am by Harborview's Marketing Director.

"As of my meeting yesterday with Tony, the show is back on. He has promised to have everything straight with us. The date is so close that I am unable to sell the venue to anyone else. I know that he has a lot of vendors and they all want the show to go on as well. I am not at all happy with the undue amount of work that this has caused for the staff and we would all like this to turn out well."



Louise LeClaire

Director of Sales

Harborview Center

300 Cleveland Street

Clearwater, FL 33755

727-462-6778, ext. 226

727-462-6798 fax

lleclaire@harborview-center.com

www.harborv.com

"Celebrating 10 years of serving the community

I think it is very important we all understand that this is a CONDITIONAL reinstatement of the dates. Rourke is quite correct that it was simply too late to sell the dates.
Make no mistake. The posts of cancellation were not lies as Tony is telling people.
When you call to confirm you can also confirm that the show had been cancelled.
It was their words "100% cancelled"
Take note it IS NOT back on their calender. They will not put it back until Tony has paid in full.
He has until next Weds to do so.
Do not believe the hype. You need to be very cautious here.
Note also that there was no full page ad in this month's Reptiles Mag.
The only attendees will be Sun & Fun folks who will have no way of keeping a purchase as they attend other aspects of the show.
If you give money and it does not happen you know you'll have a pretty slim chance of ever seeing it again.
Good Luck,
Gino

It seems that the event in Clearwater Florida has been moved to Sewerwater. We'll have to wait until Wednesday to see if he flushes. And all this bad publicity is going to hurt the show if it is held. I sure am glad that I'm not going. Attendance will probably be poor, & some of the vendors listed as confirmed will not be there.

I also called the Harborview and it is on their recorded calendar and Andrea did say that it was definately going to happen. For the sake of everyone that has already paid, I hope so. But as with everything we will see.

I hope the show does go on. Not for Tony, but for the people that have already paid. It can be a real hassle getting jerked around like that.

coming from someone who paid for something and not gotten it,It doesn't look good.

It is not on their calender yet. Not until next weds.
Check it out for yourself:

http://harborv.com/
(click on informational calender.)

Take Care,
Gino