This company has recently been added on Expopedia, the tradefair service finder. Visit our website for more information.

Convention Models & Talent, Inc.
Dutch Valley Place suite A 1417
GA 30324 Atlanta (United States)
More information about Convention Models & Talent, Inc. …

An overview of the available activities for Convention Models & Talent, Inc. …

• Hostesses

Friday was supposed to be the busiest day for Marty at the convention. He has the meet and greet all morning, has to run for an election for Regional Director—Southwest Region position. Last night, we stayed up late so he can practice the speech. My good natured boyfriend thought he could just go to sleep and just wing it! No, I kept bothering him with questions and coached him all night! I added few more questions to the list of “expected” questions he had too.

So, today, I was on my own all day. To make things a little bit more interesting, it rained. RAIN! It hardly ever rains in Southern California around this time of the year so it was a good change. It reminded me of Korea a lot; the smell of the wet changing leaves on the ground, especially.

Well, I didn’t plan on rain on this trip so I stayed in the hotel room until close to noon. Then off I went! All I knew was 1) I wasn’t supposed to go to anywhere too interesting because Marty would get jealous, hehe, and 2) I wanted to visit some yarn shops and eat something good.

The first stop was Boston Public Library.

This is where people get food from the café inside the library and eat. It was a bit chilly to do that so you don’t see a lot of people there right now.

When I walked in, I was a bit lost. This library is HUGE. It’s more like a museum + a gallery + a library. There are so many things to stop and appreciate. Like this random printer, displayed in the gallery area of the library. I was lucky to have been able to take this picture because I went with Marty on Sunday and they blocked the hallway.

On the 3^rd floor of the library is a gallery. There were a bunch of interesting artworks in one hall; then there was a limited-time only viewing of “Bound,” a collection of book binding arts from an international competition. So many pretty book binding works. I didn’t take any pictures but some of them were really gorgeous. Just outside the gallery, the hallway makes you feel like you’re in a catholic church. This was a good moment for me because today was the day the bar results come out. And it made me think about my uber-religious sister who would’ve LOVED Boston.

I spent some time in the library, looking through some knitting books. They had so much more stuff! Norah Gaughan and many others. Mostly older books but still, there were many I had not seen in person.

After spending about an hour looking through things, I left the library and walked through Newbury Street. It’s like Santa Barbara’s State Street but with South Coast Plaza-feel to it. Some shops are pretty unique, other shops are your regular, high-end stores. Then Newbury ends where Boston Public Garden starts.

If you didn’t know better, this looks EXACTLY like this one street in Seoul. Haha. At this point, I didn’t go into the garden, being afraid of getting lost! LOL. Hey, it was just my second day and I was on my own. And it was getting really cold already. But so peaceful, isn’t it? People jogging by, kids playing in the garden, pretty leaves on all the wintery trees. Ah. Definitely the different scenery from what I’m used to everyday!

So at this point, I was headed toward Windsor Button, one of the yarn shops recommended by yelpers and Ravelry’s Boston Yarn Party people. They said that the shop has the most amazing selection, from Red Heart and Wool-Ease (cheap, acrylic yarn) to Malabrigo (yum) and Rowan. After passing this garden, you take a left (Tremont), a right on Temple. There was a construction going on there, and it sort of looks like a back alley, totally doesn’t look like a place where a yarn shop could be. I actually almost passed it without noticing it! I saw a girl walking into the store and thought, what kinda store is this? Then I saw it. Aisles and aisles of yarns. Seriously, I mean aisles and aisles, yarns everywhere, neatly organized. I was so busy looking at yarns and forgot to take pictures. I didn’t buy anything there though. I wanted to buy something I couldn’t get in California. The only thing I considered buying was Cascade Sock Yarn, which I’ve never seen before but it was a bit pricey and they didn’t have any colors I wanted. So, I left without any purchase! I know! Oh shame, oh shame!

After Windsor Button (I spent about an hour in there), it already got dark outside so I decided to head back to the hotel. I walked through Newbury Street once more, almost went into Newbury Yarns but decided to skip since I didn’t feel like buying yarns (GASPS!!!). I was so hungry. I didn’t have breakfast or lunch, and it was already almost 6pm.

Seriously, iPhone and Blackberry saved our asses on this trip. I decided that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, and that I didn’t want to eat at any restaurant by myself. So I looked on yelp for a place I could do a take-out. I found Thai Basil restaurant on yelp with pretty good reviews, so I went in, ordered (around 9 bucks), waited 5 minutes and got my food! The best service ever too. I came back to the hotel and ate my pad thai, then waited for Marty happy and full stomached.

More walking adventure! Marty came back around 8 or 9ish, and he was VERY hungry. We decided to try this place, Giacomo in North End. It was an Italian restaurant featured on Rachel Ray’s 40-dollars-a-day show. They did have a location near our hotel but this one seemed more promising, being in the “Little Italy” area and all.

One warning though, for some reason, North End is always colder. COLDER. And EXTREMELY windy. I had the thick jacket I used to wear in Atlanta’s snowy winter, and also in Canada. It was STILL cold.

Everything was closing by the time we left Giacomo (by the way, pretty good food!) and like I said, it was super super super cold. Quickly walking back to the hotel, I see this!!!

How random!!!! This building was literally between Trader Joe’s and a bar/grill restaurant. Such a random place to have one of the coolest music academies!

So that’s how the second day in Boston ended. I literally walked almost 5 miles today. My leg muscles are ON FIRE, and not in a good way, at all. This trip is making me realize more and more how much I don’t exercise anymore. And that I never learned how to walk properly. Apparently I drag my feet too much and now my boots are all contorted in really odd directions.

Good night, Boston; see you tomorrow!

Some hobbies are taken seriously, some are not. Some sports are taken seriously, some are not. Gaming is an activity popularly (and perhaps ignorantly) connected to immature and pubertal males. Why? Well, gaming tournaments like these definitly don’t help.

Game conventions like E3 are, to a large extent, the very display window of the game industry. And what would a gaming convention be without pleasant looking women with big boobs? Unheard of to most participants. We want to looka at new games, and we want them to be surrounded by half naked women.

A book convention or a film convention would be a much more classy experience. Why can’t games be classy? Well, that’s a good question. When a Counter Strike championship is taking place, and a pair of naked women start to rub themselves up against the competitors, in order to destract and test team loyalty, then serious isn’t exactly the first word that comes to mind.

When will the gaming industry grow up? Not in a while, it seems.

I thought

at first

that there was

some sort of a problem

of course

if you think there’s a problem

there IS a problem

even if that’s the only problem

which it isn’t

this problem has to do with depth

too much here

too little there

perched

nearly naked

on a rotten timber

above a fathomless hole

in the dark

with flat-soled salesman’s shoes on

best just not to move

really I’m lightly

food poisoned

from the buffet

in the guest suite

of a molded plastic products distributor

near the convention hall

where for three days

plastic paid all the bills

wait wait wait

if I just lie down

right where I am

and stay absolutely still

they’ll eventually find me

and put me in a room

with a tv

with a remote

which I can tune

to a nature show

with little ferret-like animals

cute ferret-like animals

(hell, they could be ferrets)

running all over

and I can get out of the bed

and climb on a chair

and put my eye

right up to the tv

and feel the electricity in my cheek

and see the bright little pixies

that hid my clothes

]]> http://abpworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/china-executes-2-for-child-abductions/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:41:33 +0000 ABP World Group Ltd. http://abpworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/china-executes-2-for-child-abductions/

BEIJING – China has executed two men for abducting and selling 15 children, many of whom were taken as babies or toddlers and have not yet been reunited with their parents, state media said Friday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Hu Minghua, 55, and Su Binde, 27, were executed Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Supreme People’s Court.

Hu was convicted of kidnapping and selling nine children from April 1999 to Oct. 2005. He was detained in January 2006. Five of the children, all boys now aged from 3 to 6, have been returned to their families, while the parents of the remaining ones have not been found.

Su was convicted of abducting six children between Sept. 2005 to July 2006. Five of the children were rescued by police while a sixth remains missing.

Child trafficking is big problem in China, where traditional preference for male heirs and a restrictive one-child policy has driven a thriving market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls. Girls and women also are abducted and often used as laborers or as brides for unwed sons.

Thousands of children go missing every year though the exact numbers of victims are difficult to obtain. Earlier this year, Chinese police announced they had rescued about 2,000 abducted children as part of a nationwide crackdown on widespread trafficking of women and children.

In October, China’s Ministry of Public Security set up a Web site — “Babies Looking for Home” — to reunite rescued children with their families.

State media have reported hundreds of rescues and arrests since the campaign began in April, and the new site had photos of dozens of children rescued from kidnappers but who had not yet found their families. The ministry set up a national DNA database earlier this year.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

by Jeremy D. Morley

Here are some tips for attorneys and clients faced with instituting or defending child abduction proceedings under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, whether in the United States or internationally.

In a nutshell, a Hague Convention application may be made when a child is taken or retained across an international border, away from his or her habitual residence, without the consent of a parent who has rights of custody, if the two countries are parties to the Convention. The child must be promptly returned to the habitual residence unless the return will create a grave risk of harm to the child.

1. ACT FAST

An attorney must be ready to file a Hague Convention application and institute or defend a Hague Convention lawsuit on extremely short notice.

Prompt action may be critical. The Convention specifically requires that hearings be conducted expeditiously. A Hague case can theoretically be instituted more than a year after the abduction but a defense will then arise that the child has become settled in the new environment and, in practice, the longer a child is in a new place the more likely it is that a court will be reluctant to send the child away.

Fast action by the left-behind parent is also necessary to help prevent a claim that the parent has acquiesced in the child’s relocation.

Clients must move quickly to obtain the documents needed to file the initial application and then to collect the documents needed for the hearing. They should normally be asked to prepare a detailed family history and to assist the attorney to develop evidence as rapidly as possible.

In addition to the Hague application and lawsuit itself, counsel for the left-behind parent should take many other steps.

First, counsel should enlist the support of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues. Second, the left-behind parent should institute civil proceedings. If there is no custody order in place from a court in the jurisdiction of the habitual residence, an application should immediately be made for such an order.

Third, counsel should consider putting the abducting parent on immediate written and formal notice of the dire consequences, civil, criminal and financial, that the abduction will cause to that parent personally, and, possibly to others conspiring with the parent. It may be appropriate to provide an extremely short time for the abducting parent to cure the problem by returning the child.

Fourth, the parent should consider requesting the federal and state prosecutors to institute both federal and state criminal proceedings. The federal crime of international parental kidnapping is a felony with a penalty of up to three years in prison. In addition, many states including New York have provisions that also provide criminal penalties for parental child abduction. It will occasionally be possible to seek extradition based on a federal warrant.

2. PREPARE THE FACTUAL PRESENTATION INTENSELY

Hague Convention cases are often extremely fact-intensive. They frequently hinge on the ability of one party to convince the court of matters such as the habitual residence of a child, the extent to which a parent actually exercised custody rights and whether or not a parent consented to or acquiesced in a new residency. For a court to resolve these matters it must analyze the relevant facts.

A successful Hague proceeding requires the attorney, working closely with the client, to marshal as much evidence as possible, in as many forms as possible, to support the client’s position.

Clients are frequently shocked that matters that to them are obvious and indisputable turn out to be disputed and to require them to produce clear and convincing proof. They may well be insulted that their word alone is insufficient to convince the court that they are truthful and that the other parent is lying.

In one case, the parents had moved permanently with their young child from the mother’s native country to the U.S. Two years later, the mother took the child back to her country for a vacation and then refused to return to the States. In supporting her claim that the child was never habitually resident in the States she claimed that the original move to America had been only temporary and that she and the father had agreed that they would return to the mother’s native country after a year or two. The mother had planned the move well in advance and had amassed — and even created — evidence that tended to support her claims. Additionally, she had removed evidence from the parties’ home that would have disproved her claims.

To win the case, we interviewed neighbors, friends, family members, schoolteachers, real estate salespeople, fellow office workers and an array of other people who had had some connection with the family. We checked into any and all areas of the mother’s life for anything that might indicate her intention to stay in the States. We obtained emails, notes, invoices, and other documents. We searched old household bills for evidence of the purchase of items that inferred a degree of permanency. At the hearing, the mother was shocked that her husband had collected so much written evidence to disprove her claims and undercut her credibility. The courts ultimately — and with great reluctance, since they were going against a local national — found in favor of our client.

Since Hague cases are tried quickly, there is usually only one chance to present the case and it needs to be done well at the very outset. An attorney must embark on a quick campaign of collecting mounds of relevant evidence to support the client’s positions, and must expect the other parent to lie, cheat, and distort the facts in a desperate attempt to avoid losing the case.

Just as a current military strategy is to employ overwhelming force to create shock and awe, so too in a Hague Convention case it is often advisable to use overwhelming amounts of evidence to win the case. Such a campaign in a Hague proceeding may yield a capitulation by the other parent even before the hearing actually commences.

Hague Convention hearings sometimes take the form of “he said, she said” disputes in which each side makes verbal accusations against the other. Documentary evidence is usually far better than the mere word of one parent. Thus, if you want to claim that a parent applied for an immigration visa, you must be prepared to do more than simply have the parent tell the court that this was done. You should do whatever you can to get hold of the actual application papers that the parent signed in applying for the visa, which may mean contacting the lawyer who handled the immigration matter originally.

While it is helpful if documents are supported by sworn statements, it is not essential. Both the Convention and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (“ICARA”) provide that authentication of documents is not required in a Convention proceeding.

3. PREPARE THE LEGAL ARGUMENT INTENSELY

Hague Convention cases raise unusual international law, foreign law and treaty law questions. They involve the courts in matters of a kind that they are usually not used to handling. In many jurisdictions the court may be entirely unfamiliar with Hague cases. Accordingly it is usually essential for the lawyers to help the court to an unusual extent. Certainly a well-reasoned memorandum of law is essential.

The matters in dispute in most Hague cases raise difficult legal issues that must be thoroughly briefed. Thus, the Convention requires the left-behind parent to establish that the child was taken from the “habitual residence” and that the parent had “rights of custody” under the law of that jurisdiction. However, neither of those fundamental terms is defined in the Convention and substantial jurisprudence has grown domestically and internationally setting forth often-contradictory determinations concerning their scope and meaning. Moreover, courts have held that, while they must determine under international law whether the left-behind parent possesses Hague Convention “custody rights,” they must first examine the law of the child’s habitual residence in order to ascertain the extent of the rights that such parent possesses under that law. In this regard, it is often essential to use foreign law experts to establish the existence and scope of such rights.

A Hague Convention attorney may ” and should ” cite cases not only from the domestic jurisdiction but also from other jurisdictions if they support the client’s position. It has become more usual to cite cases from other jurisdictions in this area of the law than perhaps in any other. Courts around the world recognize that it is best to coordinate their decisions with those of other courts internationally and, for that very reason, the Hague Conference on Private International Law has established a database of significant Hague cases from courts around the world.

4. AVOID BEST INTERESTS ANALYSIS

In representing the left-behind parent in a Hague proceeding, it is necessary to keep the court focused on the narrow issues that the Convention requires an applicant to establish and the narrow defenses that a respondent can assert. Whenever the hearing strays into any areas that might be considered as constituting an analysis of the child’s best interests, the applicant should vehemently object.

However, a party opposing a return should do his or her utmost to assert any and all relevant issues under the rubric of one of the defenses specified in the Convention and should be armed with case law to establish that similar claims were permitted in other cases.

5. BE FLEXIBLE CONCERNING EVIDENCE

In Hague cases evidence rules are usually relaxed, so evidence should be submitted in any possible format. Live testimony is invariably the best and normally everything should be done to get the left-behind parent into the courtroom. (An exception is if that parent would be a poor witness and his or her presence would create an opportunity for embarrassing cross-examination). If a witness cannot be brought to the courthouse, consider testimony by video conferencing or otherwise by telephone conference. As a last resort, submit affidavits.

6. USE AN EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY: IF THAT’S NOT YOU, FIND SOMEONE WHO IS

Hague Convention cases happen too fast, and too much is at stake for the client, for an attorney to learn about this area of law at the last minute. It is extremely important to locate counsel with knowledge and experience in Hague proceedings.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

Many left-behind parents are told that the Hague Convention will bring about the return of their abducted children. Some authorities say that if your child is abducted, you should follow procedures outlined by the Hague, but we don’t agree.

Until 1980, there was no international system in place to help parents recover abducted children who had been taken to other nations. The Hague Convention attempted to create one, but it doesn’t work. If you take the time to read the well-intentioned text of the Hague, you’ll see its many flaws.

In our opinion, it’s not worth the large amounts of money, time and trouble to hire an attorney to try using the Hague Convention to get your child back. You aren’t likely to get him or her back — and even worse, the abducting parent could be “legitimized” by the courts in another nation.

Under the Hague Convention, a case must be filed in the country where the abductor has taken the child. The courts of that country tend to render their decisions in favor of their countrymen, as the Hague Convention focuses on residency, not citizenship. There is little concern for the fact that the child is a citizen of the country from which he or she was abducted, or for the possible detrimental effect on the child.

Even if the child was born in your country, if that child is found to be a “habitual resident” by the courts in another country, the child may be ordered to be returned to that country.

This underscores the need to act quickly.

Few, if any, of the Hague signatory countries are going to send anyone out to physically recover your child for you. Embassy officials will check on the child’s welfare, if it is known where the child is and if the abducting parent lets them.

As soon as abducting parents are aware that that they’ve been located, they’ll usually disappear with the children again.

And about hiring lawyers

You need to be aware that a great amount of money has been spent on lawyers in foreign abduction cases. The unfortunate fact is that they, most often, can’t practice in the foreign courts and are required to hire associate lawyers in the foreign country.

Note: they often have no qualifications or experience working with child abduction cases.

More money…

Educate yourself

Many resources are available to help you learn about parental child abduction. If you’re dealing with an abduction, the better informed you are, the better equipped you’ll be to cope.

Recover your child

Time is of the essence. Parentally abducted children are helpless on their own and confused by the irrational and sometimes abusive acts of non-custodial parents who are supposed to have their best interests in mind. ABP World Group Ltd. has the manpower and the know-how to rigorously cover all avenues, and bring your child home.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

By Gerald Warner Politics

Just a few considerations in addition to previous remarks about the explosion of the East Anglia Climategate e-mails in America. The reaction is growing exponentially there. Fox News, Barack Obama’s Nemesis, is now on the case, trampling all over Al Gore’s organic vegetable patch and breaking the White House windows. It has extracted some of the juiciest quotes from the e-mails and displayed them on-screen, with commentaries. Joe Public, coast-to-coast, now knows, thanks to the clowns at East Anglia’s CRU, just how royally he has been screwed.

Senator James Inhofe’s Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has written to all the relevant US Government agencies, acquainting them with the nature of the e-mails. But the real car crash for Obama is on Capitol Hill where it is now confidently believed his Cap and Trade climate legislation is toast. It was always problematic; but with a growing awakening to the scale of the scientific imposture sweeping the world, as far as the Antipodes, the clever money is on Cap and Trade laws failing to pass, with many legislators sceptical and the mid-term elections looming ever closer.

At the more domestic level, the proposed ban on incandescent light bulbs, so supinely accepted in this servile state of Britain, is now provoking a huge backlash in America. US citizens do not like the government coming into their houses and putting their lights out. Voters may not understand the cut and thrust of climate debate at the technical level, but they know when the Man from Washington has crossed their threshold uninvited.

The term that Fox News is now applying to the Climategate e-mails is “game-changer”. For the first time, Anthropogenic Global Warming cranks are on the defensive, losing their cool and uttering desperate mantras such as “You can be sceptical, not denial.” Gee, thanks, guys. In fact we shall be whatever we want to be, without asking your permission.

At this rate, Copenhagen is going to turn into a comedy convention with the real world laughing at these liars. Now is the time to mount massive resistance to the petty tyrants and hit them where it hurts – in the wallet. Further down the line there may be, in many countries, a question of criminal prosecution of anybody who has falsified data to secure funds and impose potentially disastrous fiscal restraints on the world in deference to a massive hoax. It’s a new world out there, Al, and, as you may have noticed, the climate is very cold indeed.

TCU

There has never been a better moment to market your business. Consumer confidence continues to inch up and that confidence powers sixty to seventy percent of the economy. Market yourself before the rebound. A number of business owners within the Seattle region have said to us that they are distinctly busier this month (November 2009) by contrast to November 2008. Recently, I spoke with a business development person who works in the commercial division of a security company that provides monitoring and security equipment for business and residence. It is a very well known national company that most would be familiar with. He told me that last year after the financial meltdown his corporate office passed to him just barely five or six leads per month. Since then that has grown more recently to about twenty-four leads per month. He can longer keep up and his office is now going to provide him additional help through a new hire.

In another example, the owner of a landscaping company told me that his business completely froze this time last year. He received virtually no calls for work. It was brutal. This November his business seems to be back on track and growing. He told me that there have been instances of referring work to other landscapers because he simply did not have enough time or resources to handle any additional workload.

The security consultant and landscaping owner spend most of their time outside meeting with businesses throughout the region. Both say that construction seems to be picking up. Construction sites are moving again. Earlier this year construction had virtually dried up, but during the last few months, it seems to be on the rise. Last year in November of 2008, there was a one-year inventory of newly constructed homes on the market. This year, only a six-month supply remains and as that inventory depletes it adds pressure to begin building again because developers have a need to keep their pipelines flowing.

 Marketing your brand between now and the next up turn is an excellent way to get ahead of the curve while your competition is still indecisive. That indecision has left a large vacancy of brand messages in the market place. You can thank the Great Recession for forcing your competition to stick their heads in the sand! Your brand has the greatest potential to be seen more than any other time of the last seventy or eighty years, but you must act now! Waiting too long will assuredly be too late because at some point your competition is going to start marketing. When that happens, the flood of your competition’s marketing messages will make your messages harder to be seen. So, why share the market place with your competition? Do not share it! Take it!

Let others know who might need this insightful help. They could be your family, friends, peers or neighbors. Here are few examples of people who really need to act.

Business owners who own utility vehicles that provide services or deliver goods. For example, they could be contractors, electricians, plumbers, florists, landscapers or restaurants. Many utility vehicles on the road today do not have marketing graphics. That is a big mistake! Sometimes you will see a vehicle without a phone number or the lettering is too small. Other times you will see vehicles that need their graphics refurbished because the graphics are worn out. Remember that your customers judge your services or products by how well you maintain your brand. Fix these problems!

Other business owners who may be thinking of trade shows or conventions. Now is the time to involve yourself in trade shows so that you can get your brand out in front of the consumer.

Still others might be people who are getting ready to open a brand new business and are in need of indoor or outdoor signage, business cards or brochures.

Do not miss this opportunity to market yourself! The time is now!

I spent my Friday evening and Saturday at Anime USA in Crystal City. I’m getting a very special guest post coming up to talk about what went down (said poster is detained this weekend, sadly). But here are some awesome pictures by yours truly.

Happy days are here again.

Good times.

Oh my goodness, what a fall this has been. My schooling has been so chaotic its hard to update directly after a con because I have to get so caught up after missing one or two days! Its ridiculous! But ‘busy’ already is pretty much my middle name!

Youmacon went great. I got to debut quite a few costumes. Including my Rosemary costume from SaGa Frontier; which I had a lovely brother and group for! Oh the SaGa love! I also brought my Julian Moore costume (gallery up shortly) and a new Lady Gaga (gallery up shortly). I didn’t get many pictures of the latter two, thus the reason I don’t have galleries for them yet. I also grabbed my ‘Gijinka’ Robbie costume to hang out with my friend Miri, who also made a Bunny Boy costume to go along with mine. Fun was had by all!

I got to see a ton of awesome friends I don’t get to see very often and I got to meet quite a few new friends; some of which I have a feeling are gonna be some awesome cosplay friendships. Our hotel room was the best thing ever and I also worked for Kingdom Arts. Working for The Arts ended up paying for my trip, and not only that, brought me much closer to some of the coolest cosplay ladies in the world! You know who you are!

Totally going back next year!

I will be on my way to Orycon in Portland, Oregon in just a few hours so there is no true post today. I was hoping to have the review of In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed done but it’s turning into a bit of a mini-essay and I’m not finished researching a few things. I’m extremely tired so this might not even make sense.

Addendum to the Sears attitude issue: When I bought my coat it was on sale plus an extra $10 was taken off if you applied for a Sears card. I received the card in the mail but it’s a Sears MasterCard. Surprise to me. There was also a “buy now, don’t pay to January” sign when I bought the coat. In the process of all the paperwork to get the sale, I asked, does this apply to the coat (because it was for purchases over $100 and I was told yes. However when I got the statement it showed that I had to pay this month.

I called the number on the statement but they couldn’t help me as it’s really just the MasterCard office. They told me to call the store. That took about four tries to get through and not disconnected. Eventually I was told that I had to come in with the statement to get the payment deferred. They couldn’t do it over the phone because I didn’t have the credit card and hadn’t activated it.

So I went into a store on my way home and I was told any Sears would do. First there was no store directory so I had to ask for the accounts department. It seems they don’t have one but they sent me down to catalogue shopping, tucked behind the fridges.

The girl there was new and didn’t know what I was talking about and said her manager had gone home. I said I was told I could go to any store before it closed. Eventually she found some sort of manager. He came and showed her what to do and left and then she couldn’t get it to work and called someone. Then I had to talk to the woman on the phone and then give it back to the girl behind the counter. The the manager came back, (about a half hour has passed by now) and he starts to do it and asks for the expiry date of my card. I say I don’t have it on me and I haven’t activated it. He says he can’t do it without this and gives me a phone number to call back once I get home and get the card. (I could have been told this the first time I called).

Eventually I get home and get the card and call Sears. The number to that department is busy so the switchboard tells me it’s still busy. It’s about 8:25 and the store closes at 9. I leave in the morning for Portland and the bill is due at the same time. I have to do this now or get interest charged.

Then the switchboard accidentally disconnects me and I call back. They say the line is still busy and I say I will not call back but I will hold. They ask me for my credit card number to pass on and I say no. Then I get through and the girl has a customer so I wait. I give her the number, she takes my phone number and calls me back ten minutes later to say it’s done. Whew! Very exhausting.

Nun ist es vorbei, das ConventionCamp 2009 in Hannover. Zum zweiten Mal fand das mit dem twitter-Hashtag #cch09 belegte Event im Convention Center der Hannover Messe statt. Etwa 950 Teilnehmer hatten sich angemeldet; mit tatsächlicher Anwesenheit glänzten – laut Veranstalter vor Ort – im Laufe des Tages mindestens 800 Teilnehmer. Eine tolle Quote und bezeichnend für den gesamtheitlichen Erfolg der “(Un)Konferenz zur Zukunft des Internet“.

Erklärtes Ziel der Veranstalter war es, Partizipienten sowohl von Unternehmer- als auch Entwicklerseite, Kreative, Studenten und Experten an einen sprichwörtlichen Tisch zu bringen und gemeinsam Erfahrungen auszutauschen und neue Konzepte und Ideen zu diskutieren.

Die Agenda des Tages wurde – bis auf wenige Programmpunkte, wie die fünf feststehenden Keynotes – erst am Morgen vor Ort durch ein Spontan-Voting der Teilnehmer während der Eröffnung festgelegt. Per Handzeichen stimmte man ab, welche der Themenvorschläge aus dem Publikum zum Vortrag kommen sollten. Die daraus entstandene Themenauswahl bot Vorträge in den verschiedensten Richtungen. Da immer mehrere Sessions parallel liefen, konnte man natürlich nicht alles mitnehmen.

Meine persönlichen Favoriten waren die Vorträge “Wissenstransfer im Internet – wie geht das?”, “e-Commerce 2.0″ von Jochen Krisch und natürlich “SEO – Aktuelle Ranking-Kriterien bei Google” von Alan Webb. Sehr gut soll auch der Beitrag von Thomas Knüwer gewesen sein (Thema: “Die letzte Chance – wie Medienhäuser sich ändern müssen, um zu überleben”), den ich leider verpasst habe.

Eher enttäuschend hingegen fand ich den Vortrag des extra aus den USA eingeflogenen Stowe Boyd, der in seinem “The Social Revolution: Ten Years later, looking ten years ahead” betiteltem Vortrag leider wenig Neues zu erzählen wusste und stattdessen allgemeine Grundlagen des Social Web in blumigen Aphorismen umschrieb. Generell gilt dennoch vor allem denjenigen, die mehr oder weniger spontan ihre Vorträge hielten ein großes Dankeschön für die Bereitschaft, sich der nicht immer konstruktiven Publikumskritik auszusetzen und ihr Wissen zu teilen.

Verbesserungspunkte für das ConventionCamp 2010 sehe ich in der anteilsmäßigen Verteilung von Vortrags- und Diskussionszeiten, denn die tatsächliche interaktive Kommunikation blieb bei den meisten Vorträgen zugunsten langwieriger Powerpoint-Präsentationen auf der Strecke. Ansonsten gibt es jedoch kaum etwas zu meckern – das CCH09 wird mir als eine bestens organisierte Veranstaltung mit freundlichen Servicekräften, tollem Catering und einer super Stimmung in Erinnerung bleiben. Inhaltlich – tja… um es mit den Worten von Oliver Gassner zu sagen: “Wenn du vor der Kaffeemaschine kommst, hast du gewonnen.“

In diesem Sinne, bis zum nächsten Camp

Evangeline Cooper

PS. erste Bilder vom Event gibt es zum Beispiel hier

UK PonyCon 2009 Exclusive Pony
Fancy Feathers
NOW FOR SALE!

To purchase your pony please visit our online shop here:
UK PonyCon Online Store <– clicky clicky!

This year the UK PonyCon has been supporting
the Riding for the Disabled Association,
the profit from the sale of this pony will go towards helping them in their valuable work

To find out more about the RDA please visit their website: http://www.rda.org.uk/

Purchase Info

The price is £15 per pony plus the following shipping costs:

UK
£5.40 Special Delivery (One Pony)
£6.70 Special Delivery (Two or Three Ponies)

EUROPE
£7.27 Airsure Signed For (One Pony)
£8.48 Airsure Signed For (Two Ponies)
£9.80 Airsure Signed For (Three Ponies)

REST OF WORLD
£9.33 Airsure Signed For (One Pony)
£11.93 Airsure Signed For (Two Ponies)
£14.69 Airsure Signed For (Three Ponies)

This pony will be shipped in a sturdy postage box via Tracked / Signed For methods only.

PLEASE NOTE – Due to the expected high demand, ponies will be shipped in batches once a week, you will be notified by email once your pony has been shipped.

If you have any problems with the checkout / purchasing this pony or would like to pay via a different method, please do not hesitate to contact us

Die Abenter & Phantastik Nautilus hat in der aktuellen Ausgabe 12/2009 ein ausführliches Interview mit Christian Serratos, Daniel Cudmore und Edi Gathegi publiziert, welches von Robert Vogel auf der Ring*Con 2009 geführt wurde.

Ein wichtiger Auszug daraus für alle Vampir- und Ring*Con Fans:

Frage: Haben Sie schon andere Conventions besucht, und  wenn ja, wie unterscheidet sich das Verhalten der Fans von Land zu Land?

Edi Gathegi: Hier in Deutschland haben die Fans mehr Respekt vor uns als Personen. Sie freuen sich über das gemeinsame Erlebnis mit uns auf der Bühne oder während der Photosessions und Autogrammstunden und sind nicht aufdringlich. Anderswo läuft das Ganze sehr viel chaotischer ab und man braucht einen Leibwächter …

Christian Serratos: Normalerweise kommen wir durch einen Seiten- oder Hintereingang in das Conventiongebäude, aber hier kann man unbedarft durch die Menge gehen, ohne befürchten zu müssen, dass sich Fans auf einen stürzen.

… (mehr im Heft)

Die Ausgabe läßt sich auch komplett und kostenlos online durchblättern:

http://www.abenteuermedien.de/images/pageflip/n69

Redan nu står en hel del att läsa på Eurocons hemsida angående det planerade science fiction conventet i Stockholm, 17-19 juni 2011. Enligt hemsidan låter det väldigt trevligt:

Vi planerar en litterär kongress med flera parallella programspår på både svenska och engelska.Men det finns utrymme för nöje också – tanken är att alla ska ha roligt. Ni kan se fram emot tre dagar späckade med science fiction och fantasy i olika former, och det kommer att finnas chans att mötas på en informell träff kvällen före evenemanget startar.

Elisabeth Bear har presenterats som hedersgäst och har vunnit bland annat två stycken Hugo Awards (största utmärkelsen inom SF-världen en kan få?) och hennes senaste verk är den steampunkiga bokserien New Amsterdam. Verkar helt klart värt att kolla upp!