This won’t come as a huge shock but it’s a disappointment nonetheless for Game of Thrones fans: due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mischief Management has made the decision to postpone Con of Thrones this year. The annual convention celebrating GoT, A Song of Ice and Fire and the worlds of George R.R. Martin was set to take place July 17–19, 2020. Along with the postponement until 2021 comes an exciting change-up.
In addition to Con of Thrones, Mischief has secured new dates for all its 2020 events — Con of Thrones, LeakyCon Orlando, PodcastCon, and LeakyCon Denver — while keeping the events in the same host cities as previously announced.
Each event’s rescheduled dates are as follows…
● First and foremost, Con of Thrones will now take place August 6-8, 2021, at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. Originally the convention was set to land at Orlando’s sprawling Orange County Convention Center but the change in dates has led to change in venue. The Hyatt Regency Dallas provided an outstanding Westerosi experience for CoT 2018, and we’re looking forward to another stellar time at the Hyatt Regency next summer. For more info, please visit conofthrones.net!
● LeakyCon Orlando will now take place June 25-27, 2021, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.
● PodcastCon will take place August 20-22, 2021 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.
● LeakyCon Denver will now take place October 29-31, 2021, at the Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center in Denver, CO.
“Normally, we would be moving our events to different cities each year. Instead, we have worked with local venues to assure the events we promised can still take place,” says Melissa Anelli, CEO of Mischief Management. “With more time to properly develop these events we are looking forward to an incredible 2021. Our entire community has been expressing such kindness and patience during this unprecedented time, and we thank them and can’t wait to see them again.”
Tickets: Tickets purchased for 2020 events will be automatically honored for 2021 events. Ticket holders also have the option of transferring to a corresponding 2022 event. Those who retain their tickets will receive additional benefits and discounts throughout the coming year.
Mischief Management is working to ensure that any currently announced guests will be in attendance at the new event dates. In the event that a guest is unable to attend, attendees who have purchased add-on experiences with the guests will be contacted directly with more information regarding refunds for those add-ons.
Refunds: Requests for refunds will be accepted through Friday, June 19, 2020.
”Refunds: Requests for refunds will be accepted through Friday, June 19, 2020.”
Kind of a short fuse for refunds… June 19 is what,
two weeks from today?
Ten Bears,
Would you like help getting a refund, Ten Bears?
Sue the Fury,
Oh, no thank you! I’m good. I was just thinking about the fandom at large. Maybe Mischief Management will be sending out notices to all ticket holders?
Two weeks can fly by…
Ten Bears,
Emails went out to everyone, no worries there!
Mischief Management finally did the right thing. Should have done this weeks/months ago.
Jack Bauer 24,
I will always be grateful
Sue the Fury,
Ah good!
Now I can start planning for the rescheduled Con of Thrones next year (August 6-8, 2021) at the Orlando Hyatt Regency. I stayed there once. It was a really nice hotel. I hope it still is.
…And will also start formulating my updated Guest Wish List.
*water out nose* 😆 Brilliant.
Not surprising, but I feel bad for those who were looking forward to it. I suppose they didn’t want to cancel earlier just in case things happened to work out, with the huge amount of planning and guest appearances they secure. Glad to hear there is the option for people to transfer tickets to 2021 or get refunds. And I think it’s a nice touch that the same cities will get to host. It’s too far away from me to attend this year, but you just never know what can change. 😊
Better late than never. As you and I have noted for the past couple of months, with so much uncertainty about the dangers from the pandemic, many fans (including me) were unwilling to attend a large indoor gathering in July even if lockdowns and other restrictions were lifted. Plus, we could not fathom that the guest actors and invited speakers would still be willing to travel by air from other countries or distant states.
This postponement may prove to be a blessing in disguise, aside from the long-shot hope that science will make sufficient progress against the virus, whether by effective treatments or a vaccine, over the next year such that nobody would have any compunctions about attending:
With the caveat that this is an unqualified* tinfoil theory of mine based on limited information, and although the virus is and will likely remain highly contagious (with the unfortunate additional dangers posed by asymptomatic carriers mingling in public and unwittingly spreading the disease), I’ve started to suspect that effective transmissions, (e.g., “super-spreader” events), generally take place in enclosed, congested settings with people close together breathing in each other’s expelled aerosolized droplets. Perhaps an extended period of exposure is required to take in more than a few particles in order for the disease to gain a foothold in the respiratory system.
* Damn it, Jim! I’m a fanboy, not a doctor!”
I don’t know… Maybe the immune system can more readily fight off a small number of particles, whereas a larger influx past a certain threshold overwhelms the body’s defenses, and allows the virus to replicate?
I know this is anecdotal, but many of the “super-spreading” events I’ve been reading about have been church choir practices and indoor conferences; while other outbreaks have been traced to exposures of people to each other for relatively extended periods in confined, enclosed settings – like nursing homes, prisons, meatpacking plants, offices, subways, and buses.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the major outbreaks in New York and other cities are eventually traced to travelers hurriedly returning to the U.S. (after you-know-who’s surprise announcement of an impending ban on flights from certain European countries and other arbitrarily designated foreign countries.) Those arriving passengers from different places were all herded into jam-packed airport terminal customs areas for hours, with no segregation of the sick from the healthy, no screening or testing, and no protocols for quarantining. There had to be a non-negligible risk that some incoming travelers infected others while penned in together, multiplying the number that would become unwitting disease vectors upon returning to their homes.
Anyway, I’m beginning to wonder if the chances of transmission decrease markedly in outdoor settings – whether people are more naturally spaced apart from each other outside; circulating wind and drafts blow contaminated breathed air away; or the duration of exposure is otherwise decreased in outdoor settings. Of course, wearing masks when outdoors shortens the effective range of expelled droplets even more.
I hasten to add that this extrapolation of reduced risk of outdoor settings does not apply to oblivious people congregating in bunches in pools or at picnics, and selfish folks gathering to demonstrate that their own “freedom” outweighs the health risks to everyone else. Such science-denying conduct also diminishes or eliminates entirely the proven benefits of physical distancing, staying at home, mask wearing, and avoiding unnecessary excursions to public places – especially with throngs of like-minded self-interested folks.
A venue like the Orlando Hyatt Regency – with large outdoor areas – might provide a convenient alternative to packing fans inside convention halls, or spacing out seating so that only a limited number can attend the events. So long as the weather permits and the hotel makes minor modifications to its outdoors facilities, holding the events outdoors might be the way to go.
I visited the Orlando Hyatt Regency several years ago. I recall it had a large pool and patio area. I’m not sure if it looks the same now. However, I believe some hotels in Florida already have the capability to install temporary hardwood flooring panels or other sturdy coverings over their pools, e.g., to host concerts and other events. If the technology isn’t in widespread use now, perhaps it will be in a year from now.
Also, while I think the jury’s still out whether the incidence or potency of the virus diminishes in warm weather, August in Central Florida is nothing like Winterfell after the arrival of the white raven from the Citadel. And if U.V. light cripples or kills the virus, the scorching sunlight in the dead of summer in Florida might be beneficial as well.
If nothing else, and if my recollection of the layout of the Orlando Hyatt Regency layout hasn’t been skewed by the passage of time or the rum + Diet Coke I downed by the pool when I was there 🥃 🍹, holding Con of Thrones events outdoors would enable the hosts to space out seating in accordance with physical distancing protocols to accommodate the same (or greater) number of fans who would ordinarily fill up a convention hall.
Finally, although I admit I was not familiar with the facilities of the convention center for the now-postponed July, 2020 Con of Thrones, it’s entirely possible that the Hyatt Regency may well be an upgrade. I hope so.
Re: (Rescheduled) Con of Thrones, August 6-8, 2021
Here’s what I think the outdoor area of the Orlando Hyatt Regency looks like:
https://assets.hyatt.com/content/dam/hyatt/hyattdam/images/2014/09/21/1410/MCORO-P005-Exterior-Pool.jpg/MCORO-P005-Exterior-Pool.4×3.jpg?imwidth=960
+ Image from Con of Thrones website…
https://www.conofthrones.net/hotel
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Pigeon,
”…It’s too far away from me to attend this year, but you just never know what can change.😊”
Now you have a year to try to plan to attend!
By the way, I’m not one to talk, and I don’t mean to sound flippant. If memory serves correctly, it’s a long way for you to travel.
Orlando is only about 200 miles from where I live: about an hour by plane, or three hours by car (less than two hours if my brother drives and activates his cruiser’s on-board LF Jetpack hyperdrive).
Haha! LF, we need you now! (Noooo….)
Google maps tells me that Orlando is a mere 2,500 miles or 36 hours from here. Hmm. Mind you, it also says that I could make it there by foot in 33 days. I’m not sure what kind of training program they assume people have completed, but it would probably take 33 days to get to the damn border, knowing me. 😆
It would sure be nice to meet a bunch of you!
No surprise really especially with the travel ban limiting those out side of the US attending and rocketing COVID cases in Florida right now, people need to put safety first.