In light of the latest information from the Prime Minister and the Chief Medical Officer and with fewer than 4 weeks to go before this year’s ECM, unfortunately, we’re going to have to postpone the event.
The advice given is that social gatherings should now not happen to help ensure everyone stays safe and the burden on the NHS is kept to within safe limits to care for those that need it.
We are massively disappointed, but fully understand this decision.
What about my tickets?
We will, of course refund everyone the price of their ticket, though we have noted that a number of you want us to either retain their ticket price against costs or as a charitable donation in lieu of the funds we would have raised. We’ll look at that on a case by case basis, but the default option is that if we don’t hear from you, we’ll refund you as a matter of course. If you have questions, or want to get in touch, our address is info@elitecommunitymeet.info and you can access our discord channel if you want to talk to any of the team.
What next?
We will be talking to the venue about the possibility of postponing the event and will look to keep it in the same location with their assistance.
When?
At this stage, we don’t have an answer for this. Options are potentially to look later in the year should the situation improve, or maybe look for the same time next year. It is a massive time sink for the volunteers and finding a time of year when we’re all free to build all the awesome fun is a challenge, but one we’ll start working on shortly.
What about the raffle prizes and all the great things we’ve made/supplied?
The team will be looking to create a digital event on the date of ECM itself and we intend at this stage to open up the raffle to all those who had tickets and provide a few hours entertainment and a big giveaway for charity of all the wonderful creations. We’ll be talking to our sponsors and offering them the chance to be involved, showcasing their own products and joining in the fun, but at this stage we can’t make any promises.
The event costs
As it stands, other than individual costs for things created, we’ve paid a deposit to the venue and paid for event insurance (which unfortunately specifically excludes the current situation). It is our hope that we can renegotiate to carry that forward and not leave us with costs in the hopes of running ECM Take 2 in the future.
My hotel isn’t letting me refund/my travel costs aren’t letting me refund
Whilst we can’t help directly with these, anything we can do in terms of confirmation of the cancellation of the event to support you getting a refund, or helping persuade them to give you a credit against a future stay or future travel, of course we are happy to give you a copy.
Update from Premier Inn:
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/coronavirus.html
The update from Premier Inn is that Non-flex bookings will be refundable should you rebook an equivalent booking with the chain before october. Even if that booking is for a future date.
This means you do not need to panic about your non-flex bookings, even if they have passed and been charged. When you make your replacement non-flex booking (paying again), you email the references and details to the specific email address and they will process a refund on your original booking. Now hopefully this means you won’t need to spend hours on the phone like me and can instead wait for the pressure on call centres to pass with knowledge you should be covered.
Thank you one and all for the support you give the event – it’s built by the community and it’s the community spirit that will keep us going until the next one. In the meantime, watch out for notification of the “Virtual ECM” that we’re hoping to put together and hope as many of you as possible can join us, even if only for a few hours.
Friday – the day arrived when it was time for the crew to set up. The Glasgow Funbus containing Psykokow and the tech monkey Simoof left at silly o’clock for the south. Down on the South coast, one car was being loaded with zombies and another with gaming rigs. Elsewhere, commanders were boarding planes, packing their games and readying their very best geeky t-shirts. We received a call from a courier – he had FIFTEEN Noblechairs to deliver for us (thanks Noblechairs!). We mustn’t forget Alvin. He boarded his chariot and asked the driver Snos to go get other people so he could have more minions to boss around.
The crew were down for breakfast 7.30 sharp (ok, apart from Fletch) to finish rigging everything, from 8 people started arriving with their own gear. The Retro area took shape – 10 computers ranging from the late 70’s through to the 90’s. Names such as BBC Micro, Spectrum, Amiga, TomyTronic, Grandstand plus classic arcades. The multiplayer Gang Beasts screen was prepped and ready and then onward round the room past the PC’s (four more VR rigs, one indie demo game, a full SpecialEffect setup, the stage, the console corner with Team HOTBOX and their PS4 buddies, the ENORMOUS raffle table, Russ Pitcher and his Epic Etcher, Blastard with a Full Motion VR Rig, a Water Cooled shiny glowing beast of a computer from Dobbo and a pair of full VR rigs that you could walk around in.
