Goldie DeWitt writes: Hello 1DOWN Family,
Ready for this? I'm fucking mad right now! I'm dead serious. I want to tell you this to help me vent so I don't find myself in a "jam" if you know what I'm saying. I know I gotta be very careful when speaking on this for any legal back lash, but I'll give it my best to keep it "business" and not street.
Here's what happened. If you are in the Southern California area, I'm sure you've seen those big yellow & orange billboards that advertise the Tattoo Expos. Well, the company behind these expos are the Mega Shows and the guy behind this goes by the name Edwin. Here's what happened. Edwin has never done a expo targeted to the Adult Entertainment Industry and he was getting ready to do his first one on March 18-19-20, 2005 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and it was gonna be called Adult Expo 2005.
To have a Expo at the convention center, you gotta have a Adult Convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center, you gotta have a pretty big audience to make it successful. The only reason I heard of this event was through a friend who knew about it because he knew the people giving it. I never saw any advertising on it, never heard of anyone speaking on it. So, when my friend told me about it, I didn't think he knew what he was talking about because there has never been a adult expo at the La Convention center except LA Erotica [editors' note: and Adultcon] and another one that I don't want to waste my breath on.
So my friend gave me the website for this upcoming new Adult Expo and I looked it up. The website was not complete and that always says a lot about the representation of a company or business. I went to the contact link and called the office. I spoke with a guy named John and I told him who I was, the name of my company and the nature of my business, and as stated by him, he already knew who I was and enjoyed my work. I told him I just learned of their upcoming expo and being that this was their first one, I would love to come aboard and spread the word via my printed publication, my website & my newsletters.
This guy John was delighted and said he would contact his boss and he was sure we could work something out. I forgot to mention that this phone call was made some where around January 17, 2005. So, I called John back somewhere around the follow day and he said his boss was right there and he wanted to speak with me. The guy who got on the phone was Edwin. This is John's boss, or maybe the owner of the mega shows, I'm not sure. So, Edwinget's on the phone and ask me a few questions about my magazine and company but he seems to have a noticeable attitude in his voice and body language.
He tells me that it's cost him a lot of money to secure the a spot at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the only deal he can offer is for me to run him a full page and I pay half the cost of a booth at his expo. I told him there was no way I would pay half the cost of a booth when has no history of adult expos and from what I've can see, he hasn't done any advertising or promoting for this event that's less than 2 months away. I told him I'm working with Erotica LA, a convention that's been around for years featuring over 250 venders and drawing in over 30,000 attendees and my agreement with them is a pure trade. To take into consideration that this was his first adult expo and he probably did pay some good money to get into the LA convention center, I asked him how many vendors did he have so far and he told me that was confidential information.
This shocked me. I told him how does he expect to sell any booths if he can't disclose to potential vendors any specs of his expo and especially how many vendors he has so far. This did not settle with me and I felt like this guywas too scadaless in his business deals but I was still trying to keep it cool to help him get his expo off the ground and get this going because the expo was right around the corner. He continued to speak on how big his other Tattoo expos are and stuff like that which meant absolutely nothing because he was now stepping into the Adult world andthat's a different target audience. He then had the nerve to ask me to help him find vendors and maybe he would consider a trade if I found with vendors to rent his booths.
I told him listen, I'm no vendor broker, I own 1DOWN Magazine, the only high gloss full color free publication in southern California that has a the largest fan base in the strip club industry. I told him finding vendors for his expowas his job not mine. He told me it been difficult to get vendors in the adult market and thee big companies are not supporting him and they act cheap.
I told him he has to understand his stepping into the Adult Entertainment Market and his reputation for having huge tattoo expos plays NO credit in the adult entertainment market. So, he told me I was being rude and he hung up on me. I was pissed that this business man reacted so immaturely, so I called right back and John answered the phone. I told John I was fully disgusted by his bosses actions and I don't see how this guy is gonna have any success in the adult market with a attitude like that. John sounded like he really couldn't reply in detail to how he felt about the matter, so he said he would handle the situation and work something out.
I think later that night John called me and said Edwin agreed to comp me a booth for a full page ad in my printed publication and requested that I create the artwork because they didn't have any. Now see if I wasn't doing my best to keep this business and I took Edwin's actions personal I would have told John, "tell Edwin fuck you and eat a dick bitch", but I didn't I said that's cool and John said "well, Goldie you don't said too happy about it and I said It's all good." I told him I would get the ad created and email it to them for proofing and get it posted to my website right away. So, I sent them my created artwork and they looked it, so I said cool, all I need from you guys is to fax me over a agreement with my booth number and showing that my booth is free of charge.
Well, on January 20, 2005 I got the faxed agreement and I told them we are all good and the magazine is off to print. A few days later I emailed John and he didn't reply, and then a couple of days later I emailed him a again and hedidn't reply. So, on February 4, 2005 (today) I called and John answered the phone. I asked him has he gotten my emails and the famous answer "no". I told him I was calling to check the status on the expo and get some details on how things are coming along. He told me that the Expo has been cancelled.
I said WHAT! Why is it that I have to call you to find this out, and when did this happen? He said it just happened yesterday and Edwin cancelled it because he didn't get any support from the big companies and he basically couldn't get any vendors. I said so what's the deal, I'm sitting here with my just printed publication in my hand with this fullpage ad for this Expo and now it's cancelled after I've already went to print. He was stuttering and shit and said would could work something out with their next upcoming Tattoo expo. I said that expo is NOT my market and we both know that. I said I'm sure if I would have went to print and forgot to ad your Expo full page in my magazine, I'm sure Edwin would have wanted to be paid for the booth space or he would have rejected my participation to his expo. I told John it would only be fare if Edwin compensated me the full payment for the full page ad and when his tattoo expo comes up, we can see what agreement we can work out then.
I could tell by John's voice that Edwin was standing right there and he was being the muppet. I told him I don't understand when Edwin can't get on the phone and just MAN UP on this issue. John tells me hold on then Edwin get's on the phone. Edwin tells me he never signed anything and the only thing the agreement says is that I had acomped booth at his expo and once again, HE HUNG THE PHONE UP IN MY FACE!
There you have it. So where am I left? Sitting here fucking pissed off with the wrong thoughts going through my head on how to handle this situation. So what do I do, I turn to my fucking key board so I can vent this shit out. Man, what have I turned into? I turn to a keyboard, when back in the day I turned to other retaliatory gratification methods tohandle a situation. Man, I guess I'm getting smarter and I know I don't want to end up in the pin over some sorry fool who makes a living out of fucking people over. I'm sure if I put hands on this fool I'd be doing a lot of people a favor but the person going down would be me. Fuck that, I believe in karma and what goes around come around; and I'm sureI will be here long enough to see Edwin's unbusiness, breach of contract like ways come back at him 7 times fold! Then I will be on the side line smiling with no karma worries.
If you are in the market to promote your business at a Expo, I can only share my experience with you as to what happened and let you make your own choice. As for me, I will never do business with this person again, and I will never attend any Expos by the Mega Shows. If you ever do a trade agreement, make sure you get it completely detailed on what's to take place and make sure you get their signature. This guy Edwin refused to tell me his last name and Ishould have flagged this as a bad sign, but I was being nice; look what it got me.
"Here's a photo of Edwin. He's the thing on the right."
