Regarding Apple Con II and Covid-19

The Cornish Inn Closed

I wish all this were a terrible April Fool’s joke, but it isn’t.

Some of you have noticed that The Cornish Inn has announced a closing through 2020 and has began refunding your deposits on rooms. The mandatory closures have hit the Inn quite hard as they are a small family-centered operation of only 16 rooms in a 200 year old Victorian inn. The Inn itself will be closed for the 2020 season while they assess their situation.

AppleCon 2

This puts AppleCon in a difficult and unusual position. Fortunately we are SMALL and small means agile. There are a few other venues that are possible in Cornish, but unfortunately none have inns or hotels attached. October is a number of months off and we are attempting ultimate optimism.

For right now we are in a “holding pattern” to see where the world, the state, and gatherings are as summer moves along.

In the worst case scenario, there will be a VIRTUAL AppleCon for sure and we will organize that play and event.

Refunding?

This is a very difficult issue. AppleCon has been ordering ads, flyers, banners, and merch from the operating funds on hand. This leaves the budget extremely slim for refunding badges. As mentioned above, we will remain in a holding pattern until we can make a plan and figure out where this pandemic is going to be later this summer.

Badge sales will be suspended for now, as we don’t want to pull in more badge sales IF we have to cancel.

Please bear with us. We only had ONE AppleCon and were just finding our place and looking forward to our 4th year to actually see ourselves in the black. If we find we must cancel, we will have a plan in place to refund if folks truly need it and will do everything in our power to make it all right.

Timeline

Moving forward, we are making every attempt to anticipate the situation and understand folks come from all over and need to make reservations when they fly in. I suspect we will be able to make a definitive call by the end of July about the physical con status and where our resources are. I am not ruling out the possibility of a Kickstarter to keep things afloat and settle off the debts.

Right now (4/1/2020) it is too early for us to make a decision on the con, finances, or moving. More news to come as we move forward, please hang in there with us during this holding pattern.

Stay safe, stay healthy.
~Lloyd Metcalf