Symposium Cancelled
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 4th, 2007
Word is reaching Cryptomundo that the October 20-21, 2007, National Bigfoot Symposium planned for Arcata, California, has been cancelled. The website that was sponsoring this event is announcing it has been cancelled, after various attempts to keep it alive have failed.
We apologize for any confusion and any false associations anyone may have assumed from our attempts to pass along this breaking news. We are not linked to the symposium nor do we know anything about the actual decision-making that took place. We have no idea what’s happened with the symposium and are only posting here the essence of what anyone can read over at the Bigfoot Forums, specifically under this thread. We are neither critics of the symposium nor sponsors of it. Specifically, the BFF site has been openly expressing what others have said, but we are sorry if those associated with the event feel Cryptomundo wishes to get involved in any kind of judgement. We do not. We were merely meeting a public need to know what was going on and trying to answer the question “why.” We have no vested interest in anything to do with this conference or anything to do with it.
We are merely reporting news and commentary here, as happens with all blogs.
The reasons for why the symposium was cancelled, as mentioned on the internet at the BFF, in summary, were:
1) From the point of view of the organizers, the Bigfoot community “didn’t support” it. Not enough tickets were sold to afford the fees of the speakers and travel that needed to be secured for the event.
2) From the point of view of critics (not Cryptomundo, please note) of the symposium –
a) the organizers had “self-destructive” tendencies;
b) the organizers were a “secret committee” out of step with their audience;
c) the prices of the tickets were “too high,” @ first $250 each, later reported “slashed” to @ $160;
d) the mistrust of the “motives” of the symposium (300 attendees x the fee – expenses = profit); and
e) the symposium was far from “mainstream.”
The organizers have yet to put forth any kind of public announcement regarding the cancelling of the event (other than one Spartan message on their website), thus we are passing along the above as a public service for those that wish to rearrange their plans for October 20-21.
++++++++++++++
Information based on initial details from the organizers:
This Symposium was to be in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Patterson/Gimlin film footage shot at Bluff Creek, California on October 20, 1967.
The Symposium was to be educational in nature with a wide array of speakers and include approximately 14-16 presentations spanning the weekend of October 20/21, 2007.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
From where I am in the Bay Area this would have been a 7hr drive and I would have totally been willing to make the drive and toss money at a motel for a couple of days. But the ticket price was just **way** too steep to hear people I know saying things I already know.
If the tickets had been $50-75 I would have possibly done it. Why couldn’t this have been staged in Sacramento or San Francisco or Oakland or LA? There would have been **many** more people who would have been able to attend.
hey loren & everyone im sure they will pick a differant day & time & month for symposium so i guess we all can be patient. thanks bill green 🙂
If any or all of your readers can attend the Texas Bigfoot Conferance in Jefferson TX, I think they would have a great time. Just go to the Texas Bigfoot site to get tickets, it is the weekend of November 9th. This will be my second time to attend, and let me tell you it is worth the time.
Hmmm. It sounds like these folks should have perhaps sought the counsel of the TBRC, who have successfully planned and put on some fabulous conferences in Jefferson, Texas.
I attended the one in 2005 and the TBRC bigfoot exhibit in San Antonio in 2006. Both were outstanding and very professional. I will be attending the 2007 Conference as well.
I could have guessed that this sort of thing was going to happen with this National Bigfoot Symposium. The price was simply outrageous.
Nothing inappropriate has been done here, in my opinion. Merely reporting the cancellation should not be interpreted as taking any kind of position. Cryptomundo readers can reference the bff thread for themselves to see if they agree with the comments posted there.
The good news is that there is still a major bigfoot conference taking place this year.