I’m not going to lie, this is not an easy thing to write, but we have always tried to be up front and honest about things so here we are.
Back in 2016 Emma has the idea to host a convention level event for gaming here in Western Australia. We did a bunch of research (although clearly not enough because we had no idea how much work went into organising a con and there are only 2 of us!), took a breath and then the leap and made the Southern Hemisphere Open a reality in 2017. I can’t understate how much time, effort and money went into this event. It was all consuming for 6+ months with every spare moment devoted to trying to organise what was happening at the event. I am not sure how to describe ‘all consuming’ but if I tell you that the only reason our children were fed for the month prior to SHO (for the last 3 years) was because my mother in law cooked all the meals for us you might get some idea. Basic functioning stopped so we could try and pull this off. While we agreed together, the event was largely a success (we hope those who attended would agree!) we knew we could improve. Despite the net loss on the event we agreed it was worth pursuing.
2018 we went again. More time and money sunk into the event and we did things better the second time around. More attendees, the 40k Australasian Team event and in general were better prepared though again, the net loss and months and months of work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week to get it there were taxing.
2019 hit a significant hurdle. We had to move venue and time of year. This at the time was a blessing. The venue was better located and was also hosting the model train expo the same weekend. We even got a better deal on the venue hire. The downsides however stacked up with extra costs in the venue which might not have been as well disclosed as we would have liked and additional costs in build within the venue to make the space as we wanted. 3rd year and the closest we got to break-even but still a net loss and by this point there is nothing in our lives outside of SHO.
Now we hit 2020. It’s been a tough call but ultimately, we have decided that SHO 2020 will not be going ahead. Between the huge costs, increase in our personal debt over the prior 3 years and now being told the venue price would essentially double, we don’t see how we can make this event happen in its current format. I don’t think I can understate how much this has gutted us. We put our all into this event to try and give the Perth community its own convention style event with the resources we had. I don’t know how much more we could have done honestly. We had so many wonderful supporters – volunteers who gave up their time to help with the shared vision of what we hoped to achieve, clubs who donated their resources, friends and family who worked at the event, made promo material and more.
We have made some wonderful friendships as a result of this event so it’s even worse – we don’t want to disappoint those people who believed in us and what we wanted to create. That said, sometimes you have to take stock, recognise its not working as it is and re-evaluate the situation.
What does that mean for SHO? Well it means a hiatus at least for 2020. We need to work through the hurdles and work out just how the event has to look so that it’s sustainable.
What about Obsec? Business as usual really. We will be adding a couple of events to the calendar for May and June including trying to get permission to host the grand clash for underworlds – a favourite of players at SHO the last 2 years.
We hope you all understand that this wasn’t an easy decision to make and one that’s made with great reluctance. Hope we see you at one of the many other events across the year in 2020.
Cheers
Mike