We are STILL finalizing prices and details for the Preshow, Thursday night, Friday Night and Sunday Night Haunt Tours. Working through the red tape and contracts with the Amusement parks has been way more time consuming than I had anticipated, but we are getting close.

Thursday night will be at Universal Studios. They will not have a Haunt for us to tour, but they will be displaying props and plans and costumes from past years for attendees as well as presenting an educational program/dinner where you can meet the Halloween Horror Nights crew and learn what it takes to put on the biggest Halloween event in the word!

The Friday Night tour will be of two Haunts at Busch Gardens Tampa, both lights on and lights off with actors. The park recently changed ownership which meant I had to do some renegotiating!

The Sunday Night Tour is in a bit of limbo until they renegotiate their lease for 2011. As soon as that is completed, we will announce that.

I was hoping that the preshow tour would include a behind the sceens tour of the Disney Haunted Mansion, and we have utilized every inroad we could find to try make that happen, but we have been shut down at every turn. I REALLY wanted to do this and I share your dissapointment, but we will just have to settle for touring some local attractions instead. FInalizing that itenerary now.

I know some of you are waiting to hear what the tours will be before you book your flights/hotels. I will get the info out to everyone as soon as I can.

Until then, thank you for your support, you patience and your prayers

The rest of the education should be up this week. Tours on the other hand have been a NIGHTMARE. Dealing with the red tape of the amusement parks has been slow going. The SECOND I get final pricing, It will be announced everywhere. Sorry for the delay!

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Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort & Convention
6375 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy.
Kissimmee, FL 34747
(877) 467-5786
www.ramadaorlandocelebration.com

Join us April 28th through May 3th, 2010 for HAuNTcon 2010!

Pre-show tour April 28 – 29
Local Haunt Tours April 29, 30 and May 2
Education April 30 – May 3
Tradeshow April 30 – May 2
Costume Ball May 1
Hearse Rally May 2

EACH OF US has something to important to share, whether you are a seasoned veteran or new to our industry–fresh, bold, new ideas are what HAuNTcon is all about!

Do a make-up demo, show and tell for a great prop you built, tell us what you have learned about haunt marketing, offer a make-n-take, show us how you use social media, share your best room designs, tech us how you train your actors, how did you get funding, help us write a business plans – whatever your expertise, whatever you have learned from your experience inside or outside haunting that will help others do what they do cheaper, faster, better, we ask you to tell us about it!

It is said that public speaking is peoples’ greatest fear, but I find that when I know the subject matter, really know what I am trying to say, that presenting a seminar is exhilarating!

So what are you afraid of? CLICK HERE to fill the speaker form! You will be glad you did and so will our attendees!

Leonard Pickel
Event Coordinator

Short Film Winner
Crotch Rot/ Dark Harvest Productions/ Director Robert Kreh

Feature Length Winner
Fistful of Brains /The Adrenalin Group Productions /Director Christine Parker

And a thank you to all of our entries in this year’s competition!

Leonard

The compliments keep rolling in from attendees, praising the education and the haunt tours. The one word that keeps popping up in these reviews is “awesome!”

The Haunt tours and education continue to be the favorite aspects of the convention, but the tradeshow is closing in quickly. One goal of HAuNTcon is to grow the industry and moving to a new location each year brings in local haunters who have never been to a haunt convention before. Those people are thrilled and amazed by the show floor and buy everything they can. One vendor sold 2 complete haunted houses off the show floor, while another sold every animatronic they brought with them.

The tours, offered a wide range of budget and style, and the creativity and love of what they do was unmistakable. The stars of the education program are too many to list here. We had some great topics from first time HAuNTcon speakers as well as our seminar veterans. The other goal of HAuNTcon is to educate the industry through the sharing of ideas both in seminars and networking opportunities. If you can learn one thing in one seminar that will save you time or money, it is well worth the time and investment in attending the show.

The costume ball was the largest in recent history and was still going strong at midnight when the, bars, the room and the DJ were scheduled to call it a night. But with a bit of quick negotiating, we were able to continue the party. It was still rocking at 1am, but early seminars and the hotel having to flip the room for the education made it impossible to go any later.

What a party!

Even the hearse rally on Saturday had over 20 vehicles, some of the wildest and craziest final rides we have had. Thanks to the local hearse clubs for stepping up to the plate and making this program a huge success!

Even in this down economy, Haunters came out in force to join in the camaraderie, the networking, the learning, the tours the buying and the fun that is HAuNTcon! We had no idea if you would or not… THANK YOU!!