37 comments

1. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

   I see that Chris has removed the copies of the email trail between he and I, that I posted just a few minutes ago, contradicting what he wrote here on his blog, and proving that we never offered to pay his airfare. Please email us directly if you would like to see copies of them, via info@pgi.vc . It is our view, that if Chris is willing to share inaccurate information, and there is proof available, that he should not remove it from this site, which has now become a forum for this discussion. Chris, if there is nothing to hide, then by all means let the people decide for their self, and see the email trail between us dated from March, 2010 and onwards.

   On June 27th at 8:01am, the attendees who paid to attend this event were sent an email informing them that the conference had:

   “changed from Viareggio, Italy, to a beautiful conference center in Umbria. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to you. The conference will take place Monday & Tuesday June 27th and 28th, and will be less structured, following the Unconference style.”

   At first, some of the speakers and I were trying to organize a smaller conference, when we had been wrongly told that the hotel had cancelled our conference. This was before we spoke with the hotel, to learn that in fact, they had not cancelled our conference, and were still waiting for us to arrive there. By that time, since one of our volunteers had wrongly been told information that they had cancelled the conference, he then sent out an email to all the speakers, repeating the wrong information. It was at approximately 4am PST when this took place. When I learned of the situation at 7:30am PST, we, the speakers and I were all in shock, and trying to make the best of the situation, not knowing that the hotel had not really cancelled on us. Some of us were trying to organize a smaller more unconference style event immediately, as two of our speakers live part of the time in Italy, and part of the time in the Bay Area, and introduced us to a conference center there, run by American’s. They gladly welcomed us to their conference center, at no charge. Immediately we sent an email to ALL the attendee’s directly, and together we decided that Umbria was too far away from the original location. At that point, we cancelled the June event, and started refunding the attendee’s. I shared this information with Chris, directly by phone, this morning, so it is shocking that he would start to spread information, that he knows clearly is incorrect, and would have the potential to spread rumors and false information. After we take care of all the matters related to the June event, which we are working on diligently, day by day, and directly with the speakers and attendee’s, we will have another event in the future, that will be private, but only after all matters related to this event, are cleared. We have already offered free admission to all the attendee’s, for a future event, and the response from many of them has been positive.

   Regarding the speakers and attendee’s, we have been reaching out to them one by one, directly, to inquire about any possible financial losses related to plane ticket changes or cancellations, and hotel. Fortunately, most of the speakers, from what I am hearing and reading, have not encountered a heavy financial loss. Still, there are some that have, and we are inquiring, to see about those who have, and what we can do, to assist them.

   The attendees were not informed that the event had been canceled but changed locations to Umbria. What followed remains largely unclear, but what is clear is that Tanya never showed up to Italy, and we have learned from the stranded attendees that the event in Umbria never took place and that she blamed her Italian counterpart for “hijacking” the conference.

   More details to follow later this afternoon, to continue to set the record straight and address our part in this failure, as well as that of other’s who were involved. The bottom line is that our conference failed, and for that we are extremely sorry, for all the disappointment, stress, hassle, and cost, this has caused to people. We are sorry, and we mean that wholeheartedly. We are doing everything we can to set things right, with those impacted. Please feel free to reach out to us at info@pgi.vc with any questions or concerns. Thank you.

2. Eric   July 1, 2010

   Scam conferences are becoming more common. Basically a phishing attack targeting business. If you are unsure that an event is real you can contact the hotel.

3. Christine Lu   July 1, 2010

   Note. I was not involved in this conference as an attendee or speaker, but I do feel obligated to speak at as quite a few of my good friends lost time, money and reputation on the trust of someone who has a disturbing pattern of unprofessional business and social (media) practices.

   There are a number of great people who were invited to attend and speak at this event who the organizer met in Hawaii last November during an invite-only conference I organized called [re]think: Hawaii.

   This person was NOT invited to the conference. So how was she able to include herself? Here’s how.

   A month before the event, I donated a pair of tickets to the conference as a prize for Twestival LA to help with raising money for a good cause. During this time, this woman reached out to me via Twitter and identified herself as the organizer of Twestival Silicon Valley and asked if I could also donate a pair of tickets to the Twestival she was organizing as well. I thought, sure why not, for a good cause.

   Two weeks after Twestival, imagine my surprise when I get a DM from Tanya saying great news! SHE is the winner of the Twestival Silicon Valley contest and looks forward to meeting me in Hawaii. I was stunned. In case you missed it. The organizer of a charity event solicited conference tickets from me (that cost me money) and then turned around and declared HERSELF the winner of the prize so she could attend an otherwise invite only event …that she was not invited to otherwise.

   I voiced my concern at this behavior quietly to friends as I’m not the type of person to call these things out publicly. I chose instead to let this woman attend the conference and opted to keep my distance from her personally. I regret that now as in the process she ended up connecting with friends of mine who she met there …the same friends in Europe and Silicon Valley who were later looped into this so called conference that never happened in Tuscany half a year later. I regret not being more vocal about previous instances (and there are more after this) of unprofessional behavior by this organizer.

   Look, events are difficult to organize. Things doing work out all the time and sometimes they fail. The issue many friends involved that I have talked to privately about this since then is not that the conference was canceled — it’s the WAY it was handled and the WAY it continues to be spun. The organizer is not taking ANY responsibility and keeps coming up with strange excuses and fabricated reasons, conversations and blame in an attempt to walk away from the mess without accepting responsibility for it.

4. Mike Butcher   July 1, 2010

   Just want to clarify that I WILL NOT be speaking at any conference organised by PGI.

5. Christine Lu   July 1, 2010

   Note to Tanya:

   Seriously. As I said to you a few days ago. Stop perpetuating bullshit. You have an excuse for everything that you have failed to take full responsibility for. I am not only talking about this event. But other situations that I have been witness to as well as what I have heard from those who also refuse to engage with you. You are one of only THREE people I have ever blocked on Twitter. There is a reason for it and I suggest that you focus on getting some help and gaining some self awareness so that you can stop this cycle of using the vagueness of social media to continue creating situations where you are damaging other people’s reputations.

6. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

   Note to Christine:

   Only two comments:

   A) Nice to see how you are judging people, once again. It seems to be your specialty. No one had bid on those tickets, at all. In hindsight, should have returned them to you, but got too excited about going to Hawaii with other members of the tech community, and sharing time together. Organizing events is not easy, and that trip seemed like a welcome break. You have held it over my head in every way possible, ever since, by going around the tech community gossiping, rather than ever having the courtesy to come to me directly, and talk about it. I’m glad you finally have a forum to get your anger out with. That you have blocked me on Twitter, is a compliment. Definitely.

   B) We are taking care of our attendee’s and speakers, in the normal protocol, by reimbursing the attendee’s and helping cover costs for the speakers, that we are in direct communication with, to see how we can assist them. No one is stranded in Italy. Everyone who is there now, from the U.S. had booked an extended vacation to Europe, and from what I hear from their own words, they are having a fantastic time. Some of them wrote that they are having the best vacation they have ever had. Not to say that they are not upset, but they are not miserable, at this moment. We are in touch with everyone affected by the cancellation of this event.

7. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

   Here is a re-tweet from one of the attendee’s:

   RT @steook il ticket è stato rimborsato.

   This is Italian for “My ticket has been reimbursed.”

8. Valto   July 1, 2010

   I have not agreed to be a speaker in this new event and disapprove this behavior of using my name without approval.

9. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

   Spelling error/correction:
   RT @steookk il ticket è stato rimborsato.

10. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Spelling error/correction:
    @steookk il ticket è stato rimborsato.

11. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Sorry, Valto, we’ll remove your name asap. Thanks for letting us know!

12. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Valto, sorry, we’ll remove your name asap. Thanks for letting us know!

13. Christine Lu   July 1, 2010

    Tanya – those conference tickets for Hawaii were donated to Twestival Silicon Valley as a door prize. Whoever donated to Twestival SV in any way and attended the event had a chance at winning. You were supposed to raffle it off so I don’t understand what you are saying about “no one bidding on them” — you were supposed to give them away to a lucky winner. Didn’t realize that lucky winner would be you and in hindsight I should have said something to you, but was too embarrassed for you to do so. I figure, ok fine. Here’s a lady who really wanted to come to Hawaii, how bad can that be? Yea. Now I know because of your subsequent pattern of issues …including this one. So save it.

    My problem isn’t judging or gossiping when it comes to you. On the contrary, it’s not being MORE VOCAL sooner as I feel I could have at least saved my friends from investing their time, money and reputation on working with you.

14. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Christine,
    We did not sell any raffle tickets at all. We only did a silent auction, and no one bid on the tickets. The number of items we had, was extremely limited. With all the negative energy you have invested, gossiping about me for the past almost one year, to much of the social media world, glad we had a chance to finally clear the air here in public. At least the kind of attitude I’ve had from you in private, even though I’ve tried to reach out to you, many times, is now open for the world to see. We each have our opinions of each other, and clearly that won’t be changing, anytime soon.

15. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Christine,
    Not to mention, that your conference in Hawaii was saved at the very last minute by Pierre Omidyar, who saved the day, became the main sponsor, and allowed the conference to take place, after all. Not all conferences are so lucky as your’s was, thanks to Pierre.

16. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Conference Fact List:
    I had scheduled a video interview with Chris McCann for today, 7/1/2010, at 4:00pm PST but upon seeing that he is intentionally fabricating information, that he knows is not correct, I have cancelled the interview, and would be glad to give it to a respectable blogger, who understands the importance of reporting fact over fiction, and cares more about truth, than blog traffic.

    a) We never offered airfare to Chris McCann and have the email trail to prove it, and will post it on the PGI.vc website tonight. We did offer airfare to some of the speakers, mostly intra-Europe airfares.
    b) We were media partners with StartupDigest, and gave them over 2 months of advertising on our site.
    c) StartupDigest never followed through on promoting our event, and less than three weeks away from the event, sent an email acknowledging that they were not handling the media partnership agreement with PGI very well, and that also they were busy with a more well known client. (emails will be posted on pgi.vc) To date, they have not made good on the agreement, which resulted in it being very difficult for us to get the word out, to the startup community. Finally, when they did not honor their agreement, we removed StartupDigest from our website.
    d) We also did not receive support from any of the major bloggers or tech news sites, in the U.S. or Europe, even though we did ask many times, so our agreement with Startup Digest was something we were counting on, to help us get the word out to the startup community at large.
    e) We posted our venue on our website many weeks in advance, and the agenda was posted in part, weeks before the conference, and in full at least two weeks before the conference, with some minor changes taking place.
    f) We had a key sponsor that did not come through.
    g) We were told falsely that the hotel had cancelled on us, when in fact they had not.
    I spoke with the hotel on Sunday afternoon Italy time, to find out that the rumor we had heard about the hotel cancelling, was false, and the hotel was still waiting for us to arrive there. This news that the hotel had cancelled, sent the speaking team into a panic, during the night PST on Friday 6/25/2010. Speakers started cancelling their airfare, and within a matter of hours the conference was in disarray. I was notified at about 7:30am PST Saturday, 6/26/2010.
    h) We immediately started communicating with the speakers, and attendee’s while trying to figure out about what was the best course of action. Some speakers still wanted to gather, while others did not, plus the new venue was too far, so we cancelled the conference, and continued communicating with the attendee’s, and started refunding them. We also have been reaching out to the speakers, to find out how we can assist them, and what bills they may have incurred.
    i) We posted the updates on all our social media channels, and on our website, but we have focused on direct communication with speakers and attendee’s, versus relying on social media, at this time.
    j) We’re deeply sorry that our conference failed, and in the true spirit of Silicon Valley which is built on a long history of failures, we will fix what we did wrong, take care of business matters, allow more time for planning (3 – 4 months for an international event was not enough time), improve our communication and organization, and try again. That is the spirit of Silicon Valley, to keep trying until you get it right, as long as there is value in what is being created, and we believe that there is value in bringing people together around entrepreneurship and innovation, worldwide. The global economy needs everyone’s help and participation. Thank you for all the support we have received from people in Europe and Silicon Valley, asking us not to give up and encouraging us to try again. It means the world to us.

17. Christine Lu   July 1, 2010

    Tanya – immature downward spirals aren’t my thing. My point has been made. Your pattern of behavior is now obvious to everyone — even if not to you — and it’s clear that you have issues that need to be resolved on your own offline. Good luck to you. I’m done.

18. Tanya Noel   July 1, 2010

    Thanks, Christine, likewise, and best of luck to you.

19. chris mccann   July 1, 2010

    As well as me Christine.

    Good to bring all this to light.

20. Boris   July 2, 2010

    As an outside 3rd party person who knows none of the people above, I just thought I’d comment after having read all the comments.

    Tanya, you look like a right idiot. The speakers didn’t encounter “heavy” financial losses, so that’s OK? Hell if they lost $1 you should be refunding it.

    Anyway, pretty laughable thread all round, it reminds me of the hissy fits the ~16 y.o. girls would have when I was in High School.

21. TheStartup.eu » Blog Archive » The failure of PGI, on Startup Digest   July 2, 2010

    [...] pretty light take on the failing and almost scamming of the PGI conference. Read it on Startup Digest. AKPC_IDS += "1212,"; Sharevar el = document.getElementById('share-link-385449874');el.params [...]

22. Paul Papadimitriou » Lessons From a Failed Event   July 2, 2010

    [...] I couldn’t have said it better. ➡ When to Cancel an Event: Lessons from a Failed Event [...]

23. peignoir   July 2, 2010

    #fail…

24. Tanya Noel and the conference in Italy that never happened   July 2, 2010

    [...] – many of who were on their way to the venue – the principle organiser, Tanya Noel, has continued to promote another event in the Fall, with many of the same speakers, including myself. I’d agreed to speak at the one [...]

25. Ben   July 2, 2010

    Wow, the more I read this woman(Tanya Noel)’s comment the more I think she’s ridiculous. Apparently she’s a grifter and she’s not even ashamed of it. I would have thought otherwise if she reacted differently, but the way she responds here makes it obvious. I’m surprised that there aren’t more comments here, which seems to have made this woman think she’s not done anything wrong. Just because people are in Italy and having fun, doesn’t mean they aren’t scammed. And that SV Twestival thing is really hilarious. I’ve heard a lot about “social media douchebags”, and this is a perfect example.

26. Tanya Noel   July 2, 2010

    We are in the process of reimbursing people. We have never stated otherwise, which is why we are reaching out to people, directly, to offer assistance, as stated here already.

27. Tanya Noel   July 2, 2010

    @Ben, My point is that if you make a mistake and try to reach out to the person to make amends, and they refuse to connect with you, and instead keep dragging your name through the mud for an entire year, it gets old. Since she refused to connect with me to discuss the matter, and brought it here to a public forum, I chose to address it here, as well, with the hope that once and for all, the matter will be settled. At the time I bought the ticket, when no one had bid on it, my thought was that it was better that money be raised for the charity, than not at all.

28. Ben   July 2, 2010

    @Tanya You are just talking about what others have done wrong, when there are apparently so many things YOU did wrong. You may think your excuse makes sense but I don’t think anyone will. You definitely need to learn how to apologize like a grownup. Or maybe you don’t even think you did anything wrong. (According to your comment it seems likely) In that case, I hate you. Don’t talk to me.

29. Tanya Noel   July 2, 2010

    Restating the apology that I wrote above:
    “We’re deeply sorry that our conference failed, and in the true spirit of Silicon Valley which is built on a long history of failures, we will fix what we did wrong, take care of business matters, allow more time for planning (3 – 4 months for an international event was not enough time), improve our communication and organization, and try again. That is the spirit of Silicon Valley, to keep trying until you get it right, as long as there is value in what is being created, and we believe that there is value in bringing people together around entrepreneurship and innovation, worldwide.”
    “The bottom line is that our conference failed, and for that we are extremely sorry, for all the disappointment, stress, hassle, and cost, this has caused to people. We are sorry, and we mean that wholeheartedly. We are doing everything we can to set things right, with those impacted.”

30. Ben   July 2, 2010

    No, it’s not the spirit of Silicon Valley to scam people. And No, you are not sorry. You don’t mean that “wholeheartedly”. Just stop talking already.

31. Jim   July 2, 2010

    Tanya,

    When you find yourself in a hole, for gosh sakes, please, Stop Digging. What you purport as an apology is… well, its not even an excuse. It’s just… it sounds like a soliloquy from a mediocre crime drama, where the suspect holds the gun to the sidekick , spills all the beans to wrap up the storyline, wasting just enough time for the hero to arrive and save the day. Frankly, it’s all just really odd.

    Here’s a post I wrote on the subject of apologies a few days before all this went down. http://bit.ly/a6GaEz

    So, fine, don’t apologize. Best of luck to you. But for heavens sake, dear. Shut up.

32. shabom   July 3, 2010

    This Tanya character reeks of dodgy.

    It’s sad and painful to wade through the poorly worded and desperate excuses of a failed entrepreneur. Tanya, it’s simple. You tried to organise an event. You failed. There was no conspiracy, no misunderstandings… you’re clearly just rubbish at the very basics of business.

    Maybe try candle making?

33. Chris McCann   July 3, 2010

    Great post on apologies. If anyone of you find yourself in a similar situation (hope you don’t) read this.

34. bobo   July 6, 2010

    Tanya,
    I do not see any emails on website:
    “We never offered airfare to Chris McCann and have the email trail to prove it, and will post it on the PGI.vc website tonight”

35. minimoe   July 6, 2010

    Am not in anyway related to this – Don’t know the organizer and have not heard of this event.

    Wow, this is the worst case of damage control (or lack thereof) I have ever seen in a long time. Just reading the lame excuses from Tanya Noel and her arguments are shocking. Am sure Silicon Valley event organizers all know each other and this Tanya character will not be around for long. 3 words for you Online Reputation Management – but I guess it’s too late now!

36. Trade Shows – Trade Show – Trade Show Blogs – Convention Blogs   July 6, 2010

    [...] or break both of the foregoing.  I was watching around the Internet this weekend and noticed that a recent tech event in Italy was canceled by organizers here in the United States.  It was not a great story to read [...]

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