AvatarMeet 2016 in flux

[mikkowilson]

In response to new discriminatory laws in North Carolina; Cirque du Soleil has cancelled all their North Carolina shows, including the June 24th performance of TORUK that was to be the focus of AvatarMeet 2016.

Many of you have already seen Cirque du Soleil's post on facebook. "Cirque du Soleil believes in equality for all. It is a principle that guides us with both our employees and our customers. We behave as change agents to reach our ultimate goal of making a better world with our actions and our productions." This principal is of course in line with the themes of Avatar and the feelings of much if not all of the Avatar fan community. As saddened that we are that this situation has arisen, and while AvatarMeet remains a non-political organization; AvatarMeet agrees with Cirque du Soleil's ethics of respect for all and this action.

This obviously changes the plans for AvatarMeet 2016.

How the plans change is still unclear.

We know that there are many questions about how AvatarMeet will proceed, and unfortunately the planning team does not yet have all the answers. We are currently working with our contacts to explore the options open to the event; and until we know more, any speculation is too early to be constructive. As we move forward through this process, we will be as open and expedient as we can to keep everyone informed and resolve this to the best possible outcome.

While moving quickly to a resolution, we are following a process to ensure that we don't limit options unnecessarily by making any uninformed decisions. While this isn't the ideal time to be making likely quite large changes to the event, we do still have time for a course correction before the summer.

If you are compelled to take action on your own to cancel or change your travel plans, you are of course welcome to do so; however we will be working to help facilitate whatever the final outcome is for everyone. We are extremely aware that many people have already booked vacation time, hotel space, and made travel plans with limited change or cancellation options.

We have already been in contact with Lightstorm Entertainment and Cirque du Soleil, and they are working to help us also.

We have confirmed with the hotel that should the event plans change, our hotel bookings are all fully refundable for the time being, allowing us ample time to formulate a plan.

Though we don't yet have many answers; please be patient and don't hesitate to get in touch if you have specific concerns, or ideas, about how to proceed. We'll be posting more information as soon as we have more to share moving forward.

The first thing that everyone can do to help, is to confirm that your profile on AvatarMeet.com is up to date. The data in the Roll Call is critical for us as we evaluate the situation. Feel free to use the Notes field in your profile to let us know of any other issues we should be aware of.

Again, we are disappointed that this situation has arisen; but we are confident that together as a community we can rise above this challenge and continue to grow.

- The AvatarMeet planning team.