Muppet Convention Thread #2: Where Should it be Held?

I highly doubt that. I think we'd all have a great time together!

UGH, THIS IS HARD. You guys, I am so tongue-tied. Er, finger-tied? Plugging away, though. I'll have something (awful) for you soon.

Pssst. Somebody research for me. How many people attended MuppetFest?

And how many people do we think we could reasonably expect to attend HensonCon in its first year? A hundred? Fifty? Fewer?

Yeah Ive been trying to think of what to write myself and everytime I think I have something good it just doesn't sound very convincing enough. Maybe we do need a Miss Piggy letter.

I'm trying to really sell it. I keep hearing Convincing John in my head, but he's not saying anything useful!

Also, Word does not think that either "Fraggle" or "muppeteer" is a word. Hmph.

Yeah my spell check wants Fraggles to be fragile.

Hmmmm...maybe we put the cart before the horse...how about asking those that run the muppet sites (Tough Pigs, Muppet Central, the Muppet Mindset and any others I may not be aware of) if they would be willing to post a poll for us (preferably on the front page) It could be a simple "Would you go to a Henson convention if it was held in Greenville Mississippi?" This could at least give us hypothetical numbers to use in a letter.

Well, we could. But I'm easily discouraged, so let's not. We can go with "fewer than a hundred" for now; I'm sure that's accurate, if vague.

Finished a very rough draft of a letter to city council/chamber of commerce/mayor/whatever of Greenville this morning. And just when I went to post it, my internet went out for four and a half hours. But now it's back, and I'll post the letter in the next comment. It needs help, y'all, so feel free to hack away at it. I'm a great editor for other people's work; not so much for my own.

This will need appropriate salutation, etc:

In 2001, _______ fans of Jim Henson’s creations gathered in Santa Monica for MuppetFest, a celebration of the Muppets, the people who work with them, and their creator. The event was a success, but, unfortunately, it was the last official Muppet fan convention.

We are a group of Henson fans who think that now would be the perfect time to gather again. There has been a recent resurgence of love for the works of Jim Henson. Last year’s The Muppets was critically acclaimed and a box office success. There is already another movie in the works. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Fraggle Rock, with the Henson Company planning to release new merchandise. There have been new Henson graphic novels released. The documentary Being Elmo has shown the world that there are stories and life underneath the famous puppets. Interest in Mr. Henson’s creations is at its highest point in many years, and we want to concentrate that interest and bring it to your city.

We are in the very early planning stages, but the one thing we know for certain is that we would like to have our Henson celebration in Greenville. As the hometown of the man we wish to honor, it was the obvious favorite choice. Our idea is to plan the event for the summer of 2013.

We are writing to ask if the City of Greenville would like to partner with us in creating ‘HensonCon.’ It will probably start out as a small event, lasting no more than two days and with fewer than a hundred attendees. But, our hope is to make it an annual gathering, and to grow the event every year. It has the potential to eventually be a major event, with Muppets, performers, puppet-builders, writers, and hundreds of fans.

We are asking for any help you might care to provide—general information about Greenville, suggestions for venues or dates, help with advertising the event when the time comes, or contact with any local people who might like to get involved. We want to make this the best Henson celebration it can possibly be, and your city’s involvement would bring us so much closer to that goal!

Thank you so much for your time and interest. We look forward to hearing from you, and we will continue to be in touch as our plans progress.

Very well done Borples...and the way you worded that as far as numbers are concerned was great.... I see nothing that I would be concerned about adding too it. As far as who to send this to I suggest the chamber of Commerce.

Wow!!! I couldn't have written it better even if I tried and let me tell I really have been trying to write a good one all day but ugh it's like I can't say what I want on a piece of paper. That's great...I personally wouldn't make any changes!!! Good job!!!

*starts "Life's a Happy Song"

so can we take an informal vote on wether this letter should go out is as. I say yes, but signed the HensonCon Planning Comittee... Borples did an aweome job and I think seeing this example it might encourage some of us to see how we can write some of the other letters that will need to be sent over time...it certainly gave me a clearer idea of how to write one of these...and there will be plenty of letter writing to be done when all is said and done. I guess another thought about this is what should this letter have as a return address. I think someone should take the unoffical role of secretary which at this point would be hosting a mailbox and sharing any responses that come ack with everyone here. Anyone up for that task (oops getting ahead of myself a little again...first things first we need to approve or alter this letter)

You know how I feel about it.

I think the letter is poi-fect (as Junior Gorg might say)! Got to give you giant props to Borples for writing that letter. Only a few tweeks from my point of view, I think you should put 'thousands' where it is left blank in the opening sentence. And... well... that's it.

You did an amazing job writing that letter. I think it should be sent soon. Once we get Greenville's say we can get started for real on this. Although, I may be getting ahead of myself. I've just been extremely excited for this since the thread took off!

I think it's an amazing letter!!! Mine sounds like I was writing to a 5 year old.

Do we know where to send it to?

Why not Baltimore, MD?
Jim grew up here,
as did Kevin.

I thought it was going to Mississippi?

Here's the link to the Greenville's Chamber of Commerce website contact page. It includes an address we could send it to, maybe.
http://www.greenvillechamber.org/contactdirections.php