Editing The Pen Addict 402/transcript (section)

== Kickstarter Update and Atlanta Pen Show Cancellation ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Everything is, everything's changed at this point. So not too long after last week's episode, we hinted to it because we were thinking about it. But not too long after last week's episode, me and Brad announced that we would not be attending the Atlanta Pen Show. So for our health and safety and also for their help to discourage others from attending the show for their own health and safety. Due to the ongoing health concerns in the world right now. We're really pleased in a way that the Atlanta Pen Show also took it upon themselves to cancel the show completely. We had great conversations with the crew there and they were super understanding of us pulling out. And, you know, they waited to make sure that they knew everything was right. And they decided to pull the plug on the show, which is the right thing to do for now. You know, we should be discouraging social gatherings. And of course, in a lot of places, it's not legal to do it anyway. Anyway, so as it stands right now, the Atlanta Pen Show, we're not going to be going. So the live video and live show component of that obviously won't be going ahead as part of the Kickstarter campaign.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And so we've got some plans that we're working on to produce some additional content in video form streamed kind of between me and Brad. I think we're planning on doing like a bonus episode of the show for Kickstarter backers. That will be a video version only available for backers of the Kickstarter campaign. I think we should probably say what we're thinking. We're thinking of doing like a video, like a recorded podcast show and tell of some of our pen collection. That's what we're thinking of doing right now. So when we had this idea, there was a part of me that thought that many people would probably prefer this video to the live show video. Totally. So we were thinking like, because obviously me and Brad can't get together, but we can fire up our webcams and just have like a conversation as if it was like a Twitch stream or something. Between the two of us, we'll record the videos and kind of we'll find a way to stitch that together and put it out there. I'm not exactly sure how we're going to do this yet. Or when. I think it, personally, I think the best time to do it is kind of around the time that the Atlanta pen show would have been.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So we can release it in April.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I just think that that, you know, just kind of makes it work right for like our thoughts. So that's what we're planning to do there to kind of make amends, I guess, for the Atlanta pen show video. You know, so there may be some of you now that thinks I would quite like to see that. And so you can, you know, you can still back the campaign. Right now, we're absolutely killing it. So thank you. Like, yes, this campaign is so difficult because it should be full of joy. But there's also like so much, so many questions around it right now that it's hard to enjoy it. But we have got 764 backers so far and we have passed $56,000. So thank you so much to everybody that has backed it. And like this, it means a lot to both me and Brad that we make sure that you're going to get good value from this campaign. So we're going to put everything into coming up with some additional stuff. As it stands, there is no issue with the pen. So that's going to, you know, we don't foresee any big problems with that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Everything is on track right now. We currently have updated the page to show an almost finalized design, which I'm really, really happy with. That's come together great. So that's kind of like the final design of the pen showing kind of the location of all the different finial designs and the final pick of the finials themselves. So the little top disc designs that will be printed on the pen. As it stands right now, as we're recording, we only have 226 of those left because we're only making 950 of them for sale. So you can still go back that. But of course, the videos will be available until the campaign is completely done. So I guess some other updates on plans right now. So obviously, we're raising money for this campaign and we're not going anywhere yet. I think something that I do want to address is that I did buy plane tickets for Atlanta, which I am talking to my airline about canceling. But unfortunately, some of the money for the campaign may need to go to helping me recover some of that cost, which I think will probably be incurred to me now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, we booked your travel and honest travel. So that was booked as well. I was able to cancel the hotels. Obviously, they're good about, you know, you only have to have a couple of days notice to cancel the hotel. So that was easy. But the air flight travel is just never easily recoupable. No. Which is fine in this case. I mean, it was budgeted anyway.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I just wanted to be upfront about it because it's like that's what some of the money that people are giving us to is now just going to like recover by cancellation costs. But there kind of isn't really an option for that right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I guess the other thing, I mean, I just want to say it's like I don't know if we will be going to the Dallas Pen Show either.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, you'd like to be positive, think positive about, you know, that time frame almost, what, five months from now. And that's going to be doable and workable. But you just we don't know. Right. Like we went from the the rate of change of the decisions we're having to make is just exceedingly fast right now from an hour to hour basis. So we're planning on going to Dallas. But, you know, two months from now, we it might be taken out of our hands.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because there's so many different things that could happen where it's like, well, people might be able to come together, but I might not be able to come to America or I might be able to get to America. But you still can't have gatherings of over 50 people. Right. Like we just don't know where we're going to be then. Right. So basically what we're saying is we have promised you two videos. You will get two videos. But as it stands right now, me and Brad have no idea for what a second video could be. So, you know, we're going to work on all that stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But we just want to make it really super clear that if you back this campaign and you're backing for the pen and two videos, you're going to get a pen and you're going to get two videos. If you're backing for two videos, you're going to get two videos. But we're just not sure what they're going to be right now. And, you know, I also just wanted to be super clear about where the money is going to go. And then after that, we'll work out what we're going to do with anything extra. Like we just don't know yet. Right. You know, it's a difficult time for a lot of people, a lot of businesses. And it's just tough right now. So we're going to work it out. But like honestly, the generosity and the excitement that people continue to have around this campaign is super heartwarming to me. We have not received one iota of a complaint about this. Like nobody has said a word. And I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support and for showing why this community is so special.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's what I wanted to make sure that we pointed out is that the support we have, pretty much everyone, if I can sum up everyone's feeling, Myke, it's shut up and send me a pen. Right. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's just like, it's just basically like, I don't care. Yeah, just do whatever you want to do. Like here's the money.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But we take this stuff seriously, like asking people, you know, to support campaigns and projects and travel and budgets and things like that. We take that very, very seriously. If you've followed us over the years, how we handle and manage that and make sure we're doing right by our supporters, listeners and backers. So we just want to know that we put that ahead of everything else. And we are obviously trying to be very, very transparent about everything that we do down to how we spend the money that we collect on these campaigns. So, yeah, we will. Until the campaign ends, it's got 18 more days, but you'll continue to be hearing about it just because of so many unknowns, so many changes. You know, after the campaign, you'll definitely want to follow the updates. You'll listen to the podcast. We'll give you updates here. And, you know, on the positive front, like Myke said, the pen is coming along swimmingly. The artwork is now moving into the sampling stage. So I should have a physical prototype pen in my hands, hopefully within the month. That phase tends to move along pretty quickly. That's a reasonable turnaround for that as far as, you know, related to like the official production of the pens takes several months. But, you know, if that goes well, then we'll just move right into production and go on from there. And everyone's going to be getting an awesome pen. I'm pretty excited about that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm really excited about it. That's what this campaign was about anyway. Like, I feel like in previous years, we have put a lot more focus on how great the video content will be and that the physical rewards have been great, but have not been necessarily the reason for the campaigns. Right. We focused on like, take us to this place, take us to this place. You know what I mean? But this year, the focus of the campaign has always been this pen is amazing. Right. Like that's kind of always been the focus. And I'm pleased. I'm genuinely just very pleased that that was how it ended up rolling this year, because then we could focus on. All right. So I'm hoping that we won't have to spend another 10 minutes on next week's episode talking about the Kickstarter. Hopefully not. You never know. But it will be in the show notes. You can go on. You can still back this still, as we said, great reason to back if you want to. And again, thank you to everybody that has.

'''Myke Hurley:''' As a side note to the Atlanta pen show canceling, it's affecting other pen shows. I just wanted to note for all those thinking about the Chicago pen show, the first weekend of May, it has been postponed and moved into June. So it's been pushed back like five weeks. They're going to attempt to that. That's their first move, right? There's instead of just straight up canceling, they're going to go with a postponement, have secured a secondary date. And then basically we're just waiting and seeing. So if you're interested in attending the Chicago pen show, just pay attention to their social media and website and they will continue to update. But right now it has been rescheduled for June 11th through 14th. So just be aware of that.