What the hell happened in Schaumburg last weekend?

For those of you who had reserved seats, we are giving you guys an extra hour with the ball pit.

That's the question many event attendees, presenters, and general Tumblr fans are asking after the DashCon 2014 Convention at Schaumburg's Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center quickly unraveled into a total disaster. On Friday evening, the first night of the convention, event organizers informed the crowd that they were $17,000 short of paying the required fee to the Renaissance, and unless they came up with the cash before 10 p.m., DashCon would shut down, according to the Daily Dot.

And in one hour, astonishingly, they hit their goal.

Organizers accepted cash from attendees, many of which appeared to be in their teens, and set up a PayPal account for others to donate. DashCon wrote in a Tumblr post, which according to the Daily Dot has since been deleted, that the event would be canceled unless all of the $17,000 was raised, adding: "We suspect it’s due to the fact that upper management doesn’t like the people at the con."

It appears the $17,000 gap came from DashCon's misunderstanding of the contract with the hotel, as they expected to pay the majority of the amount at the end of the convention, rather than upfront. DashCon, which is not actually affiliated with Tumblr, has apologized to the Renaissance staff for suggestion they discriminated against the event attendees in a letter on its website, which we'll get into a little more later.

But the last ditch fundraising attempt was just the beginning of a weekend full of blunders from the DashCon staff, who was running the event for the first time and clearly had no idea what they were doing. DashCon was also unable to pay for some of its event speakers, leading to several of them canceling their appearance or leaving halfway through. Members of Welcome to Night Vale, a popular podcast, pulled out once they realized DashCon was not going to pay their travel and performance costs upfront as was previously agreed. Baker Street Babes and Gingerhaze were also scheduled for the event, but left once they found out DashCon hadn't paid for their hotel rooms.

But after it was announced that Night Vale would not be performing, the event went from mismanaged to embarrassingly pathetic, and the internet went crazy. DashCon wrote on its Tumblr page: "For those of you who had reserved seats, we are giving you guys an extra hour with the ball pit."

That's the ball pit. This was DashCon's resolution for failing to pay one of the event's main acts, resulting in their cancelation. The absurdity of this "extra benefit" would be laughable at any event for people above the age of 7, but when it happens in a room full of Tumblr fans, well, get ready for some memes. The Daily Dot has a long rundown, but here are a few good ones.

This all leads us to the statement posted on DashCon's website this week where the organization attempts to explain how everything went completely to shit. The message was meant to "take responsibility for our faults in the matter, apologize to certain parties, and put as many fears to rest as we possibly can." We'll go point by point with select quotes from the statement.

• The $17,000 debacle was caused by miscommunication on the DashCon staff regarding the contract. "We’ve looked into the contract, and it’s come to light that the ‘net 30’ terms that were described by a member of DashCon’s upper management weren’t correct. Whether that misinformation was deliberate or accidental, we can’t say for sure. We can only say that we’ve taken measures to remove the person who handled that situation from our company."
• The statement that the hotel staff didn't like the DashCon clientele was "...100% untrue. When two of the Con Heads were told by the third that such a thing had been said or otherwise insinuated, it wasn’t wholly unbelievable—as it’s happened to so many other events in the past—and, in our state of panic, we believed what we were told, therein passing it along to our attendees. DashCon’s sincerest apologies go out to everyone who was hurt by this statement, including our attendees, vendors, staff members, and everyone at both the Renaissance Schaumburg and their parent company, Marriott International."
• People who donated toward the $17,000 through PayPal can receive a refund. Those who paid in cash can try for a refund, but it appears a bit trickier. "Upon advice of our legal counsel, we have been instructed to sort through claims, try and determine legitimacy [based on total amount claimed versus total amount received], and make an informed decision about potential refunds in coordination with both legal and accounting at that time."
• Panelists and volunteers will still be compensated. "There were some funds at our disposal that were not immediately able to be liquated in order to pull us out of our situation. When they become available, which will be within a week, we will make good on those promises of reimbursement for rooms and/or badges."
• A "clerical error" resulted in some hotel rooms to not being covered by DashCon as previously agreed upon. "...seven of DashCon’s comped rooms ‘fell off’ of our master account with the Renaissance Schaumburg. That is to say, they no longer showed up as rooms that were DashCon’s financial responsibility. This wasn’t information we were made aware of until the situation was already spiraling out of control."
• Night Vale received an email from a DashCon admin saying that they would be paid upfront. This was written in mistake, DashCon said. "DashCon is deeply regretful of that statement in light of this new information. Everyone from the Welcome to Night Vale team has our sincerest apologies for this misinformation that we spread."
• Those who paid for reserved seating to Night Vale won't be getting their money back. "After speaking to our legal counsel, we have been advised that we are unable to provide refunds on these seats. This decision was based on several of DashCon’s Rules and Policies."
• About that ball pit: "DashCon rented both the ball pit and bouncy house from Clowning Around Entertainment in Mundelein, IL. Photos on the website were not representative of products received, and the company has been contacted with photographic evidence of the quality and size of products provided to us. Upon first inquiry, Clowning Around was made aware that the products would be largely for use by adults rather than children and assured us that it would be no problem. We have yet to receive an official resolution to this situation."

The level of mismanagement at this convention is astounding. DashCon noted in their statement that "a lot has been said of what happened at our event this past weekend, and most of the information has come from those who weren’t actually there," but thanks to social media, you didn't have to be in Schaumburg to see just how poorly run this convention was.

But if you had a bad experience at the convention last weekend, didn't feel like you got your money's worth, or missed your shot at that sweet ball pit, don't fret. The convention is coming back next year and will be held in Indianapolis.

Good luck with that.