Beguiled Con

If you want to donate to Beguiled for 2024/2025, you can PayPal us at [email protected]. No one is required to donate, but we wanted to at least offer the option. If anyone knows of an organization that we could potentially work alongside for financial backing so that we don't have to do a back and forth between an in-person conference and a virtual conference, please feel free to email our chair, Q, at [email protected].

link: http://beguiled.ticketleap.com/conference-2023/

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Thank you to everyone who attended, volunteered, and presented at Beguiled Conline 2021!! The event was amazing and so much fun! We hope that the world will be in a state such that we can see everyone safely in-person in 2022!

Since we have offered honorariums to our presenters, those who forgo the payment have the option to have the money stay with conference to help continue volunteer and scholarship benefits OR to donate to a cause. Last year we supported Brave Space Alliance and had planned to this year until a beloved member of Chicago's BDSM/Kink community had an accident.

For those who don't know, Jerith is one of the co-directors at the Galleria Domain 2 Club. GD2 has supported Beguiled, Allowed us to teach hypnosis classes in the space and spread the word about our event. Jerith is also someone I have known and admired for many years. She is an amazing kind person and excellent educator. With the full support of the rest of the Beguiled ConCom, we changed our cause to the GoFundMe for Jerith and her loved ones.

We are proud to announce that the Beguiled Conference Community was able to donate $560 to the fund for Jerith.

If you would also like to help please go to this link: https://gofund.me/b6d0d930

We, the Beguiled Conference Committee, are writing this public statement as we feel it is important to provide correction to misinformation posted by the MindQuake Conference Committee.

When Beguiled began in 2019 we were able to get assistance in vetting and sorting through previous Midwest and other conference bans and warnings. One person that has been on our radar since the beginning was Mr. Taqtiks. He had made public statements that put him on the list of people we wouldn't want presenting for us. He had a list of complaints from both other leadership teams and a few individual community members. It was not until this year’s 2021 Beguiled Conline that he had ever attempted to attend or present with us. So no official statements were ever needed. 

The Mindquake staff claimed that Mr. Taqtiks never got his presentation statuses. His presentations were rejected through the PreTalx system, like every other applicant. He at no point reached out to state that he was having an issue with the system or seeing his status and message. 

The MindQuake Team has also responded to public notice that based on his clear further violations of community decency and, more enforceably, Beguiled Conference policies, Mr. Taqtiks is indeed banned from Beguiled.  Their response was that they don’t recognize it because the ban was not delivered via their preferred method of communication.

Let us be perfectly clear, harassment, retaliation and outing are all explicitly stated as against Beguiled's policies. Even without previous red flag behaviors, these actions are sufficient for a permanent ban. When a person publicly and via direct messages, lashes out against the people he believes has reported him, that is retaliation and harassment. When he then goes a step further and obtains a confidential report and outs the contents of said report in a public call with 40+ witnesses, there is no investigation needed. These acts were all done in public and acknowledged by both Mr Taqtiks and the rest of the MQ Team. 

MindQuake's ConCom is free to run their event as they see fit and have whomever on leadership. However we, the Beguiled ConCom, want to create a community where people are accountable and feel comfortable. Beguiled ConCom will not willfully ignore the very real harms that have happened and been excused and defended by MindQuake's Team. Those who have been harmed get priority. We find it to be inappropriate to ignore such clear violations. 

Mr. Taqtiks is banned from Beguiled. 

Other members of their teams have also had issues and official warnings. It is not generally our policy to share these statuses publicly, but MQ has forced our hand.

We hope this is the last statement we need to make in regards to these issues. 

Sincerely, 

Beguiled Conference Committee. 

Beguiled Conline 2 will be held virtually June 25th -27th. We are the midwest hypnokink convention and the only North American Hypno Con Chaired by a Black Queer person.

We are seeking presenters who are interested to submit classes that center or relate to hypnosis and BDSM. We are looking for presentations that are between 60 minutes and 90 minutes.  **We are opening presenter applications for Black, Indigenous, and Other Presenters of Color ONLY   . From today (March 1st) to March 15th, 2021** we will only be considering Presenters of Color to help break down the added barriers we face as presenters of color in BDSM and Kink Communities. March 15th applications will be open for all presenters.

You will need to have a discord account for the Con.

Beguiled is committed to paying our presenters for their labor. We base presenter pay on the number of tickets sold and thus do not have the final number at this time. We aim to provide at least $50 per presentation.  

On June 27th and 28th Beguiled will be hosting a small online convention! Please join us on the Beguiled Discord server https://discord.gg/yAGpAWh for the most up to date information and the event!

Saturday the 27th classes will start at 2:30pm Central Time (https://notime.zone/M8fty-2n-_E_m). A schedule of classes for the weekend will be available by June 7! We have already confirmed that we will have classes from Wisguy, The Secret Subject, and more! There will be 4 classes each day and ample uncon and social space. We will be using Zoom and Jitsi in addition to Discord. 

To attend You must register to attend by clicking here: https://forms.gle/jzBdvMR1jexE9eXr9. To give enough time to verify, registration will close on Sunday June 21st. You MUST respond to the request to verify by Wednesday June 24th. While we are offering this event free of charge, a $10 per person donation is recommended to help us pay presenters and cover costs for Beguiled 2021. You can donate via PayPal at: paypal.me/beguiled. 

We thank you for all of the support and enthusiasm you have shown and given us. The COVID-19 Pandemic has spread far and wide and continues to impact the health and daily life of everyone across the globe. In Illinois, schools are closed for the rest of the school year and the Governor has recommended that summer events cancel for the health and safety of the public.

It was that recommendation that enabled us to re-open discussions with our venue. They have been wonderful, given the circumstances. They will continue to be our venue and continue to be enthusiastic about us as a group working with them.

With that in mind, it is with a heavy heart that we must announce the cancellation of Beguiled 2020. This was a difficult decision, but it is the only one that is in line with our ethics and desire to guard the health and safety of the community.

Beguiled 2020 tickets will be automatically rolled over to Beguiled 2021 (or 2022) unless you email [email protected]. This is to help ensure that we can cover costs for 2021. Hotel reservations for 2020 will be automatically cancelled as the hotel is unable to open the 2021 room block until the end of June this year. If you have hotel concerns you may still call them. We will announce when the hotel is able to open booking for 2021. Currently the hotel is working with a significantly reduced staff, so please be kind and patient when calling.

We have begun planning for a 2 day event with eight total classes online during Beguiled weekend June 27th and 28th, 2020. More details are to come, but we are hoping to boost our server for the event and to pay the presenters so donations are welcome and encouraged. We will be accepting donations directly at [paypal.me/beguiled](paypal.me/beguiled). More details about registration for the online event will be forthcoming.

Thank you all for your understanding and support during these trying times. We are looking forward to seeing you all back in person for a marvelous 2021. Please stay safe, be well and be kind to each other.

Sincerely with love,

Beguiled ConCom

Lamia, Quillo, The Inquisition, Tigress Dreamingkat, BastKitty, Minddiver

## FAQ:

For Refunds, Please include the name or transaction ID from your order so that we can verify refunds are going back to where they belong. Also please note that you will receive the net ticket amount back as processing fees have already been taken out. This will mean about $2-$3 difference per ticket.

For volunteers - For those of you who did NOT request to be on Consent Team, your application HAD been approved. (Consent team approvals were done by the Consent Team leaders, so I cannot comment on those either way.) As the convention is not currently proceeding in a physical capacity for 2020, you can request for us to roll your application over to 2021. We absolutely appreciate your willingness to donate your time and energy to make our convention a safe and supportive space.

For presenters - Your class and presenter application is accepted for 2021, provided you are able to attend. We will reach out again in the future to check in, and you are not obligated to commit right now. We understand this might not be a commitment you can make today, but if you are able to, we welcome your attendance in 2021.

Sunday April 26th at 5pm Central Time we will have a speakeasy on our discord to answer all question about Beguiled 2020 and beyond.  Here is the link: https://discord.gg/fpr746M 

 Emails to registered attendees, presenters, and volunteers have started to go out today and will continue being sent over the next few days. The emails will go to the email address that you provided to us. 

  We ask that you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE save your questions for the speakeasy as they will not be answered before then. 

 We hope that you are all well and we look forward to talking with you and addressing concerns next week. 

 Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

Beguiled Concom

As you are all aware by now, COVID-19 has been impacting every aspect of our lives. We, the Beguiled ConCom, have been working with our venue to determine our options and the best course forward. We are taking this situation very seriously. At this time, based on our contract with the hotel and current federal and state dates for lifting restrictions, Beguiled 2020 is still happening.

We are resuming ticket sales and encouraging everyone to book your hotel rooms. Please order tickets, sign up to volunteer or present, and book your hotel like normal. We are doing this with the understanding that circumstances are ever changing and that we will adapt as needed. Should the conference need to cancel, we would roll tickets over for 2021 or 2022. If you have concerns please reach out to a member of ConCom or the general email:

[email protected]

We have an amazing and growing event that we are very excited to host. Please note that any additional announcements about the event will come directly from the ConCom.