Exclusive: A national disability exhibition organiser who took thousands of dollars in payments from stallholders never even finalised booking the venue, it can be revealed.<\/p>\n
River Night, behind Developing Australian Communities, has run a series of successful expos, boasting on his website that he is behind \u201cthe largest events for the disability and NDIS sector ever seen in Australia\u2019s history\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, when disability providers arrived to start setting up at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday, they discovered that the event was off.<\/p>\n
The Victorian Convention and Event Trust said in a statement that \u201cthe deposit was never paid and the booking was not confirmed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made several attempts to contact the event organiser to support the successful delivery of the event and received no response,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
A Sydney exhibition for October 23 and 24 has been cancelled according to the ICC Sydney website.<\/p>\n
The statement said: \u201cPlease be advised that due to unforeseen circumstances, the Sydney Disability Connection Expo is not proceeding at ICC Sydney this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both centres asked people impacted to direct their enquiries to Developing Communities Australia.<\/p>\n
This masthead was unable to get hold of founder of the company, Mr Night, who has autism, and is a self-declared disability advocate, appearing on TV shows including The Project.<\/p>\n
There are now concerns as to the future of the company, with people wanting to know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
James Loveday, who was meant to be manning a stall in Melbourne this weekend, had also booked two nights in a hotel as he was travelling from out of town.<\/p>\n
He said he was annoyed the organiser had gone quiet and not alerted people to the fact it wasn\u2019t going to be running before everyone started turning up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn theory it is going to cost the company upwards of $12,000, if you think about paying for the stall, two nights accommodation and weekend rates for staff,\u201d Mr Loveday said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo weeks ago we got an email reminding us about our stalls, confirming it was going ahead. In relation to the upsell we had someone call a staff member asking whether we wanted to buy a banner to go above the stall which would have cost another $2000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Loveday said the event is free to people with a disability, but he was concerned that some people would have spent their NDIS funds on transport to get to the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the people I am more concerned about,\u201d Mr Loveday said.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks ago, a Developing Australian Communities Facebook post on October 1, was advertising for events in Brisbane and Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBooth space is running out FAST !!!\u201d, the post said, and calling for providers to buy space at events in Brisbane and Perth in November and Brisbane next May. <\/p>\n
\u201cWant to showcase your services at Australia\u2019s biggest Disability Connection Expo, but thought you couldn\u2019t afford it? Think again,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just introduced our new 2m x 3m Budget Booths \u2013 specifically designed to give incredible smaller providers, passion-led startups, and budget-conscious innovators the platform they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not known whether any of the other events advertised have also been cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: A national disability exhibition organiser who took thousands of dollars in payments from stallholders never even finalised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[498039,386810,498014,498054,72756,55611,434974,498037,498055,409073,498018,498029,376435,498061,425909,498027,376769,378685,498058,64,498068,63,13234,498062,498052,651,472773,498048,56957,498015,498035,498019,78059,134,498016,3172,5607,41810,498059,417412,14826,498060,384271,647,498032,498041,498070,498034,498024,244000,498033,2895,23695,100367,498071,498056,498023,498065,498047,17571,1861,35556,13972,376545,498046,498025,498050,376918,285,11457,498042,498038,498044,393777,44731,498036,498051,498049,380229,498040,379398,131558,498022,498043,424019,498053,498064,379066,379007,295305,498020,498031,498021,498063,498030,380272,498028,498017,105299,379782,364611,25230,9357,498066,16861,7475,413857,498057,381069,498072,164579,498067,498045,498069,498026,483203],"class_list":["post-931449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-s-biggest-disability-connection-expo","tag-s-history","tag-s-self-declared-biggest-disability-expo-organiser","tag-12k","tag-72756","tag-55611","tag-a-banner","tag-a-developing-australian-communities-facebook-post","tag-a-disability","tag-a-hotel","tag-a-national-disability-exhibition-organiser","tag-a-self-declared-disability-advocate","tag-a-series","tag-a-spokeswoman-said-a-sydney-exhibition","tag-a-staff-member","tag-a-stall","tag-a-statement","tag-an-email","tag-another-2000","tag-au","tag-aussie-disability","tag-australia","tag-autism","tag-booth-space","tag-both-centres","tag-brisbane","tag-brisbane-and-perth","tag-budget-conscious-innovators","tag-concerns","tag-developing-australian-communities","tag-developing-communities-australia-this-masthead","tag-disability-providers","tag-dollars","tag-entertainment","tag-event-trust","tag-events","tag-exclusive","tag-founder","tag-his-venues","tag-his-website","tag-hold","tag-icc-sydney","tag-incredible","tag-melbourne","tag-mr-loveday","tag-mr-night","tag-national-disability-expo-events","tag-ndis-expo","tag-ndis-participants","tag-ndis-providers","tag-next-may","tag-no-response","tag-november","tag-october-1","tag-october-23-and-24","tag-on-james-loveday","tag-our-new-2m-x-3m-budget-booths","tag-our-stalls","tag-passion-led-startups","tag-payments","tag-people","tag-pocket","tag-providers","tag-relation","tag-river-night","tag-several-attempts","tag-smaller-providers","tag-some-people","tag-space","tag-staff","tag-stallholders","tag-successful-expos","tag-sydney-disability","tag-the-booking","tag-the-company","tag-the-company-upwards","tag-the-deposit","tag-the-disability-and-ndis-sector","tag-the-event","tag-the-event-organiser","tag-the-fact","tag-the-future","tag-the-icc-sydney-website-the-statement","tag-the-largest-events","tag-the-melbourne-convention-and-exhibition-centre","tag-the-organiser","tag-the-other-events","tag-the-people","tag-the-platform","tag-the-post","tag-the-project-there","tag-the-stall","tag-the-successful-delivery","tag-the-sydney-disability-connection-expo","tag-the-upsell","tag-the-venue","tag-their-enquiries","tag-their-ndis-funds","tag-theory","tag-this-weekend","tag-this-year","tag-thousands","tag-thursday","tag-town-julie-cross","tag-transport","tag-tv-shows","tag-two-nights","tag-two-nights-accommodation-and-weekend-rates","tag-two-weeks","tag-unforeseen-circumstances","tag-vendor","tag-vendor-loss","tag-vendors","tag-vic-disability","tag-victorian-convention","tag-your-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}