Print the value of index0
Michael Brooks, Carina Ghionzoli. Michael Brooks, Michael A Brooks, Michael C Brooks, Michael Alan Brooks, Michael Parks, Market Spark Media, Coach on Fire Radio Carina Ghionzoli, Carina Rosner Ghionzoli, Carina Isabella, Else Ghionzoli , TEDx Style Speaker Event Scam, They took my money and did not follow through with any of their commitments. San Diego California
I was approached by Michael Brooks and Carina Ghionzol to be a keynote speaker at a TEDx style event they were producing called 'Wavemaker'. Each speaker (12 or more) had to invest thousands of dollars to participate. They position it as a 'TEDx Speaking Bootcamp. Live Event and 5-star Vacation all wrapped into one amazing event'. They described this as a 'red carpet' event and told us it would include the following:
None of this was provided! Nor did they have the intention of providing this. All of the speakers traveled to San Diego for the event only to find that there was no event ever planned!!! The address they gave us for the beach house didn't exist, no facility was ever secured for the event, they did not have a make-up artist, professional A/V team, photographer, or videographer secured. They never booked a dinner cruise or plan for a beach party afterwards
What was suppose to be 'all inclusive' speaking event turned out to be a big scam. Most of us struggled to pay the fee just to participate, but saw the value given everything that was offered and that it was all inclusive - hence no more out of pocket costs. Upon arrival, we learned that we had no place to stay, no meals, no transportation, no event.
We discovered that each of us paid different amouts to participate. I believe they were very strategic in how much money they thought they could get from each of us. However, we are estimating that, for this fake event alone, they took off with over $30,000.
Upon further investigation, we've learned that Michael Brooks is a convicted felon in the state of Idaho (fraud and forgery) and, in fact, may have a warrant out for a parole violation.
We've also learned that they have invented other programs to lure innocent victims that included telesummits, mastermind groups, on-line radio show hosting and production, retreats and speaker engagements. Perhaps their past victims will share their experiences as well.
It my our hope that this RipOff Report will be able to prevent future, innocent, unsuspecting people from being scammed like so many of us have already experienced.