Terms & Conditions 

General Terms 

By purchasing, obtaining, or in anywise attending an in-person or virtual Futurescapes workshop or event you agree to the following: 

By attending Futurescapes or any part of Futurescapes, you agree to allow Futurescapes the right to use your image and/or likeness by media now known or hereafter devised for advertising and/or other promotional purposes. You also agree not to take pictures or videos where posted or announced as prohibited and agree that any permitted photos or videos will not be used for any commercial purposes and will not be made publicly available or generally displayed without prior written consent of Futurescapes. 

By registering for Futurescapes you agree not to share any access codes, documents, or other access to intellectual property provided by virtue of participation in Futurescapes. 

Intellectual Property 

Any intellectual property that you submit in application to Futurescapes or as registered Futurescapes attendee remains your intellectual property. Your intellectual property will not be shared with anyone outside of your assigned workshop groups, faculty, and Futurescapes staff. Further any personal or identifying information that you share with Futurescapes will not be shared or sold to any third party. 

You understand that the tools, processes, strategies, materials, and information presented in the Workshop are confidential, copyrighted, and proprietary to Futurescapes, its faculty, or fellow participants, and agree not to record, duplicate, distribute, report on, teach or train from the Workshop materials in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Futuresccapes and the creator of the intellectual property in question. Participants may not use any device to video, photograph, or record any aspect of the Workshop. Participants who do not abide by this policy will be asked to destroy any recorded materials and may be asked to leave the Workshop and will not be eligible for a refund. Participants may not report on any of the concepts taught at the event, including providing a summary or review of the event on/in any media outlets, blogs, websites, or stages without written permission from Futuresccapes. Any unauthorized use or distribution of the proprietary concepts, materials, and intellectual property by the Participant or his/her representatives is prohibited and Futurescapes will pursue legal action and full damages if these terms are violated. In short, please extend to others the same respect you would expect for your own intellectual property. 

Workshop Conditions, Liability Waiver & Cancellation Terms

Except where relevant, all of the following applies to both in-person and virtual workshops.

Resort refers to the venue or venues selected for a given workshop, conference, or summit that involves in-person attendance.

Participation in the workshop involves voluntarily assumed risks due to travel, disease, natural disaster, actions by other event participants and Resort staff or attendees among other possible harms.

In consideration for being allowed to participate in this workshop, event, summit or symposium, I release from liability and waive my right to sue or take legal action against Policy Lab, LLC (DBA: Futurescapes Writers’ Workshops), their employees, officers, volunteers and agents (collectively “Workshop”) from any and all claims, including claims of the Workshop’s negligence, resulting in any physical injury, illness (including death) or economic loss I may suffer or which may result from my participation in this workshop, event, summit or symposium, travel to and from the workshop, event, summit or symposium (including air travel), or any events incidental to these activities.

Attendees may be offered the chance to express a faculty preference via a form. An expression of preference submitted via the designated form will be considered in making faculty assignments, but there are no gaurantees that an attendee will be assigned to or able to work with a specific faculty member or members during the workshop.

Should events beyond the reasonable control of the Resort and Workshop, including but not limited to (1) acts of God, (2) war, including armed conflict, (3) strikes or labor disputes at the Resort or in the surrounding area, (4) disease at the Resort or in the surrounding area, (examples of disease: SARS, Legionnaires, COVID-19), (5) government regulation or advisory (including travel advisory warnings), (6) civil disturbance at the Resort or in the surrounding area, (7) terrorism or threats of terrorism in the United States as substantiated by governmental warnings or advisory notices, (8) curtailment of transportation services or facilities which would materially affect attendees from attending the conference, (9) disaster, fire, earthquakes, hurricanes affecting the Resort or in the surrounding area, (10) unseasonable extreme inclement weather in the surrounding area, (11) shortages or disruption of the electrical power supply causing blackouts or rolling blackouts or other essential utilities in the surrounding area, or (12) any other cause reasonably beyond the parties' control (collectively referred to as "occurrences"), making the event commercially impracticable, impracticable to perform, illegal, or impossible to fully perform under this Agreement as the Parties originally contracted. In such case the affected Party may terminate this Agreement, without liability, upon written notification. Furthermore, should one of the above events occur and the Workshop decides to continue with the event as scheduled, or if one of the events occur within six months of the event, the Hotel will waive any applicable minimum Guestroom Night Usage requirements or attrition fees, catered function(s) cancellation fees or other damages provided for under this Agreement, and offer to Attendees the lowest guestroom rates being offered by the Hotel over the Conference Dates. In addition, should registered attendees cancel reservations or registrations because of reasons over which they have no control such as, but not limited to airline flight cancellations. Resort shall appropriately reduce, without liability to the Workshop, any obligation by the Workshop or the individual which otherwise would be required in any manner under this Agreement. Notice under this provision may be given at any time in advance of the Conference provided that the notifying party has met the requirements of this provision. For any workshop, whether virtual or in-person, Futurescapes strives to create value for all participants through critiques, classes, and informal networking. We commit to meeting the parameters specified in the FAQ for each workshop. Beyond this, the workshop makes no promise of meeting the expectations of individual participants. There is no gaurantee, for example, that feedback received will be to your liking or take a form preferred by you. The workshop does not promise any sort of representation or publication to attendees.

Registration 

Applying to the workshop does not constitute an offer of admission. An applicant must be offered and accept and offer of admission before they may register. Any participant who manages to register without first accepting an offer of admission may be subject to a forfeiture of any and all registration fees paid. Admission decisions are made solely at the discretion and determination of the workshop.

Futurescapes reserves the right to require that registration fees be paid within a certain time frame (determined via electronic communication) in order to hold and retain your seat with the workshop. Failure to pay registration fees within the assigned timeframe may result in your registration being canceled without reimbursement of any partial fees paid to that point. 

I understand that I have twenty (20) days from the time of my first payment for a workshop or thirty-five (35) days prior to the announced and advertised first day of the workshop (whichever comes first) to cancel my registration and receive a refund. Exceptions after this date may be made on a case-by-case basis but no exception shall exceed 20% of total tuition paid for that workshop.

Liability & Harassment & Safety Policy 

The information contained in or made available by Futuresccapes or any third-party through Futurescapes or their websites or services cannot replace or substitute for the services of trained professionals in any field, including, but not limited to, mental, financial, medical, psychological, or legal fields. Futurescapes does not offer any professional personal, medical, financial, or legal advice and none of the information contained in the Workshop should be confused as such advice. Neither Futurescapes nor any of its assigns, sponsors, speakers, partners, contractors or any of their affiliates will be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary, or other damages to the Participant or the Participant’s business, including economic loss, that may result from participation in the workshop or from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials, information, or strategies communicated through the workshop or any products or services provided pursuant to the workshop, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, will Futurescapes be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from Participant’s involvement in the activities of the Workshop. To be clear: You, the Participant, alone are responsible and accountable for your decisions, actions and results and by your participation in Futurescpaes, you agree not to attempt to hold Futurescapes or its staff or faculty liable for any decisions, actions or results that you make or experience in business or in life due to your participation in this workshop at any time, during or after. 

I understand that I must adhere to the Harassment and Safety Policy, and that the policy for the workshop will be sent to me no later than 30 days prior to commencement of the main workshop. I understand that the Harassment and Safety Policy may be updated and revised up to 30 days prior to commencement of the main workshop.  

Artificial Intelligence Policy and Statement

Futurescapes works to ensure that the intellectual property of each applicant and participant is respected and protected. We will not use any material submitted to the workshop for any commercial or public purpose. Should we seek to use an excerpt of a student or applicant's work, we will only do so with prior consent. We will also always provide just compensation at competitive market rates.

Generative AI technologies, which can generate creative materials due to their incorporation of innumerable literary and creative works into their predictive software - generally without consent - pose a serious challenge to the protection and creation of original intellectual property. As such, it is prohibited for any staff, student, applicant, faculty member or any other individual affiliated with Futurescapes, to utilize generative AI in the course of creating material for a Futurescapes workshop or program or in generating feedback on the creative materials of a participant of a workshop or Futurescapes-affiliated program.

Two exceptions exist:

1. AI-generated material created as part of a student's creative work may be acceptable if it is clearly labeled as such. The following schema is required for material directly derived from AI-generation (direct quote or paraphrased material) [This Material was generated with the help of AI] *content* [Close of AI-Generated Material]. For other uses of AI in your creative work, it is reasonable to provide an italicized explanation and justification at the top of the creative work.

2. Feedback provided to another student or participant may utilize ai-generated material if express prior consent is received from the student for whom feedback is to be generated.  

Above all, faculty, staff, students and any party affiliated with the workshop will operate out of respect for the intellectual property of others and in full honesty and transparency regarding their own creative work. Failure to do so may result in expulsion from the workshop, or any affiliated program, without refund of tuition or fees.