[Deptheads] Sheraton info

[Victor B]

I am sure we still have access to the loading docks and freight elevators for specific hours friday thru monday.
Larger Conventions like origins, Gencon Indy and San Diego comic are a different story than us.....................
--origins had 15,000 attendees, SanDiego comic con had over 100,000, dragoncon had over 30,000 and Gencon indy had 27,000
--these large cons are held in convention centers and Hotel accomindations and PARKING are up to the individual (with preferred hotles having con rates)
--origins is run by GAMA, comic con is sponsored by comic and film companies as well as manufactuers. Many are sponsored.
--Large cons offer masquerades, many many manufactuers, exclusives, tons of giveaways, pre-releases, several industry and celeb guest (which work when you have 10k+ attendees), art shows, workshops and seminar by guests, media and press everywhere and g4 tv coverage.
--Large cons are once a year. People save up and plan for these all year. We are 3 times a year. If we were every 6 months we would have increased attendance.
A february con (cold weather con gets lots of people) and August con. The 6 months between gives plenty of prep time and keeps people hungry for it.
We have to deal with hotels to host out cons and we do not have major sponsor and big name support. 
We are small and intimate. Nothing wrong with that for now. We are a 1000 and under attendance con looking to get to 2000 and then more from there. If  we  had 5,000+ attendees we would be in a convention center type area with nearby hotels and parking and not in this situation. but that is not the case --we are small and intimate and us small cons have to coddle their attendees. John is correct about parking at large cons. People will walk 5 blocks to a large convention when they flew in from alabama and wanted to stay at the motel 6 instead of the hilton or sheraton. Locals hate walking more than out of towners. Locals support the small cons and larger cons attract people nationwide. We have to take care of our locals. if they have to walk it needs to be by choice.
I totally agree with John on the move plans to move. Yesterday is not soon enough. So far we are the gypsy con with changing ownership, hotel problems at westin, then moving and hotel problems at radisson, then moving, then etc. etc. We need to try a place out for a year and if we like it get a 5 year contract. We need to shed the gypsy image. Our loyal regular attendees have suffered long enough.  I still attend 8 cons a year as media on top of the 3 startegicons and 2 others. We need consistency. And this starts with a hotel that wants us not one that just wants to bend us over. Maybe sheraton, maybe not ; but we need somewhere even if it is in John's backyard. Anything but radisson for August.
V
----- Original Message ----
From: "Evil5757 at aol.com" <Evil5757 at aol.com>
To: deptheads at strategicon.net
Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2008 11:06:15 AM
Subject: [Deptheads] Sheraton info

Honestly, in all of the conventions I have done I have NEVER run into a parking situation as bad as we are going to have and I have no suggestions as to how to handle it.  Any new attendee who has picked up a flyer and decides to try us will DEFINITELY remember how bad parking was and it will affect their decision to come back.  When you go to a larger convention, it is actually normal to have to walk/travel a fair distance from your hotel or parking area to the convention hall (2 or 3 blocks on average).  When we had Origins in Philadelphia, it was literally 1 mile of walking from the closest hotel to the convention site and everyone walked it every day, so IF we had the parking area, it could be done.  With this situation, we don't even have that.  I haven't heard this mentioned, but where are the dealer's going to be able to park their vans and trucks to offload everything?
 
The Sheraton is not the long term answer for our growth potential, but if we stay at the Rad our growth will be non-existent.  The chart they gave for the room sizes is a bit deceiving, as some of the room we appear to be able to use is lost in pillars and so forth.
 
My suggestion is to sign with the Sheraton for Sept 2008 through all of 2009, work towards the Hilton in 2010.  This convention, all department heads take time to go to the Sheraton and look at each of the rooms so you can see which have airwalls, which have dead space, etc.  We need one person to take pictures of each room and post them for reference later on.
 
John
 




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