Re: [AGA-mcm] RE: AGA-mcm Digest, Vol 14, Issue 17

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

A good proposal, regardless of how it was developed, will
make the AGA feel good ;-)

I won't attempt to explain Erik's words, but I'm not sure
he meant them exactly as you have taken them. At any rate,
I offer the following:

The square footage needed depends on the attendance. I
believe you have attendance info already on recent previous
AGA events, as well as roomnights reserved, etc. 
No past AGA convention has reached 200 paid attendees. 2003
had 121 registrants, 108 paid registrants, iirc. AGA 2004,
which was more expensive for attendees but with Amano and a
great location with easy and cheap access to restaurants
and site-seeing locations had about 140 paid registrants,
iirc.

The banquet and main speaker room needs to be large enough
to handle the attendance you anticipate and the hotel can
advise you on whther they have rooms or appropriate size.
Afaik, the AGA is unaware of whether you will have
break-out groups, simultaneous speakers, etc, that will
break the attendance into multiple, smaller groups. So the
square footage requirements can depend in part on those
things. 


You might need space or rooms for:

some storage for various items related to the conducting
the auction(s), such as computers, tickets, etc.

registration/sign-in "booth"

a place to secure any auction donations that arrive ahead
of the auction -- this might also involve the need to make
arangements with the hotel to receive and/or store these
goods if they are delivered to the hotel.

The month or date of the AGA convention is not fixed. It's
occurence in November mostly has been a matter of avoiding
conflicts with other aquatic hobby events and holidays.

The vendor area needs to be a securable area. Since
employing security staff or asking club staff to stand
vigil all night is generally considered an unreasonable
expense or task, the choice is made to have the vendors in
an area that can be locked. Given that the security
critierion is satisfied, it is critical that the vendor
area be near the action and not, as sometimes happens at
some conventions, in another end of the hotel from the main
talks. The vendors need the security for there goods and
displays and desire as much exposure as possible. As you
point out, in practice these two goals are not entirely
compatible. It might be helpful to speak to some vendors
that are likely to participate while still dickering with
the hotels. Lastly, the vendors need to know well in
advance of the convention the specific times when they will
be allowed to set up and tear down and where any storage
space, if needed, will be provided. Their travel and daily
schedules will be based on these times. Of course, they
also need to know ahead of time where to go and who to see
when they are ready to set up. It always help to have
someone present at "set up time" to ensure that the hotel
is ready for them to set up and to address any issues that
come up (electrical supply, table arrangement, table
cloths, or chairs, etc.) and to ensure that the vendor reps
feel respected and their support appreciated by the host
and AGA.

Hope that helps,
sh

--- Michael Skidmore <mskidmore@alamedanet.net> wrote:

> . . . The
> one element of
> guidance I noticed is lacking from the guidelines is the
> square footage of
> the conf. area expected. I will go on my past exp. And
> anticipate the need
> for 1 hosp suite, 1 speaker ready room, and a conf room
> with space for 150
> -200. 

> What isn't clear to me is if you would prefer
> vendor tables around the
> perimeter of the conf room (to maximize mingling) or in
> an adjacent room
> which is quieter for main session but draws vendors away
> to tend their
> tables. If there are other space needs or nice to haves,
> let us know and
> well tell you what we find. We have already established
> an agenda, sample
> brochures, side events and recruited very experienced
> local help from SVAS
> and ACA as mentors and sources of volunteers.


>  If you
> were willing to have
> it early, Sacramento would love to do a joint convention
> with FINDIG and AGA
> combined. But they meet annually two weeks earlier, on
> last weekend of Oct. 
>
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