[AGA-mcm] Fw: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?

FYI. I know Larry had most recently been focused on Dallas for the obvious reasons.

But if we can get some help in Atlanta, well, we'll see if anything pans out. I'm not turning down any help offered ;-)

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: S. Hieber <shieber@yahoo.com>
To: orders@fishbookstore.com
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:03:41 AM
Subject: Re: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?

Yeah, with conventions, size really makes a diff. I think with an anticpated attendance of 400, ACA can easily commit to 750 roomnights. Aqutic Gardeners are peanuts compared to that. Larry did the looking in Atlanta. I think the best he found was about $129 -$149 and there was a problem with open dates, iirc. Larry's just left for Honduras once-in-a-lifetime trip (can't blame him for that after putting in so much work) so I'm trying to fill in.

We had been focusing on the Atlanta downtown Marriot. The airport hotels were on the list:

Renaissance Atlanta Concourse
Hilton Atlanta Airport and Towers
Drury Inn and Suites Atlanta Airport
Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport
Holiday Inn Atlanta Airport North
Courtyard by Marriorr Atlanta Airport North

I think it was Erik that had informed us about the ACA deal but by that time it was becoming too late to try to produce a convention in Atlanta were we had no one on the ground to handle things locally. Which is why Larry redirected efforts to Dallas -- there's a few folks in the Dallas area that can help out, besides it being Larry's base of operations and folks there having produced a convention before. Larry was trying out the Marriot that we used in Dallas in 2003 but the staff there are all diff and the prices much higher.

If you can feel out some of those other hotels, that would be a big help. If we don't do Atlanta this year, then we are going to try to do it in 2008.

I really appreciate whatever help you can provide.

----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Barnett <orders@fishbookstore.com>
To: S. Hieber <shieber@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:02:45 AM
Subject: RE: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?

The Atlanta Area Aquarium Association is hosting the ACA 2008. We are using the Airport Hilton (great hotel!). Our room rate is $104 with a $7 rebate per room. Of course, we are expect 750+ room nights. I can forward your needs to our salesperson and see what they can do.

What hotels in Atlanta have you looked at?

The Holiday Inn Airport might be a good option

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/ATLAP/welcome

Regards
Mark Barnett
AquaBid.com

From: S. Hieber [mailto:shieber@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 8:28 AM
To: orders@fishbookstore.com
Subject: Re: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?

Hello, Mark,

So far, we've only seen roomnights rates in excess of $130.

This is where we want to end up.

Clean.

Event is preferred on Thurs through Sun in last 2 weeks of Oct or first two weeks of Nov -- we can't set up for earlier than that this year, and later than that is too close to the holidays to get a decent turnout.

No charge for meeting rooms (we accept a sliding scale for this based on number of roomnights rented but there should be no charge if a total of about 100 roomnights are rented);

a roomnight charge of about $100 (or less -- over that and demand starts to fall off sharply);

assurance that a band won't be playing in the adjoining meeting room during our meetings;

some confidence that the hotel won't treat us like bugs (e.g., if the sales person is always late responding to us *before* the deal is struck, that's a bad sign for how we'll be treated after they have our money);

complimentary roomnight credit based on say every 50 roomnights rented; (since AGA pays for speaker roomnights, this ends up paying for two or three roomnights);

Willing to reconcile all actual attendees' roomnights at the hotel as counting toward convention total roomnights; (some members rent rooms without using the web link but we still want credit for their roomnights.

A web link for hotel registration that automatically provides the convention rate and counts the convention roomnights;

registration table and vendor table area;

Meeting room

Banquet room on Sat night

AGA will make a roomnight commitment of 125 roomnights -- we want the hotel to offer the convention rate for something like this, with a cut off date as early as 4 weeks before the event:

Thurs 10 roomnights

Fri 60 roomnights

Sat 60 roomnghts

Sun 10 roomnights;

Vendor/Registration room Friday 4:00pm through Saturday 6:00pm

Meeting Room Friday Night, all day Sat

Banquet room Sat night 6:30pm-11pm

Auction Room Sun 7:00am through 4:00 pm

Banquet costs -- we're looking for a cost of about $30-$40. This cost is partially passed-through to banquet attendees and partially absorbed by AGA -- AGA prices registration and banquet at $99.

The rest is haggling over the liquidated damages clauses; acts of God, indemnifications, etc. and we can't really address that until we have actual contract language in hand. I'm in the process of drafting a proposed contract to offer to prospective hotels -- I hope to get that drafted this weekend.

Estimated Attendance is 150-200 yielding about 150-270 roomnights.

----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Barnett <orders@fishbookstore.com>
To: shieber@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:25:59 AM
Subject: RE: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?

-----Original Message-----
From: aga-member-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:aga-member-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of Someone on the Forum
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 7:41 AM
To: aga-member@thekrib.com
Subject: [AGA-Member] RE: AGA 2007 Convention?
What are the general requirements you are looking for in a hotel.

Regards
Mark Barnett
AquaBid.com

The small group of staff have been working on several possibilities, including Atlanta, which turned out to be too expensive and would require more work than we could accomplish in time for a convention this year. So we are thinking of Atlanta for 2008, for which we will have more time search out more potential hotels.

For 2007, we are working on arrangements for Dallas, which shows more promise for this year. Larry Lampert has been doing the yeoman's share of the work so far, scouting out and negotiating with hotels, first in Atlanta and, now, Dallas. Still, even in Dallas prices are much higher than we have seen before. Also, it's been harder to find open dates. Proposals have been batted back and forth with several hotels but we haven't hit upon a workable arrangement yet.

We are still focused on having a convention in the fall, late October or early November, depending on hotel open dates, avoiding conflicts with other hobby conventions, and the holidays. An important value that Dallas offers is that we hope to have some local labor support there, which is critical to being able to produce a convention.

While Larry is out of the country for the next few weeks, I will be assuming his work with the hotels. Once a hotel deal, or at least a deal in principle, is arranged, we will have dates set and the basic elements that will determine the budget, which I then will put together.

We're still looking for someone to contact potential sponsors for the convention. This

As usual, lots of ideas have been offered to AGA, for which we are all grateful, but we aren't lacking for ideas so much as folks to put them into practice.

Cheryl has done a good job of rounding up some help for the membership activities. And the elbow grease support offered to AGA is greatly welcomed.

In a related matter, last I recall, we still need someone to manage the Aquascaping Contest for 2007. There won't be a contest without someone to manage it. Erik, after having taken the full burden of responsibility for the contest virtually since its inception, generously, is still providing support on the technical end â€“ so that part is covered. But we need someone to find judges, take care of public announcements ("advertising"), arrange for awards (ribbons, etc.), put together a timeline for the project, pull the whole thing together, and keep an eye on the various tasks and ensure that milestones are met.

sh

--------
Scott H.

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