Re: GWAPA Proposal rough draft2 (fwd)

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

Sorry I'm so far behind, folks. I had to run into NYC for a
couple days.

--- Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> wrote:
> OK, so my first impressions are that this is a good
> start.  It sounds 
> doable.  And if Larry's really on board to help with
> hotels (and you Scott 
> with budget in general), there's a certain amount of
> checks and balances.

I don't know the extent of involvement of either. It's not
clear how much individual committee folks will want to run
their own show and how much they will want "aid". 

I think Ghazanfar is trying to provide some oversight and
direction but I'm not sure that the chair doesn't want to
be running his own show. We need to stop thinking aobut
what Ghazanfar said or would do and think about what Rick
says or would do.

> 
>       * I like that they have "themes" in mind already, as
> opposed to it
> being "just a convention".

And these are real, in practice themes, not decorative like
the "Pro America" theme at NEC last year. {Not knocking
NEC, I'm just saying this is better}

> 
>       * Interesting dual-pronged approach of "The Crypt" and 
> "Aquascaping".  Not sure if that's good (choice) or bad
> (too much).

I think a a whole convention on either might be too
parochial -- certainly, crypts is not enough for one
convention.


Too many workshops. If DFWAPC could pull off what it did
last year, I'm not worried about these folks having too
many. They have lots of time to work out the pragmatics.
They are obviously sensitive to the shmooze factor.

> 
>       * I guess I'd like to see some worse-case scenarios
> (notice I 
> didn't say "worst"... I just want to see something a
> little less 
> optimistic than this year's baseline!).

They believe that these are conservative scenarios and with
Amano is a sort of worst case. They are confident that they
can draw more than Dallas. Larry's presumption was a bit
diff, that Dallas couldn't do any worse than the prior
year, which was a bad one for attendance. Let's ask for the
"breakeven" attandance number for each scenario. That's
less complicated that having several budgets to look at and
still gives us the fundamental reality check.

I did this myself -- see below.

> 
>       * Guess we'll have to talk on the aquascaping contest
> stuff.  I
> like the idea of integrating it better with the
> convention -- follows what
> I've been gradually building on the last 3 years.  And if
> there's someone
> in particular who's got the interest, then I should bring
> them in as we
> start opening the contest for business next year.  But if
> the entries are
> like previous years, most of the entries would positively
> SUCK if enlarged
> to 8x10.  A few would look nice, but most probably
> wouldn't.  Maybe
> instead there could be some computer displays rotating or
> per-category?  
> Inkjet-printed prints?  5x7's? Foam-core mounted? 

I think the idea was to have a "gallery" sort of effect in
the hallways or one of the rooms. That method of
presentation would reinforce the notion of visual art. I
think that's lost on a PC screen, unless we set up the
joint like Bill Gates's house  -- with Vid screens instead
of paintings on the walls ;-).

> 
>       * Didn't see anything on A/V expenses, 

A?V cost money ;-)

> but I suppose
> that would be 
> getting ahead of ourselves... (did I mention I bought a
> mixing console for 
> Christmas?  My last pre-dadhood stupid purchase.)

Sounds wonderful.

> 
> Scott, do these numbers look good to you so far?

I have only small quibbles -- I have been over most of this
with Rick during the last month. Bigger issue -- what's the
floor? The vendor numbers I'd put at an estimated number of
vendors. But I'd still expect to get one of them to go for
$549 and get 5 others, especially with Ghazanfar working on
that task.

Further, I'd make the auction revs a function of
registrations -- less registrants means less auction sales.
Same for Field Trip and Banquets (of course).  With those
adjustments in the budget I ran the numbers and came up
with this:

Either scenario (w or w/o Amano) has a break even at
roughly 45 paid registrants. Let's be conservative and call
it 50.  That sounds reasonable if these guys have a strong
marketing campaign.

Quibble: I don't know why they show no cost for a vendor
room -- perhaps they mean to put the vendors in the big
room? I don't like that.

I also don't like the hotel charging for the big room. We
need to see a hotel contract to find out more.

But I think this is enough to say they can do it. Enough to
Contact Amano.  Amano makes a big diff. Not so much inthe
budget because it's conservative and doesn't show a lot of
impact from Amano.

The non-Amano budget saves a lot of money on Speaker
related costs. I'd like to know how they plan to do that
and still have the draw.

Any thoughts on these things?


sh

PS:  This is going to happen in the WDC area during a
Presidential election year, in the month of the election.
Any thoughts on how that might complicate things?



=====
S. Hieber

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