I Am Not Bidding

[kevin_standlee]

And remember, as an ex-Worldcon chair, I have an permanently-paid-up Get Out of Conrunning Free card. Therefore, I can muse about such things and the $20 bills y'all toss at me as bid-starters bounce off me like I was rubber.

After reading this post, it occurs to me that a Westercon at John Ascuaga's Nugget could do worse than to use a steampunk-style mascot named "Sparks Nevada."

The real challenge with a Westercon in the Reno area is that I have yet to find a hotel that is right-sized the way the Sacramento Hilton is. Although I've heard some (sometimes justified) complaints and lukewarm reviews of Westercon 66, overall I think the fact that we "owned the hotel" and had slightly too little room meant that the social aspect of the convention was much better than facilities that have dozens of rooms, thereby allowing Programming to Never Say No, resulting in 27 program tracks, each of which has five people on a head table and two in the audience.

(It is possible that if WC66 had had 50-in-60-minute panels (instead of 60-in-75), they could have put in a few more slots; however, there still would have been a lot of saying No. I like those fifteen-minute breaks myself, and I was impressed at how many panels really did stick to 60 minutes instead of trying to use 80, the way so many 50-in-60s try to make 70-minute panels and don't get out of the way at 50 minutes.)

The Reno/Sparks-area hotels I've reviewed so far (I can't go into a hotel without sizing it up for conventions) are all too large. We could make something happen in them, but the 800 people we expect for a Westercon could easily vanish like a drop of ink in a barrel of water at most facilities. The reason Westercon 66 worked as well as it did was that nearly everyone in the building was One of Us. That doesn't work when there are thousands of other people there while your 800 people are struggling to find each other.

Comments

[hazelchaz]

Will anyone in Sacramento be hosting another convention at the same hotel?

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

Since getting back from Sacramento, I've been trying to figure out how we can even make Westercon 68 not feel like it is rattling around at the T&C.

We went with the T&C because the only other proposal required putting SanSFiS on the hook for multiples of $10k if we lost.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am looking to possibly start an adult (21 plus) anime convention and that's the second highest priority is finding the right space. The highest priority would be finding the space at the right price. I can understand walking into hotels and thinking that same thing.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

"After reading this post, it occurs to me that a Westercon at John Ascuaga's Nugget could do worse than to use a steampunk-style mascot named "Sparks Nevada.""

Is this the part where I tell you their hotel guy very aggressively courted me last year, to the point of showing up in Seattle to meet me? (As an Event Planner, you ninny!) - he's a nice guy ;>. I think the facility can be right sized because of it's amazing number of spaces.

(oh, and *volunteering*? That's clearly a critical case - but I've been called worse :>)