Tonopah Westercon Meeting Day
Apr. 30th, 2022 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeToday was the climax of Westercon 74's last on-site meeting before the convention itself later this year.
We started the day with a private buffet breakfast in the Jack Dempsey Room of the Mizpah Hotel. Most of our committee and staff members (each paying their own way, incidentally, not at the convention's expense) enjoyed a buffet breakfast in the private dining room. The Mizpah Hotel generously waived the room-rental fee, only charging us for the breakfast. Besides the socializing that helps makes these meetings more enjoyable, I think that keeping us together in a relatively private area reduces the potential for unexpected exposure to COVID-19.
After breakfast, representatives of the Mizpah/Belvada Hotels, along with our facilities liaison, Mike Willmoth, led our team through a tour of our facilities: the ballroom above the Mizpah Club Casino, the small meeting room (planned for game programming) on the 3rd floor of the Mizpah Hotel, the Nevada Club room on the ground floor of the Belvada Hotel, and the Tonopah Convention Center (TCC) itself. Lisa and I went ahead to move things from our hotel room to the TCC. This took a couple of trips, but that's one of the reasons we will be staying in the Belvada during Westercon: it's only one short block between the Belvada and the TCC.
We moved a box of bottled water that we brought, Lisa's cameras, my computers, and assorted material. Lisa set up her medium video camera and the Blackmagic Web Presenter that adapts the camera for use as a webcam and I connected it to one of my computers, and also connected the computer to the built-in HDMI port in the wall that connected to the ceiling-mounted projector, and also plugged the computer into the Ethernet port in the same area. While the TCC has excellent WiFi service after a large-scale upgrade, keeping this machine on the wired connection meant that the machine driving our Zoom call wouldn't be fighting for wireless bandwidth with other people's computing devices.
Based on our previous experience meeting here, I put a little bit of padding into the schedule, and we started on time at 10:30.
These photos (taken during a break, so some of our members were out of the room) are of the in-person meeting. Not visible to the left of this photo is the projector screen where lots of our committee joined for a Zoom call. My thanks to Lisa for taking these photos. Obviously, this room will be set up differently for at-convention programming than the hollow square used for a room with about twelve people meeting for a convention planning meeting.
Having only one day to cover the whole convention, we had to move moderately briskly. We set up the agenda so for the most part, people who were farther east went first, for time zone reasons. For example, Cheryl Morgan is doing a lot of work with our online programming, getting participants from Europe who will be doing virtual panels scheduled relatively early in the morning Pacific Time, but available to all members, including supporting members, watching online, but also for members at-con watching in our one room (the same room in which this meeting was being held) set up for online programming.
We met for about 90 minutes, then took a lunch break (most people went to the A&W located in the Mizpah Club (and thus on the ground floor underneath the Mizpah Ballroom), then met for another couple of hours. We covered nearly everything, and set up a schedule for dealing with the matters for which we ran out of time (and energy) before adjourning around 3:30 PM.
Most of the committee then made dinner plans and headed off to have a look around Tonopah. Chris Marble helped me move some of our gear back to the hotel while Lisa took down the camera equipment. I returned to the TCC, where Lisa and I spent a little while experimenting with how the AV worked in the Blue Room, before we finished packing our gear. I locked up the TCC, left the building key where I'd been instructed to put it, and exited through the "blind door" from the Blue Room (making sure the door closed securely behind us) and went back to the Belvada.
After dealing with the most immediate matters before use online, Lisa and I made a brief trip down to Raley's grocery store to buy more soda and to also make another investigation of some of the perishable groceries that we'll be buying from them for Hospitality at Westercon 74. Lisa will be working with her team to put together a shopping list and we'll submit a special order in advance with the store. Some things we will buy in the Reno area and transport to Tonopah, but much of it will need to be bought in Tonopah itself. Hospitality expenditures are likely to be more than the actual rent on the convention center!
While most of our team went out to dinner this evening, Lisa and I had to beg off. I feel a bit bad not giving more time to be with the people who are giving so much of their time and energy to put together this convention, but Lisa and I are worn out. I ate the leftover food from my dinner with some of the committee at the Tonopah Brewing Company last night, and Lisa made dinner in our kitchenette for herself and took advantage of having a bathtub. (We don't have a big bathtub at Fernley House.)
This was a very good and productive meeting. The on-site people, about half of whom had never been here before, were able to see for themselves what the facilities look like. This turned up a number of issues that we were able to work out by simply walking the site and looking at the rooms. I'm feeling increasingly optimistic about Westercon 74. It will be small, but I think it will be memorable for all of the right reasons.
We started the day with a private buffet breakfast in the Jack Dempsey Room of the Mizpah Hotel. Most of our committee and staff members (each paying their own way, incidentally, not at the convention's expense) enjoyed a buffet breakfast in the private dining room. The Mizpah Hotel generously waived the room-rental fee, only charging us for the breakfast. Besides the socializing that helps makes these meetings more enjoyable, I think that keeping us together in a relatively private area reduces the potential for unexpected exposure to COVID-19.
After breakfast, representatives of the Mizpah/Belvada Hotels, along with our facilities liaison, Mike Willmoth, led our team through a tour of our facilities: the ballroom above the Mizpah Club Casino, the small meeting room (planned for game programming) on the 3rd floor of the Mizpah Hotel, the Nevada Club room on the ground floor of the Belvada Hotel, and the Tonopah Convention Center (TCC) itself. Lisa and I went ahead to move things from our hotel room to the TCC. This took a couple of trips, but that's one of the reasons we will be staying in the Belvada during Westercon: it's only one short block between the Belvada and the TCC.
We moved a box of bottled water that we brought, Lisa's cameras, my computers, and assorted material. Lisa set up her medium video camera and the Blackmagic Web Presenter that adapts the camera for use as a webcam and I connected it to one of my computers, and also connected the computer to the built-in HDMI port in the wall that connected to the ceiling-mounted projector, and also plugged the computer into the Ethernet port in the same area. While the TCC has excellent WiFi service after a large-scale upgrade, keeping this machine on the wired connection meant that the machine driving our Zoom call wouldn't be fighting for wireless bandwidth with other people's computing devices.
Based on our previous experience meeting here, I put a little bit of padding into the schedule, and we started on time at 10:30.
These photos (taken during a break, so some of our members were out of the room) are of the in-person meeting. Not visible to the left of this photo is the projector screen where lots of our committee joined for a Zoom call. My thanks to Lisa for taking these photos. Obviously, this room will be set up differently for at-convention programming than the hollow square used for a room with about twelve people meeting for a convention planning meeting.
Having only one day to cover the whole convention, we had to move moderately briskly. We set up the agenda so for the most part, people who were farther east went first, for time zone reasons. For example, Cheryl Morgan is doing a lot of work with our online programming, getting participants from Europe who will be doing virtual panels scheduled relatively early in the morning Pacific Time, but available to all members, including supporting members, watching online, but also for members at-con watching in our one room (the same room in which this meeting was being held) set up for online programming.
We met for about 90 minutes, then took a lunch break (most people went to the A&W located in the Mizpah Club (and thus on the ground floor underneath the Mizpah Ballroom), then met for another couple of hours. We covered nearly everything, and set up a schedule for dealing with the matters for which we ran out of time (and energy) before adjourning around 3:30 PM.
Most of the committee then made dinner plans and headed off to have a look around Tonopah. Chris Marble helped me move some of our gear back to the hotel while Lisa took down the camera equipment. I returned to the TCC, where Lisa and I spent a little while experimenting with how the AV worked in the Blue Room, before we finished packing our gear. I locked up the TCC, left the building key where I'd been instructed to put it, and exited through the "blind door" from the Blue Room (making sure the door closed securely behind us) and went back to the Belvada.
After dealing with the most immediate matters before use online, Lisa and I made a brief trip down to Raley's grocery store to buy more soda and to also make another investigation of some of the perishable groceries that we'll be buying from them for Hospitality at Westercon 74. Lisa will be working with her team to put together a shopping list and we'll submit a special order in advance with the store. Some things we will buy in the Reno area and transport to Tonopah, but much of it will need to be bought in Tonopah itself. Hospitality expenditures are likely to be more than the actual rent on the convention center!
While most of our team went out to dinner this evening, Lisa and I had to beg off. I feel a bit bad not giving more time to be with the people who are giving so much of their time and energy to put together this convention, but Lisa and I are worn out. I ate the leftover food from my dinner with some of the committee at the Tonopah Brewing Company last night, and Lisa made dinner in our kitchenette for herself and took advantage of having a bathtub. (We don't have a big bathtub at Fernley House.)
This was a very good and productive meeting. The on-site people, about half of whom had never been here before, were able to see for themselves what the facilities look like. This turned up a number of issues that we were able to work out by simply walking the site and looking at the rooms. I'm feeling increasingly optimistic about Westercon 74. It will be small, but I think it will be memorable for all of the right reasons.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-01 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-01 04:13 pm (UTC)Write to programming@westercon74.org to ask our Programming team where you can help out. Thank you for the offer. Sorry you can't attend, as one thing I know we are short of are volunteers on the ground at con.