So, who wants to host in 2024, 2025?

[PeteJ]

On 2/1/2022 at 4:40 AM, Ralph Nardone said:

And who knows?  If someone on your organizing committee in, say, Daytona Beach, San Diego, or Jacksonville, has an "in" with the CVB, you might get lucky...

It is the age old thing.  You never get anything if you don't ask.  What's the worst that can happen?  They can tell you "no".

 

Ralph, much as I would love to see San Diego, knowing how much attendees complain about the cost of rooms, the convention center down town is out of the question.  The best room rates in July and August are at least $250.   I believe that IPMS San Diego approached us(San Diego Model Car club) about cosponsoring a bid and I think that just went no where fast.  A lot of discussion about what happened in Anaheim(yes, bad news travels far and fast and takes a very long time to die!).

  I personally like the Florida ideas.  Jacksonville would be nice.  How about Pensacola?  Home of the Blue Angels.  We had the home of the Thunderbirds last year.  Give equal time to the Navy.  I have a sister who lives in that area and it appears that the price of a convention could be reasonable.  Lots to do in the area also.

[Mark Deliduka]

Pete it's too bad that people still hang on to the past like that. San Diego might be a great place if it is not scheduled anywhere around Comicon. Unfortunately, that is not possible as Comicon is always scheduled the third weekend in July.

 

I would also love to see Pensacola do a Nationals. I have two sisters, my mom and a nephew that live there too. Talk about saving on hotel costs! Oh well, a man can dream.....

[PeteJ]

18 hours ago, Mark Deliduka said:

Pete it's too bad that people still hang on to the past like that. San Diego might be a great place if it is not scheduled anywhere around Comicon. Unfortunately, that is not possible as Comicon is always scheduled the third weekend in July.

 

I would also love to see Pensacola do a Nationals. I have two sisters, my mom and a nephew that live there too. Talk about saving on hotel costs! Oh well, a man can dream.....

Well, maybe.  One of the oldest sayings I know is "those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it."

[Highlander]

On 7/13/2022 at 6:02 AM, Ron Bell said:

...the number of room nights used is too little for the larger hotels....

I am not disagreeing, but I would be more convinced if I had data on:

1.  The number of room nights required to subsidize an IPMS Nats ... the recent average.

2.  The number of rooms reserved by the venue for the convention block.

3.  The number of times, before each Nats, that the host chapter has asked for more rooms to be released for the convention block.

My experience has been that (1) all the rooms sell out immediately (or before immediately, but that's another story), (2) the host chapter asks for more rooms to be released -- sometimes multiple times, and (3) the various forums and social media sites have multiple complaints from IPMS members about not being able to get a room.  My experience would lead me to believe that the appetite for rooms significantly exceeds the number of rooms available.  Which leads me to wonder that, if more rooms are available, they would be easily sold and generate the room nights required to support a larger venue in a bigger city.

HST, I have also observed the cancellations that occur 3-4 weeks before each Nats.  I did not go to Columbia because I could not get a hotel room within reasonable distance of the venue.  I was on several waiting lists, and, two weeks before the Nats, the host hotel called and offered me a room.  It was too late.  The hotel informed me that they had about 20 cancellations starting three weeks before the Nats.  One might wonder how many people cannot come because of issues that impact upon their lives and how many people make reservations just in case they later decide, maybe, could be, things could fall into place, to attend -- after all, they can always cancel.

HST, again, I have overheard Nats sponsors, during registration, worrying about whether they will generate enough room nights because of the number of last minute cancellations.

Finally, as if this post is not already long enough, I've pointed out elsewhere that hotel rates for conventions have been rising for years.  IPMS's members expectations of a room for less than $200 a night will soon be dashed; IPMS is already an anomaly.  My wife is paying @$260 for a convention in Houston this fall.  And, now, let's factor in runaway inflation.....

Edited July 15, 2022 by Highlander

[Mark Deliduka]

On 7/14/2022 at 7:14 AM, PeteJ said:

Well, maybe.  One of the oldest sayings I know is "those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it."

I have no problem with remembering the past; particularly to learn from it. In my opinion; that is the primary reason to remember the past so one avoids the bad things that happened then. My problem is with people who "remember the past" for the purpose of saying to themselves and others "never again because of X,Y and Z"! Too many who "remember the past" refuse to give anyone from that past who knows what went wrong and how to fix it, a second chance. That's what I'm referring to. Look on the other board where so many are saying California would be a problem for them. I'm sure they are referring to the high cost of everything here; or the mountains that are blocking us and cutting our state off from the rest of the country; but too many more are "remembering the past" and using it as an excuse to never attend one of our Nationals again. And that is what I'm calling out as wrong.

 

Even many ex-cons get a second chance, but not us...

[ShutterAce]

So what the heck did happen in California? Did somebody get their Ya-Yas out?

I can't learn without know what the lesson is.

[philp]

I had a great time at the Orange County show and would go again.

Mark, we seem to have the same issue in SLC.  They held the 1980 show and lost a lot of personal funds.  This was before Board stepped in to cover expenses but getting people to understand the way things work has changed is an uphill battle.

Salt Lake City has a lot to offer as in sites to see and has 3 local clubs to support the show.

Maybe someday.

[BWScholten]

On 7/15/2022 at 4:27 PM, Mark Deliduka said:

I have no problem with remembering the past; particularly to learn from it. In my opinion; that is the primary reason to remember the past so one avoids the bad things that happened then. My problem is with people who "remember the past" for the purpose of saying to themselves and others "never again because of X,Y and Z"! Too many who "remember the past" refuse to give anyone from that past who knows what went wrong and how to fix it, a second chance. That's what I'm referring to. Look on the other board where so many are saying California would be a problem for them. I'm sure they are referring to the high cost of everything here; or the mountains that are blocking us and cutting our state off from the rest of the country; but too many more are "remembering the past" and using it as an excuse to never attend one of our Nationals again. And that is what I'm calling out as wrong.

 

Even many ex-cons get a second chance, but not us...

For me it's costs, we cancelled all our summer day trips to pay for gas to Omaha. 2-3 day drive to California, is tight for me.  Add the cost of everything and I am over budget. 

[jcorley]

12 hours ago, DaSWO said:

Add the cost of everything and I am over budget. 

Aren't we all!!

[Ron Bell]

Highlander,

I believe all the numbers you are asking for are available from the 2nd VP in a chart that he keeps. The only one he might not have is the number of times the room block number needed to be bumped. I'd also comment on your first question with the reply any good lawyer would give, "It depends". If the venue is in a separate convention center, it might be one number or maybe might not apply at all. If it's the hotel's venue, it depends on what the cost of that venue is and how much the hotel is willing to subsidize your event. It's hard to get a real "average" as in many cases it's like comparing apples and oranges. In any case, contact the Second VP, John Bonnani, here ipmsusa2ndvp@ipmsusa.org for a copy of the chart I mentioned. If it has been kept up to date, there's a LOT of info there. 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Ron Bell

[Roktman]

On 7/15/2022 at 6:35 PM, ShutterAce said:

So what the heck did happen in California? Did somebody get their Ya-Yas out?

I can't learn without know what the lesson is.

Well, the quick, down and dirty explanation was their computer crashed and they guys had a nearly impossible time figuring out registration, and other problems.

Having said that, I ran into none of the problems and had a great time at that Con. I even had a pin in the goodie bag.  Plous I got to meet up with a long time buddy, who lived a few towns soiuth. I even reintroduced him to scale modeling and now he's an active model builder.   Anyway, being "next door" to Disney helped out a lot as we take the Nats trip as a family vacation, so wifey could spend the time with my then young son visiting The Mouse, while I soaked in all the seminar info.

My big pet peeve is what was mentioned a page or two ago about all the guys who rush to make a reservation, and then a few weeks before the Show, cancel. Sure, things happen last minute, but not the dozens of rooms that suddenly become available. But by then buying a last minute plane ticket is astronomical.  

I've been attending the Nats since '03-'04 and I remember that if I made a reservation by Christmas (with the reservations opening in Sept-Oct.) I had myself a room in the main hotel. The CO show was the first one where I tried to reserve just before Xmas, and was told the main hotel was sold out. Now it's to the point where if you don't reserve on THE day that reservations open - your SOL. 

As I've gotten older my mobility is now an issue, and if I can't get into the convention hotel, I can't manage all the extra walking so me and my $$ just stay home.   I wonder how many are in my situation and stay home?

[Neo]

The story I heard was that the Orange County’s main IT guy had some kind of emergency, and the rest of the team were not as well versed running the computers.  So when things went wrong, they struggled to get things back up again.  It looks like they really tried though.

Aside from slow registration, the only thing that bugged me was that I never got back money for a cancelled museum tour.  But that’s water under the bridge now.

But if OC hosts another convention, I would go.  But not because of the Mouse House.  Our group is comprised of non-Disney people.  Easier on the budget too.  Plus maybe we would be able to see all the entries, since we completely missed them the last time, as we were out and about seeing other stuff.  But Medieval Times was worth it. 

[EFGrune]

1 hour ago, Roktman said:

My big pet peeve is what was mentioned a page or two ago about all the guys who rush to make a reservation, and then a few weeks before the Show, cancel. Sure, things happen last minute, but not the dozens of rooms that suddenly become available. But by then buying a last minute plane ticket is astronomical.  

Mark Persichetti was saying last week that the Colorado (2013) show was looking like they were going to have a large shortfall in the required convention room nights at the hotel.   The hotel staff worked with the local committee to get some attendees who were at the hotel but not in the convention rate block accommodated.   They also got some people from overflow hotels rebooked into the convention hotel.   They still came up short and it was going to cause the rent on the convention space to go from 5 grand up to 13 grand.  The local committee bought 12 room nights at the hotel that went vacant to save the 8 grand upcharge.

 

[Mark Deliduka]

Having been at the 2007 Anaheim Nationals and worked it, the issue with the computers was simply that the hotel hosting would not allow us to use our registration program on their computers. Otherwise it was going to be an additional $1800.00 charge. We found out too late that we couldn't bring in our own computers that had all the registration information, or again: an additional charge. Therefore we had to use their computers and hand enter everything since they would not allow our software on their computers. There were other issues but I'm still trying to recover from Covid and don't have the energy to go over them now.

[jcorley]

5 hours ago, EFGrune said:

The local committee bought 12 room nights at the hotel that went vacant to save the 8 grand upcharge.

 

No point in letting them go unused. In 2005, we were comped several rooms which were used by show staff.

[ShutterAce]

16 hours ago, Mark Deliduka said:

Having been at the 2007 Anaheim Nationals and worked it, the issue with the computers was simply that the hotel hosting would not allow us to use our registration program on their computers. Otherwise it was going to be an additional $1800.00 charge. We found out too late that we couldn't bring in our own computers that had all the registration information, or again: an additional charge. Therefore we had to use their computers and hand enter everything since they would not allow our software on their computers. There were other issues but I'm still trying to recover from Covid and don't have the energy to go over them now.

Wow! That's bizarre that you couldn't use your own computers.  I realize things were much different in the IT world 15 years ago. I would not expect that to be an issue in current times.

Get well, Mark!

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you Jim. The issue stemmed from when we first got the contract with them for a Nationals, but it was given to someone else. A few years later, we got it and the hotel was compelled to honor the quote, even though it was far lower than they would have given us. Therefore, in an attempt to recoup some costs; they were putting a charge on anything and everything that they could. Thus the fiasco with the computers.

[66Foxtrot]

37 minutes ago, Mark Deliduka said:

Thank you Jim. The issue stemmed from when we first got the contract with them for a Nationals, but it was given to someone else. A few years later, we got it and the hotel was compelled to honor the quote, even though it was far lower than they would have given us. Therefore, in an attempt to recoup some costs; they were putting a charge on anything and everything that they could. Thus the fiasco with the computers.

I had such a great time at that show!

[Mark Deliduka]

Thank you James! So did I!

[JClark]

I waited until the rooms opened up for this year back in October. It all opened at 6am , By 6:03am I couldn't get rooms for the 5 nights needed. That's ludicrous! Fortunately this year there was an overflow hotel connected but next year we won't have that option. So I have the real possibility of having to drive back and forth everyday including when judging for best of concludes at ?am. Plus lets hope they don't charge non hotel staying people parking each and every day.

 

Jim

[PeteJ]

16 hours ago, JClark said:

I waited until the rooms opened up for this year back in October. It all opened at 6am , By 6:03am I couldn't get rooms for the 5 nights needed. That's ludicrous! Fortunately this year there was an overflow hotel connected but next year we won't have that option. So I have the real possibility of having to drive back and forth everyday including when judging for best of concludes at ?am. Plus lets hope they don't charge non hotel staying people parking each and every day.

 

Jim

Jim, Check out the Homewood suites about a mile away.  Currently $833 wednesday through sunday.  Several options with a little searching. 

[JClark]

But my point being Pete, I need to be at the convention hotel. Not off campus.

 

Jim

[jcorley]

Yeah, a head judge doesn't need to be driving after all those post judging beers! LOL!!!

[EFGrune]

3 hours ago, JClark said:

But my point being Pete, I need to be at the convention hotel. Not off campus.

 

Jim

Yeah. The NCC had an informal get together on Thursday before judging and one of the topics of discussion was Omaha room block reservation  ‘feature’.  One solution discussed was adding 10 rooms to the local staff & board block.  That got Eileen’s pen working taking notes  

Len, did that suggestion get flowed up to you?

 

 

 

[JClark]

3 hours ago, jcorley said:

Yeah, a head judge doesn't need to be driving after all those post judging beers! LOL!!!

I'm not sayin who but I did see a cooler in the room after we were done, Haaaaa..