Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:32:55 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>, WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Trees... forest....
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 03:27 PM 10/21/2005 -0400, Elspeth Kovar wrote:
>At 01:02 PM 10/20/2005, Mike B. wrote:

>>The big ballroom is as big as the consuite and dealer's room put together
>>and if the con gets bigger, there might be enough money to add that to the
>>function space.  If the con doesn't get bigger, there's no need for it.
>
<snip>
>We'd have to do much the same to get the largest ballroom. (I'll admit that

And if the con gets big enough, we will.  I've been at a number of cons at
that hotel over the years (Unicon and August Party for instance) and the
larger ones (~1000 attendees) all used that ballroom, along with the other
function spaces.  With that many attendees the hotel is pretty much assured
of a full house, and that a wedding wouldn't want to try to share the place
with us anyway.

>>While the con suite was good this year,
>>it did seem a bit...cavernous.  People were in there all the time, but it
>>was never even close to full.  A smaller room would have accommodated it
>>very well.
>
>That's a good point but had things gone as planned it wouldn't have been
>that empty.  The intent had been to have it more like the old Discaves.

The old Disclaves usually had it in a room, or a suite, not in function
space.  The Sheraton Part Room C-640 for instance, or the poolside room in
New Carrolton.  It sometimes got pretty crowded, but it worked well enough.
 I don't know if hotel rules have changed enough to make that impractical
these days.

>It was Mike Nelson, I think, who for the first Capclave came up with the
Town
>Square concept that we're now using.  If rather than thinking of the space
>as being in a hotel you imagine it as the town squares in small towns in
>Europe and early America combined with the Neighborhood Local (a term
>sometimes used for the neighborhood bar or pub) it helps.

That concept didn't come across well to the average con-goer (which I was,
since I wasn't in on any of the planning for this).  It appeared to be a
more or less typical con-suite with a lot of square footage...to me anyway.
 It worked fine, but if the idea is something else, more clues about that
might be useful so people catch the it more easily.  I'm not sure what
those clues might be, but maybe some brainstorming will produce a few.

Maybe a "town crier" to announce programming starts or changes?  A
"speaker's box" for anyone who has something to say?  (probably a bad
idea...).  A small "business district" with a soda shop, ice cream store,
and con mementos?   A cannon for the kids to climb on?  ;-)

-- Mike B.
--
Things are more like they are today than they ever were before.