Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:04:39 -0500
From: Eva Whitley <eva.whitley at gmail.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: A DC hotels question
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Michael Nelson wrote:
> -- Michael Walsh <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:
>
>>>macbuccfo at msn.com 10/30/2006 10:51:08 AM >>>
>>>You want to limit the convention to 3,500, those two hotels would
>>>work.
>>>Larger than that, forget about it. We eat too much function space
>>>with more
>>>folks attending than they have available.
>>
>>Hey, as long as *my*  friends can get in....
>
> I was trying to think of ways to fit a Worldcon into
> that Connecticut Ave. space.  I've detailed my idea of
> televising the major events to smaller function rooms.
>

So now I'm *really* confused. Why were we bidding these hotels in the
late 80s? It's not like Worldcon was really small back then, or were we
planning to announce a 3500 person cap if we won?

Gotta say, I love the "studio" idea for big tent items. I always enjoyed
kicking back on my bed with a pizza and my favorite guys, watching the
events unfold. You could even do a variation of what Minicon used to do
with their con suite and have targeted rooms for smoking (I assume the
rest would be non), heckling, etc. Heck, even offer a banquet in one
room for folks who miss it (and the hotel would be happy to have it).

> But we could do things like put strict limits on the
> size of the art show and dealers' room so they would
> fit into smaller function space to leave the large
> function spaces for big events.  Maybe we could limit
> the art show to professional artists only or form a
> judging panel to determine who would be allowed into
> the art show.  And only allow a certain number of
> specialty dealers in the dealers' room -- X numbers
> of book dealers, Y numbers of t-shirt dealers, etc.
>
> It would be an opportunity to dump certain activities
> like gaming and the film program.  And, unfortunately,
> we would probably have to dump a lot of the exhibits
> since there would be no room for a "ConCourse" type
> of space for fans to wander through.
>

Well, if there were no gaming, I'd always have a house sitter for
Worlcon, because it would be impossible to get Dave to go. --Eva