MANGOLASSI World/Con/give me a name idea please
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@scottalanmiller said:
What about the other direction? Instead of the Niagara region, what about the Finger Lakes region? Watkins Glen, Geneva, Ithaca.... all great options. A venue out in the country around there might work. Harder for flights but only so far from Rochester or Syracuse and would have the interest of being in the wine region.
Well here's the rub there. If we do it in Wine Country there are some great venues but you are all stuck there all the time (bussing and logistics for a small conference would be a nightmare) so no going out to a bar and drinking the night away. And the venues will only server till about 11pm. So it would be boring at night. But gorgeous place to do it.
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@coliver said:
I know there are a few conference centers in that region. It would be harder to fly too that's for sure. Although the Binghamton Airport is awesome.
I've actually picked people up there before.
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Flights are another issue (getting there is easy) but getting to the actual center would not be. Transportation adds up quickly. if I wanted to charge each person $1000 plus to attend I could make it happen but... no one wants to have a huge cost for a conference just cause of transportation logistics.
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@Minion-Queen said:
@scottalanmiller said:
What about the other direction? Instead of the Niagara region, what about the Finger Lakes region? Watkins Glen, Geneva, Ithaca.... all great options. A venue out in the country around there might work. Harder for flights but only so far from Rochester or Syracuse and would have the interest of being in the wine region.
Well here's the rub there. If we do it in Wine Country there are some great venues but you are all stuck there all the time (bussing and logistics for a small conference would be a nightmare) so no going out to a bar and drinking the night away. And the venues will only server till about 11pm. So it would be boring at night. But gorgeous place to do it.
Isn't that ideal? A shortcoming of other conferences that we want to improve on? The bar crawl is a fun idea, but a closed venue that will run a bar for us would be WAY better. Or that lets us run one. That way we control the loud music, the random locals hoping in, people getting loss, keep everyone safe, make it better for people to actually network, etc.
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any idea what time of year?
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Well again you can only drink to 11 at a couple of the venues. People love the hanging out. And they wouldn't let us run our own bars (NYS laws) so really early nights (though that might be awesome too).
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@Minion-Queen said:
And the venues will only server till about 11pm. So it would be boring at night. But gorgeous place to do it.
that could be fixed by getting a BYOB deal and bringing in a bartender. @dominica and I were already discussing how smart it would be to just fly Mitch in to pour for the event!
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@Minion-Queen said:
Well again you can only drink to 11 at a couple of the venues. People love the hanging out. And they wouldn't let us run our own bars (NYS laws) so really early nights (though that might be awesome too).
Argh. NY is terrible for conferences.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Well again you can only drink to 11 at a couple of the venues.
As the customer, normally you can change that.
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Actually I check in Florida and a few other places they all have the same rule. If they have a liquor license for that venue it has to be someone on their payroll doing things. Conference centers are also pretty uptight about just about everything.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Actually I check in Florida and a few other places they all have the same rule. If they have a liquor license for that venue it has to be someone on their payroll doing things. Conference centers are also pretty uptight about just about everything.
This will be small for the first year, just like SW was, getting a conference center probably doesn't make sense. But a specialty venue might work.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Actually I check in Florida and a few other places they all have the same rule. If they have a liquor license for that venue it has to be someone on their payroll doing things. Conference centers are also pretty uptight about just about everything.
Anywhere but Florida. Seriously, that place is effed up to the max. And if you're anywhere near water, big $$$$$$$$$$$.
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There are things that we need and I am looking around and trying to find what would be best. There really aren't that many choices that can cater to what we need.
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@RojoLoco said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Actually I check in Florida and a few other places they all have the same rule. If they have a liquor license for that venue it has to be someone on their payroll doing things. Conference centers are also pretty uptight about just about everything.
Anywhere but Florida. Seriously, that place is effed up to the max. And if you're anywhere near water, big $$$$$$$$$$$.
Last place I'd want to go on a conference. Not nice, fun, exciting, different, cheap.... none of the benefits that a location should have.
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You could do Green Bay. I worked at an arena and we did all sorts of "flat shows" in our convention center. Its about as big at the main hall in Austin. There is also another venue that caters only to conferences with breakout sessions and has an attached hotel. I can pass on info if you are interested at all. Oh, and it's Wisconsin which makes it really awesome.
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Yeah Florida generally sucks. But it is a conference meca so I looked. Also looked into Vegas and Austin. But the cost is a bit cheaper to do it here in our area. And there is still a bit to offer and is different than that normal conference areas.
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@lhatsynot said:
You could do Green Bay. I worked at an arena and we did all sorts of "flat shows" in our convention center. Its about as big at the main hall in Austin.
That's way too big.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@lhatsynot said:
You could do Green Bay. I worked at an arena and we did all sorts of "flat shows" in our convention center. Its about as big at the main hall in Austin.
That's way too big.
You can do it as small as you want.
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Keep in mind that for year one this will be really small. What SW did for the first THREE years was to use a movie theater that also did drinks. Using a hotel is probably better than a convention venue.
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Remember there is a big reason that SW does it close to their offices. Planning this kind of thing is a huge deal. We are small enough that doing it anywhere other than close is just not happening. At least for this year once we get moving and have an idea of what works best we can talk about going somewhere else. But for now we are here in our "home town".
