CONvergence Convention Committee Meeting Notes
Saturday, February 15th, 2014

CONvergence 2014 Convention Committee Meeting

2pm February 15, 2014 – DoubleTree by Hilton, Bloomington
Facilitated by Amy Mills- Production Director

Guests

At the meeting we had a brainstorming session to come up with ideas for going to a Multi Campus Model. Our space needs are increasing but our current hotel can not meet all of our needs. We have many options of hotels in the area. The board will be meeting soon to decide what we will do and we want to get some of your ideas to help us in making those decisions.

Question: What space is there in the Sheraton, in the Crowne Plaza, what other hotels are in question and what spaces are there? Hilton has some function space – not the Hilton Garden – not sure what they have. The Crowne’s room is a little bigger than Plaza 6 (that can be subdivided into up to 4 rooms) and one room upstairs.

BRAINSTORM IDEAS:

  • One hotel could be themed – e.g. written word – so when people come to the hotel they have a reason to come for more than one panel, which means they’ll actually come. E.g. writing, books, written media.
  • Keeping in mind theme of panels for each year, keep known popular panels here in the main hotel, put less known ones in other hotels.
  • Long-term off-site large parking space would be great. Park off-site then use shuttles for the rest of the week. Loading zone for people moving in and out.
  • One hotel is “kid-friendly” – all of the kid-friendly things in one space. (I hear people behind me murmuring “no”)
  • Could we rent rooms from office buildings for smaller panels?
  • Look to DragonCon for an example. Lg groups of people in certain hotels who have a unifying interest. Jen thinks we SHOULD have a few big-ticket items in smaller hotels so that people will go there.
  • Jen M idea 2: Maybe have one of the hotels off site be the “adult” hotel instead of making kids go off-site – the main hotel should be welcoming to everyone. (Windy seconds this.)
  • Not all big ticket event panels are televised and they are bursting at the seams. We don’t have room so if there is a ballroom or large space in some other hotel that would be a smart thing to move e.g. Drinking with Geeks, Harmonic Convergence. Esp. Harmonic Convergence would be good, need to move something that’s a party.
  • How do we determine what merits going over? If you send something across a highway it’s almost a death sentence for that event. Is it devaluing an event to push something over there? Getting back and forth to the Crowne Plaza is difficult.
  • Programming can use all the space it can get, we’re filling all the rooms here. You have to address logistics of moving people back and forth in large quantities. Should make it as easy to get to the Crowne Plaza as to the Sheraton
  • Can we charter school buses?
  • Move art stuff – expand artists alley and move it to another room
  • Pedal pubs
  • Logistics of moving everything in plus Ops sub-stations and First Advisors sub-stations
  • Wedding tents?
  • Art cars
  • Build travel time into schedules – or stagger events so that people don’t miss things
  • Breakfast at Crowne Plaza
  • Parking ramps available to us? Add a shuttle route.
  • If larger panels are moved off site, have larger shuttles that are specific to that panel that go in advance
  • Express shuttles between main campus and subcampus esp during high times
  • Well-rounded content in another area – different types of things so that people will stay there
  • Satellite registration at other campuses
  • Everything from January HOME meeting will be put into this mix? Yes.
  • Old SeaGate building has enough room to accommodate all of the space here plus more – two full size clean rooms. Designated parking spots for heads/subheads who have to make runs.
  • Anchor events in off-site – change theme to have sub-themes in various hotels e.g. Midsummer Nights Dream in the main hotel, have off-site hotel be The Shakespeare Experience
  • Liability of moving people between hotels esp. if they are drunk
  • Caribou Coffee host poetry readings
  • Nice Rides or other bicycles
  • Think of every hotel as a main hotel, put some of everything in each hotel, and use every space you can in this hotel eg acoustic jam session out by smoking tent
  • All Ops has to tie in together so that you don’t have problem person in Hotel A move to Hotel B and be more problem.
  • Consuite hospitality stations in multiple hotels
  • Viewing spaces for anime, short films, etc. Secondary Cinema Rex?
  • Partner with cab company
  • Satellite stuff at each hotel: ops, consuite, coffee, nerfherders, logistics, volunteers(?)
  • Badge ribbon if you can get a punch from each hotel – incentives for people to go various places. Walk to Crowne Plaza and do trivia on the way like old Burma Shave signs or scavenger hunt. Make the walk interesting.
  • Open salons with guests of honor or other smaller groups talking about specific items to draw people to the other hotels and make use
  • Dealer room annex
  • Encourage everyone to bring bikes – bike rack would be nice
  • ExpressScripts has a parking ramp and a huge open lobby with lots of space they are opening up their building to other businesses
  • Logistics of getting stuff to different places

Registration

Registration is up 15% but slowing down. Current registrations are at 3444 as of January 31, 2014

Programming

Due to the loss of space at the Sheraton and budget uncertainty, programming will not be creating a performance space this year. We will consider acts that can use regular programming room organization and don’t disturb neighbors. This is only for this year. If you have questions please contact progr…@convergence-con.org

Operations

Operations open meeting 2-4pm Sunday February 23rd
Grumpys Bar & Grill 1111 Washington Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55415

We are taking radio requests and need those from your departments soon.

Finance

Working on an online reimbursement form. Coming soon. No release date at this time.

Brainstorming: Multi-Campus Ideas

We are at a point now that we have to go to multi campus and we need to start implementing it.
The main hotel keep known popular panels and GOH panels in the main hotel,

long term parking options and more shuttles, make a kid friendly hotel, rent meeting rooms in offices nearby, Dragon Con model: unifying interests grouped into hotels, keep main hotel family friendly but have adult hotels, home based needs to stay family friendly, harmonic convergence is perfect for offsite, programming needs more space and will take what they can get, need to address transportation needs to move large groups of people, charter school buses, lump arts together and move to one area, peddle pubs, logistics, wedding tents, art cars, travel times built into schedules, hotel specific breakfast meetings “breakfast at crowne plaza”, Parking ramps we can use add shuttles, larger shuttles, express shuttles during high times, well rounded content not too focused, satelite registrations, seagate building has room to accomodate all of our space here and more these are rented out, parking for heads in designated marked spots, have mini sub themes in the off campus “shakespearan experience”, risk and liability for moving people offsite ect…, ask caibou to host panels, bicycle renting or shop host to lend us bikes, all hotels should be equal and we should use all spaces, jams on smoking tents, need satelite ops and all ops can speak to each other by radio, consuite hospitality stations, more movies, more short films in other places, partnering with cab company for mini faires, satellite coffee nerf herders volunteers, special ribbons if you get punches from all hotels, walking trivia contests, scavenger hunts, CONvergence shave, salons with GOH in other hotels, dealer room annex, parade!!!, bike racks, express scripts with ramps, we need to have an appointed Exec (not OPs person) at each hotel or on call for all hotels,

If you want to contribute more send an email with Subject line: MULTI CAMPUS IDEAS to dire…@convergence-con.org

GPS

No notes received. http://www.geekpartnership.org/

Resume

A friendly reminder of resume deadlines are as follows:
April concom: your resume is due
May concom: sign off on resume
June concom: resume is finalized and no longer changeable

Publications

No notes received

Working Portion Change

We are trying out a new way to do the working portion of the ConCom meeting. The departments that tend to have a lot of other departments talking to them will now have signs placed around the room. We are asking that one representative from each of the departments be available to sit or stand near the sign. We hope that this will make it easier to identify the ConCom members in the departments.

Implementation (subject to change):

During the “Who needs to talk to whom” portion, please only list off departments that you need to speak to that do not have a sign.

If there is only one person to represent a department that has a sign, please announce that during the working portion. Then proceed to list any departments that you would need to speak to letting them know that they will need to meet you at your sign.

Please feel free to pull up chairs and tables to where the signs of the departments are placed.

When the last representative of your department that has a sign leaves, please announce that you are leaving, take down the sign for your department, and return the sign to a director. Unfortunately, not everyone hears the announcement, but hopefully having the sign taken down will assist everyone in determining if a department is no longer present.

Currently this is a list of departments that will potentially have a sign (which will be determined by the time of year and the need at each Concom meeting): Volunteers, Publications, Operations, Registration, Hotel, Finance, Programming, Guests, Resume, Dock/Logistics, Nerf Herders, Merchandise

Please inform your director if you feel that your department needs a sign (or does not need a sign) due the number of requests to speak to that department during the working portion.

ConCom Meetings Agenda

We will no longer be printing up agendas for the meetings but if you want to be on the Agenda for the ConCom meeting you will need to email me your request and a write up of your announcement no later than Friday,DATE.

2014 CONvergence Calendar

March 22nd ConCom Meeting- 1st Pubs Deadline

April 13th ConCom Meeting- Resume Deadline, New Art Deadline

May 17th ConCom Meeting- Pubs Deadline, All Art Deadline, Resume sign off

June 8th ConCom Meeting- Signage Deadline (no new art), Hotel Room Drawing

June 22nd ConCom Meeting- Last ConCom meeting before CON, Hotel Room Drawing

July 3-6 CONvergence

July 20 ConCom Post Mortem Meeting and Volunteer Party