The advantages of a prom location in walking distance of the hotel include costume changes, no drinking & driving, and the possibility of taking breaks from promage. I found it helpful to be able to go and chill in my room from time to time at previous F2Fs.

Yes, this. I take time outs in large crowds, and having my own room nearby is pretty important to me.

Also, keeping aspects that worked well at previous F2Fs is a good thing, but so is trying new formats in my opinion.

Bring your laptop. You can rip some CDs. SA and billytea both gorged on my collection.

I don't have a laptop!

Maybe my new job will give me one for...business.

I don't have a laptop!

You've got a year to get one. Or I suppose an iPod.

I've had the pleasure of couching at both the Zmayhem and Perkins residences and I can vouch for the excellent hostage. (That is host-age, not the hostage like they bound me up and stuff)

not the hostage like they bound me up and stuff)

We wanted to. We were out of tape.

The time-outs is definitely a consideration. OK, so I factor the possibility of an offsite prom to hotels in the SOMA area, which is where the bulk of the possible rehearsal spaces are likely going to be located. Luckily, there are plenty of hot little hotels SOMA, as well.

Just the sort of thing I needed to know. Thankee, peoples.

If we can keep this inexpensive we'll get more people. The lack of Buffistas was Nawlins' only flaw.

There are a couple ways we could try and do that. Not being downtown (Evanston as opposed to Chicago) is one. A less chi chi place that would let us bring our own food -- and making that food simple. Or maybe not having food at the bash -- we could have dinner elsewhere and a cash bar at the prom. There's been talk in the past of a beach house, conference center, vacation condo, or dude ranch. There might be all sorts of ways to think outside the box and include as many Buffistas as possible.

There might be all sorts of ways to think outside the box and include as many Buffistas as possible.

I agree. That's rather what the idea of having the prom offsite, me doing the work and not charging for anything other than the fixings - which would probably be about a hundred bucks to feed fifty people, if it's just materials costs - and freeing up an additional six or seven hundred dollars, some of which can go into the communal pool for communal F2F use, be it hotel or airfare or whatever - was in aid of.

Just caught up on this.

A few thoughts.

I suppose hind sight is 20/20, but if folks feel like it was so clear that NO would have a low attendance from such an early point, how come it wasn't brought up the multiple times that we discussed basing our numbers on previous attendance in the 50-60 person range?

Also, there were multiple votes on city preferences and all of those votes had many more than 20 people voting in favor of NO. I suppose I should have added the tag line, "If you have no intention of attending please don't vote for a city." I've learned my lesson on that front.

Saving money on the catering and such didn't seem to factor into the equation for people as much as the simple cost of the hotel room. For the NO trip there was no requirement at all to pay a single dime for anything other than getting there and having a place to stay. All the money for the hospitality suite and for the Prom was done on what was essentially a blind donation basis. In DC and LA part of those costs were offset by large donations as well.

The $100 room price came up in discussions during the DC F2F and also in discussions leading up to the NO F2F. I'd have to do a suck and search to find out if they were discussions on-line, or in meatspace. I'd like to propose that we have a poll, or hash it out in here once and for all, what is the cost limit for folks? I know that for me, personally, I'm perfectly happy with room costs up to $175/night for a nice hotel, and would go as high as $450/night if it was a stunning hotel and I was getting a suite or similar room.

The discussion came up last year about Prom on-site and there was a skew towards on-site. I like it onsite so that I can run away to my room if needed. My experience with other conferences is that booking a room for a large dinner/party with hotel catering can also be used as a negotiating tools to get a cheaper price on the room blocks.

I need to pull up my excel spreadsheet and pull the numbers for the money that was raised and what we spent on catering and such, but I'm tired and will do that tomorrow.

My personal preference is that we choose or gorgeous hotel right in the middle of the action in whatever city and pay for them to deal with the party. I also tend to think that I'm in a minority in being willing to pay the premium needed for that.