$139 a night? Crikey. If I was looking in that price range, I'd have about ten more hotels to talk to.

We kept putting off looking until we were desperate, which is why we started early last year and this. There weren't a whole lot of options by the time we were ready to finalize a deal.

We kept putting off looking until we were desperate, which is why we started early last year and this. There weren't a whole lot of options by the time we were ready to finalize a deal.

I didn't know that - but it should serve as an answer to any calls to "wait, talk it out, vote, wait some more, talk some more, wait, THEN do initial footwork".

Hell, I didn't know that was what happened, and even without knowing, once agreed that the SF info was my responsibility, I started gathering. It commits no one to anything, it gets it done early, and the options are broader. I literally can't see a single negative to that.

edit: heh. And now Khaled, the events manager at the Ramada, is leaving me messages and sending me emails, sayig wait! wait! we do have internet access in all the rooms, and everything's negotiable! Call me!

Heh. I'm salivating at Deb's description of the SF hotel, David's list of attractions and JZ's ghost walk. Are we there yet?

Bev, it's going to be a hell of party, whichever of the cities gets picked.

Seattle, in a lot of relevant ways, is San Francisco's soul twin city, except a bit cooler and damper. Water, hills, views, seafood (did I say seafood?), seafood, Pike's Market, gothy shopping, seafood....

There's no way to lose, not off this list of cities.

Fred, I don't actually remember what we spent on food at the DC F2F, but I think it was fairly close to that--around $800, we were talking at one point--not sure what it ended up being in actuality, might've added up to more.

I'm looking for hotel recommendations in LA. We need something pretty close to the airport, but also having nearby public transportation. Low cost is a massive plus. (For some reason it's been easier to find hotels in Sydney than LA.)

I stayed at the airport Marriot once, which had the advantage of the Most Comfortable Bed Evah! and a room with a balcony overlooking the pool area, which was all done up like some sort of grotto. There is a bus terminal two or three blocks away, which got me into Santa Monica very easily. But that is the sum total of my knowledge of LA.

A question, mostly for Abi: did you want us (Susan, Aimee, me) to use a standardised city-pimping form? Or should we just rear back and let 'er rip, as lyrical as we choose?

I feel terrible about this, but with everything else that's going on in my life right now, I don't feel like I can get the hotel research and city pimping done in time. If someone else can step up to the plate and get us some estimates and talk about how wonderful Seattle is, I should be able to do the legwork part of the planning later, but between my dad, job search, and writing conference work, I don't have a lot of energy to spare right now.

Ok. So, spiffy new plan. What do you guys think?

We push the deadline back 2 weeks. Pimpage due on the 26th. Voting on September 1st through 5th.

Susan, would that be sufficiently helpful? Jilli, Plei, (anyone else), would you be able to pitch in on the Seattle stuff?

Deb, apart from section headers, I guess more or less however you want.