Denver, Day 7

[bjarvis]

No sleeping in this morning: we headed directly to the Hyatt Regency to begin setting up the table for DC Diamond Circulate, the IAGSDC's 2009 convention in Washington DC.

The current convention's registration table wasn't yet opened; instead, convention attendees were asking us about Denver registration, dance locations, lunch suggestions and the like. I did what I could to direct people in the right directions.

When dancing started, I tried my hand at a couple of C1 tips. I did relatively well, although we didn't have a very strong square. I quickly realized, however, that my heart wasn't really in dancing today so I soon returned to our registration table to represent our club.

During periodic breaks, I had a number of my own club badges updated. I had the "Advanced" tag replaced with "Challenge 1" and added "Caller" to my official DC Lambda Squares badge. I also had a bar with my name to my IAGSDC badge along with the Denver bar. I ordered similar badge enhancements for kent4str's badge; cuyahogarvr had never been to a convention before so I ordered an IAGSDC badge for him as a surprise.

For the most part, our table was well received. Folks are genuinely interested in coming to DC although one person did bring up an issue related to the timing of our convention: it's the easter/passover weekend. While we're making arrangements for services for the observant, there's no denying that this is an important family time for many and so the dates preclude attending our convention. Still, that's the way it goes... Vancouver used the same dates in 2001 to great success. For every person who can't make it, I'm sure there's someone who can.

The grand march was a little disappointing. The herd of dancers were packed into the upstairs ballroom space for about 40 minutes, then sorted into clubs and ushered along the march path. The path in all its glory was simply down a hall, down the escalators to the next level and down the corridor to another dance hall. Big whoop. There we stood for the national anthems of Japan, Canada and the US, then the opening remarks by the convention chair, introduction of the calling staff and a speech by the mayor of Denver.

Once the speeches were done, the memorial panels were paraded through the hall. These are large canvass panels to which are affixed the name badges of dancers who have passed away over the years. As soon as the memorial portion was done, I headed for the door: my feet had had enough. I later learned I missed the convention group photo but I'll live with that.

We resumed staffing our convention table for the balance of the evening. We briefly considered sticking around for the bear hour --always great fun-- but we had skipped dinner and were feeling exhausted. After a quick bite, we returned to our hotel room for laundry, catching up on LJ and going to bed.

Comments

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I really think compelling a convention to a particular US holiday would be a terrible mistake. DC would never be able to submit an affordable bid if it were contractually tied to the Memorial weekend or the July 4 weekend: it's the peak of our tourist and convention season.

As a Canadian, I can also say with some confidence that it would be difficult justifying to Canadian clubs why they should clone the US holiday schedule rather than working with their local culture, laws & customs.

When/If the IAGSDC runs all conventions in-house, they will have the power to set the dates they wish and enforce them. If they continue the tradition of using member clubs to create, coordinate and run the events, I think the volunteers should be able to pick dates best suited to their particular market.

Statements like, "For every person who can't make it, I'm sure there's someone who can," don't really seem very inclusive.

Definitely it's not inclusive. IAGSDC conventions are, IMHO, designed to not be inclusive by the way they're traditionally assembled and by the fixed programs we repeat year after year. Air travel, hotel beds and dining out is inherently expensive: I've only attended six conventions because I lacked the financial resources to attend more frequently. It wasn't inclusionary that the convention & travel was priced beyond my means, but I lived with it. It's unfortunate that when I did have spare money, the dates sometimes conflicted with other things I wished to do; I made my choices and didn't attend in those years.

If we're serious about accessibility and affordability, I think we need to consider jettisoning the more expensive traditions. The banquet and brunch cost over $90k USD; we could cut a large portion of our registration fees by just jettisoning the food & beverage requirements, although the room rates would likely be higher. The floor space for the grand march locks us into larger-than-necessary hotels in large cities rather than allowing us to use mid-range hotels in smaller cities. Indeed, do we need a hotel at all? Seattle did well with university dorms. Do we need a honky tonk queen contest? If so, shouldn't it be financially self-supporting by charging an admission like the fun badge tours?

There is much to be reviewed in the way the IAGSDC does its conventions, but I think the choice of dates is a relatively minor item compared to the bigger items. I hope the lack of announced interested parties for 2013 and beyond might accelerate reconsideration of the restrctions which we place on clubs.

[bigjohnsf.livejournal.com]

There is a benefit to having an "annual" convention at more-or-less the same time every year. In fact, I don't think it's really a good idea to have it on Memorial Day weekend, but that's not as bad as the beginning of April which is a completely different season, and is really not equidistant to the adjacent conventions.

I'd much rather have a convention at a smaller, suburban hotel, (Santa Clara, for instance) than screw around with the dates.

I'd also like to see reasonable hotel rates, but I don't think that is on the cards right now.

Oh, it's not so much making others clone the US holiday schedule, it's a matter of scheduling your event when the vast majority of the people attending it have time off. Vancouver seems to have no difficulty scheduling their primary fly-in on the weekend of American Thanksgiving, every year.

Maybe DC should have just been a random weekend in June, but Easter is too early and too sensitive for too many people. I'm not saying people should boycott 2009, but I am advocating for not having convention that early ever again. (And, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.)