Originally, I was looking to stay as close to downtown as the hotel room rates would allow. To the right is the original map I shared with y’all some time back.

Unfortunately, those hotels with enough space in the green zones quoted meeting rates that started at $5,000 for the weekend and went up to $15,000.

That is a non-starter. My initial budget worksheets don’t show a way to make it feasible, and I don’t have the money to make up the difference myself.

On the plus side, I’ve since discovered that one of the hotels I had earlier discounted as having no meeting rooms actually has enough meeting space for about 75 people. It’s smaller than I’d like, but it should be sufficient for the first year at least.

So now I’m looking at a map more like this:

Three of the larger, more expensive hotels I looked at are in the red “circle” at the bottom at the junction of 183, 290, and I-35.

The 75-person hotel I mentioned above is located in the first green circle north of the red spot.

Shortly north of that is another hotel with about the same amount of space.

North of that are a few hotels that are large enough, though some might be too big (and expensive).

Finally, the top circle has another hotel that could work.

Sadly, all of these are further from the airport. Then again, the 2014 PLC was about 15 miles from the nearest airport and many people came from much further afield. Heck, we drove all the way from Austin!

The furthest north of the hotels on that map is about 25 miles. The closest is 16 or 17 miles.

As far as costs, the first hotel actually posted their daily rate on a sign next to the meeting room- $400, or $200 for half the room. That’s $1,200 for the weekend- less than 1/3 the cost of the cheapest meeting rooms I found in that red circle. Sure, there’s the matter of taxes and availability, but hey- this thing is starting to sound more feasible!

My hope is that the other hotels I’m looking at all have a similar, or lower, rate. Then it becomes more a matter of date availability and how the hotel’s building, site, and staff feel.

Many thanks to the Gods and friends who have helped me push through the earlier discouragement to keep looking.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Looking further afield appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Their rate was just shy of $120 per night for Nov. 8-10, 2019- so about $20 more than #1, which also quoted that date. They are, however, the only one that explicitly included a hot breakfast buffet for up to four people per room.

This hotel is located next to candidate #3 and across the highway from #1.

Unlike #2 & 3, they have free parking (like #1) and they also have no airport shuttle.

Their meeting room cost for the weekend is half that of #2 and about 50% more than #3. If we decide to pin down for a different weekend, I can probably get a new quote, but I expect it will be similar.

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Rates and Dates from Venue Candidate #4 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Sadly, this hotel has fewer dates available (or quoted fewer). I haven’t spoken with the rep there- they called, but didn’t leave a message.

$100-110 for Single/Double

• August 23-25
• December 20-22 (Also quoted by #2)
• December 27-29 (Also quoted by #2)
• January 3-5, 2020 (Also quoted by #1 & #2)

It turns out this hotel does not have an airport shuttle as we thought; however, they do have a local shuttle that goes out 2 miles.

As far as meeting room costs, this hotel’s total price is equal to the daily price for VC #2. On the other hand, this hotel charges for parking- in this case $15+ per day. VC #1 does not, but #2 does.

I feel like I need to get a couple of other quotes from smaller hotels and then decide on a date and venue. But, smaller hotels wouldn’t have a lot of room to grow and we’d definitely have to cap registrations.

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Rates and Dates from Venue Candidate #3 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Under $100 (Barely)

• April 19 – 21 (Also being considered by someone else- Easter)
• June 14 – 16
• July 12 – 14
• November 8 – 10 (Veterans’ Day weekend)
• January 3 – 5, 2020

$100-120

• April 5 – 7 (Would have to start late on Friday)
• April 26 – 28 (Would be using less than my preferred rooms)
• May 30 – June 2
• July 26 – 28
• November 1 – 3
• January 10 – 12, 2020

Over $120

• January 17 – 19, 2020 (MLK Day weekend)
• January 24 – 26, 2020

So far, the staff contact has been wonderful and I like the space. However, it turns out that they don’t have a free airport shuttle. With perhaps 80% of our attendees coming from out of the area, we’d need to think about options.

It’s been a really busy week at day job, but I need to reach out to at least a couple of other hotels. I found one right at the airport, but would that be too noisy?

Thoughts on the dates above? I’d like to aim at the cheaper end if possible, but so far no dates are jumping out at me as ideal.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotel Room Estimates From Venue Candidate #1 appeared first on Hearthingstone.

First of all, after some careful review, the downtown hotels are just too damned expensive. For every hotel that I’ve considered, I tried to price a room with a king bed for the last weekend in October 2018 (just a consistent date several months away, not a date I’m considering). The cheapest hotels I could find downtown with adequate space were nearly $300 a night! Some were as high as $600- NO FRICKIN’ WAY!

My best results were in the north-central parts of Austin. These areas have been experiencing a lot of rebuilding, both from gentrification (bad) and renewal of old industrial/commercial areas into more modern uses (good). There are also some traditional conference hotels in this area with fairly reasonable pricing, though I worry about going to someplace that’s too big right out of the gate. For example, one place that runs about $155 a night (most places are usually cheaper if booked for a conference) has around 24,000 square feet of meeting space!

That’s too big. The first Hearthingstone would be a drop in the bucket for them, so we’d have a hard time negotiating.

On the other hand, I’ve identified a couple of promising venues, though each presents their own challenges.

One has just under 2,000 sqft of indoor meeting spaces (and a 1,500 sqft pavillion) available, plus outdoor fire pits and a fairly reasonable pet policy. It’s also about a mile from a large Whole Foods. It’s located in a reclaimed industrial area that’s been converted into a mixed-use development. But it’s also the more expensive of the two, starting at $179 (they advertise $149 for groups of 10+), which is pretty cheap for the rather upscale development it’s in.

The other is a suites-only hotel (many with kitchens!) with a decidedly “green” bent, fireplaces in many of the rooms, and a distinctly cheaper price tag- $119 a night! That’s before any consideration of group discounts. They’re big on hypoallergenic cleaning, organic food, solar panels, and they even have an electric car charging station (there’s a Tesla charging station going in around the corner, too.).

The downside? They don’t really do meetings.

Their only meeting room seats about 35 people, max. They have a dining room, and a nice fireplace in their lobby- but those aren’t reservable as private space. Going here would mean booking extra rooms just as meeting spaces, and I’m not sure how well that would work.

That said, their suites would make travel a LOT cheaper for people because of the kitchens- plus some of their suites sleep up to 5. That’s $159 (+tax) split up into about $32 a night per person, which makes attendance more affordable for many folks. I haven’t yet heard about their pet policy, though.

I’ve reached out to both venues, though I’m strongly considering the latter if I can figure out a way to accommodate the meeting space needs. Also, Google Maps shows a “church” at the same address, so I’ll need to assess these folks’ openness to a polytheist leadership conference. It could just be an old listing. Both are within half a mile of bus stops requiring only one transfer from the airport bus, so that’s a plus!

On the downside for smoking attendees, just about everywhere in Austin seems to be non-smoking. On the upside for non-smoking attendees… just about everywhere in Austin seems to be non-smoking.

Whew- lots and lots of hotels looked at!

Now to see if I can work something out with any of them…

Thoughts?

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Hotels – Refining the List appeared first on Hearthingstone.

An important starting point is to determine a list of requirements and “nice to have” features.

For instance, it would be really awesome if the venue has a working fireplace or firepit that we can use. It’s not really a requirement, though.

When running through some of my early planning thoughts, I said that I wanted to aim for 100-200 attendees and hopefully be able to grow to twice that before needing to find a new site. One of the 2014 PLC organizers encouraged me to think simple first. Not just in terms of venue size, but also programming. I was thinking about three or four sessions at a time, she encouraged me to stick with two.

I’m torn.

On the one hand, this is a distinctly low-budget operation. I might end up collecting cans or something to pay for hotel deposits and the like. Going small to start with should help keep costs down and make all sorts of planning easier. Heck, I’m going to have enough trouble finding good people to run two sets of worthwhile sessions, let alone four!

On the other hand, I get the distinct impression we need to go bigger because of currents and tides outside of our awareness. More programming means more reason for people to attend, and one of the big reasons for Hearthingstone is to build human-to-human networks in support of the Gods’ purposes. But larger venues will cost more and require more of a deposit, so there’s more downside if I can’t get enough people to come.

So, what size does Hearthingstone need? The Quality Inn in Fishkill could seat around 100 in a classroom layout, plus there was a breakfast area that could also seat people. Of course, some events were not “classroom style”, so the seating capacity was significantly reduced in those cases.

Even keeping things simple, I’d still like to be able to accommodate 200 attendees. This gives us some flexibility to have sessions that take up a lot more space than a simple lecture- ceremonies and hands-on workshops, for instance.

Here’s a rough map of the areas that have hotels in Austin. Obviously, there are some hotels outside of these spots.

The green areas have hotels that might work. The red ones I’m excluding because of things like high crime, too little meeting space overall, or because the area gives me a headache.

There are some moderately-sized convention hotels outside of downtown (the most expensive area) that might work, but then again they might be too big. Many convention hotels will offer discounted (or free) meeting rooms if attendees book enough “room nights” at the hotel. The question being “how many is that?” Will Hearthingstone be able to draw enough of a crowd to “comp” the meeting rooms?

In another post, I talked about the need to connect the venue via public transit (or shuttle) to the places people will be arriving- the airport, etc. Obviously, this is easier downtown and becomes harder the further out we go. In considering more downtown versus away from downtown, there are several trade-offs:

• Closer to downtown generally has better transit service.
• Further from downtown is generally cheaper.
• Further from downtown is generally less noisy and crowded, though not necessarily. Many other venues are either near the airport or a major highway.
• Closer to downtown often has a wider variety of services within walking distance, though again not necessarily.
• Ironically, downtown venues often have more access to greenspace because of parks along the river (“lake”).
• Downtown venues typically have the least parking and they often charge for it, while venues further out tend to have plenty of free parking.
• More of the venues downtown have meeting space large enough, whereas many of the further out hotels are simply motels and have little or no meeting space.

Personally, I have a soft spot for La Quinta because of their remarkably tolerant pet policy. We stayed almost entirely in LQs while moving halfway across the country with three cats. A cat breeder I know tends to stay in them for the same reason when traveling to shows. They also tend to be reasonably priced.

Unfortunately, few of them have meeting rooms larger than a boardroom. For instance, one that I stayed in last year (during apartment renovations) has only 2 meeting rooms and the largest seats only 35 people, classroom-style. The largest LQ meeting facility in town tops out at about 105 people. That might be enough, but it’s also the most expensive LQ in town ($175/night)- about twice the cost per night of the cheapest.

Speaking of pets, this raises another important point. Some attendees may be required to travel with animals- service companions and/or animals who work with them spiritually. While most hotels are pretty good about service animals, many are downright draconian regarding “pets”.

Another consideration is food and alcohol. Many of the more conference-focused venues will have their own catering service and possibly even an alcohol license. As I talked about in another post, we might need to provide food and (soft) drink for attendees, which becomes unmanageably expensive if catering is involved. As far as alcohol, if the venue has a license, we get into questions of “corkage” fees and/or waivers if any of our events involve open containers of alcohol- even offerings.

That’s probably enough ruminating about hotels and locations for one evening.

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Venue Considerations appeared first on Hearthingstone.

Obviously, programming is a huge concern. I touched on this in another post, but just knowing how many of what kinds of sessions you want to provide is just the beginning. Here are some example questions that need answering:

• How will we locate good people to run those sessions?
• How will we fill sessions for which we are having trouble locating people?
• Will speakers, facilitators, etc. receive free or discounted admission, and if so, by how much and for how many sessions?
• Will we pay travel expenses for some of those people? Who and why?
• How do we determine what sessions go into what event spaces?

Obviously, there are a lot more questions, but those are some of the highlights.

Another issue to consider is vendors. It is not unusual for conferences to have vendors, who may or may not pay for the space they occupy. While Hearthingstone is primarily a conference about religious issues, many traditions do not separate commercial activities from the sacred. Furthermore, a large number of polytheist leaders support themselves or substantially supplement meager incomes through vending.

However, offering a dedicated vendor space with rented tables presents liability concerns, such as the provision of security and the need to carry additional insurance. I know of some conventions that fell down in this regard, and it was not pretty.

Speaking of meager incomes, it is not unusual for conventions to have a hospitality suite that provides light refreshments to any attendee free of charge. Based on past experience, we should expect that at least a few attendees will be in need of more substantial food. While Austin has ample supermarkets and restaurants, some of them operating 24 hours a day, not every attendee will have the means to make use of them. Hearthingstone will probably need to find a way to supplement these folks’ food supply.

In addition to food, many of our traditions involve the offering of alcohol, tobacco, and the like. Because Texas is a “blue law” state, we will need to make sure that attendees are made aware of the location and closing times of nearby sources, as well as legal limitations such as areas where smoking is prohibited.

One of the important ways of communicating this, and other important information is the convention program book. There are a great many questions to answer around this publication.

For instance- what paper size do we print it on? Smaller books are more portable and easier to lose, while larger books are easier to read but less easy to carry around and are generally more expensive.  Just a quick glance at Office Depot’s website tells me that even a spartan 12-page book will cost between $1.60 and $2.30 per copy for a black-and-white book.

Since Hearthingstone is partly about networking, it might make sense to print a small contact blurb for each pre-registered attendee (unless they opt out). Even at a minimal size, that’s potentially 5 or so extra pages for 100 people, more if we include space for a small picture. We could put these online instead, but building a way to show it only to registered attendees could be tricky. Do we put the book online?

Speaking of opting out, while many Hearthingstone attendees are public representatives of their traditions and/or communities, we can’t forget that some may still have very good reasons to keep their names and faces separate from their faith. We will need a way of balancing the educational benefits of recording sessions and sharing them afterward with the need to allow some folks to opt out of appearing in public. The same applies to any press releases or other media attention we eventually decide is appropriate for the conference- how do we raise the profile of polytheisms generally while protecting attendees whose identities need to remain private?

Lots to think about…

-In Deos Confidimus

The post Some Practical Considerations appeared first on Hearthingstone.