[Air-l] hotel information for AOIR Toronto: Broadening the B and

[Matthew Allen]

Speaking as Program Chair, 

I can only emphasise and support what Nancy writes about the hotel rate. For
what it is worth, a recent conference held locally in Perth for 2 and 1/2
days was charging registration at $1100 AUD (about $600 USD): this paid for
venue hire, I am told.

Cheers
Matt


-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Baym
To: air-l at aoir.org
Sent: 1/08/03 3:20
Subject: Re: [Air-l] hotel information for AOIR Toronto: Broadening the
Band

Alex and others,

There have been extensive negotiations trying to reduce the hotel 
room rates. The hotel room rate subsidizes the meeting room space, so 
you are paying both for a place to sleep and a place to sit while you 
listen to the papers or to stand when you present your own. If we 
book enough hotel rooms, the Hilton gives us the meeting rooms. If we 
do not, we will have to pay the meeting room space.

The post-Toronto alternative, if the conference is to continue to be 
large enough that meeting at universities is unrealistic, is to fold 
the cost of meeting rooms into registration rather than sleeping 
rooms, which would be considerably more expensive for all than the 
current arrangement.

We are aware that we appeal particularly to younger (and less 
affluent) participants, that is why we offer the roomate board and 
discounted registration and membership. However, we do believe the 
conference offers a considerable benefit to those who attend, and, 
unfortunately, providing the space for 500 people to gather is 
expensive.

Nancy



>Given the importance of filling the hotel, I hate to be the one to
>bring up the unspoken, but I'm guessing it's too spendy for many,
>especially given the other options available. We have a lot of graduate
>student members, and many coming without support from their
>institutions, and the difference in cost over several days is
>significant.
>
>Moreover, the Hilton has rooms listed on their website (linked from the
>conference page) for as low as CDN$189 a night for double occupancy,
>advance purchase. Even their "no restrictions" rate is $5 less than the
>negotiated conference rate. I wonder if it might not be possible to
>request the conference rate be reduced?
>
>Alex
>
>(Who will most likely be making the commute rather than staying.)
>
>
>Quoting Rhiannon Bury <welshwitch75 at rogers.com>:
>
>  > Checking with the Hilton, it seems people aren't in hotel booking
>>  mode
>>  yet. As Nancy and Steve have mentioned, it is crucial to the
>>  financial
>>  success of the conference that people stay at the Hilton.
><...snip...>
>
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-- 
Nancy Baym	http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym
Communication Studies, University of Kansas
102 Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

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