[Air-L] IR14: Earlybird, Hotel, Best Student Paper

[Alexander Halavais]

tl;dr:

* August 1 is the last day to register at the earlybird rate (and
presenters' registration deadline).
* Please reserve your room at the Westin
* Matthew Crain wins the Best Student Paper award for the conference

I hope you are all as excited about the upcoming IR14 conference in
Denver as I am. I think we have a great line-up.

As a reminder, the earlybird registration deadline--August 1--is
rapidly approaching. Please note that if you become a member before
registering, your total cost is less than if you register as a
non-member. Also, if you are a presenter at the conference, you *must*
register by August 1 so that we know you are coming.

I'll make a plea for reserving at the conference hotel, the Westin
Denver Downtown. Details on reserving your room can be found here:

http://ir14.aoir.org/venue/

We budget around expected attendance at the hotel, and if we fail to
meet our quota (as occurred in Seattle) we incur substantial
penalties. So registering at the conference hotel is not only
convenient for the conference, but a good way to make sure the
conference remains economically sustainable.

Some have encountered issues with the registration site saying that
there are no more rooms available at the conference rate. If this
happens, it may be that the conference rate is sold out for the
Tuesday night only. We will continue to lift that number as possible,
but we had not anticipated so many pre-conference attendees. In any
case, that should not be an issue at present, but if we run through
that allotment again, you may need to do a separate reservation for
Tuesday night and for the the remaining conference nights.

Last and best, we are happy to announce the best student paper for
this year. Matthew Crain, from the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, will be presenting "Financial Markets and Online
Advertising Demand: Reevaluating the Dotcom Investment Bubble." The
conference committee found his work to be promising and innovative,
and I am looking forward to attending his presentation--and many
others--this October.

Best,

Alex Halavais