From: Diva Las Vegas organizers (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Date: Wed May 18 2005 - 08:00:28 CDT
In this mailing:
Org List
This mailing
Group comments
Feedback
FSE and Dance Night
Administrivia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Org List:
This is the DLV 2005 Organizational Mailing List (dlvorg@geekbabe.com)
Replies to this message will be forwarded to the DLVORG list and not
the DLV-Announce or DLV-Discuss list.
Ongoing activity database appears on the web at:
http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org05arc/acts.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This mailing:
As some of you may know, we had another hardware failure on the
www.geekbabe.com server yesterday very early in the morning. Thanks to
Diane for reporting this. Very little if any was lost.
It's back on line now, but still kind of patched together.
. . . . .
Lots of good feedback in this mailing. Keep it coming, please.
Also, please be sure that you take the DLV 2005 survey if you
have not done so already.
http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlv2005/2005survey.html
We'll keep the survey on line until the end of May, which is
2 weeks and change.
Late note, the survey (and any other CGI programs) is down
at the present time, but should be up later this evening.
. . . . .
Quite a few more photos on line.
All vetoes received by Tuesday have been nuked.
Michelle (NZ), I haven't seen yours yet. Are they coming via snailmail?
. . . . .
We'll have the annual Call For Volunteers in next Sunday's mailing. A
number of them have been received already due to the link on the final
survey screen.
I figure we'll transition to the new ORG list around the first of June.
That will be totally transparent for most of you.
. . . . .
There was a GREAT response to the call to rate and comment on our
vendors. More additions this year than any other year I remember, except
for 2001. <vbfg> :) One thing I noticed is that a few of our previously
highly rated vendors slipped a bit when this year's ratings were
factored in. You may notice that some of those bar graphs are not as
green as they used to be. In particular, Carluccio's took quite a hit,
as did HM's, and Z's, as kind of expected, slipped a bit too.
http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/vendors/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Group comments:
Densie writes:
>>Yes, I know that some people are on record as wanting a smaller group.
>Thanks, that just about sums it up for me.
>>some of our business. I didn't really think that our group was that
>>obvious at the Sahara except for LW(o)G.
>Let's don't be delusional. They know that we're there every year,
>they make comments, they laugh behind our backs. Some of us who have
>gone there in BM have heard it at the buffet. I see people walking by,
>doing double takes and laughing. We're kidding ourselves if we don't
>know that we look ridiculous. It is the fact that we can go have fun
>anyway that makes us special.
We probably can't get rid of this entirely, but we can do some things
to be less obvious and attract less attention.
>>Unless circumstances change significantly, I envision DLV 2006 to be
>>the last time I (Annie) perform any significant role in organizing a
>>major t* event in Las Vegas.
>Considering that you are the only one who has been significant in
>keeping DLV from turning into a convention, I would say, go ahead and
>arrange for the meeting room and the rubber chicken banquet for 2007.
Actually, I can think of a few, all of them who joined this group after
2000 or so, that are staunchly in the v-not-c camp with me (and you). I
still think it was about 2002 or so that the make-DLV-a-convention
movement ran out of gas.
I really can't blame those who wanted more of a convention. They
were familiar with the model they were raised on and found it to be
comfortable.
>But, also needs to be said, is THANK YOU!!! I have enjoyed DLV for
>several years and had so much fun...
You're very welcome! I've had fun doing it too. :)
>but all good things must come to an end.
Uh ... I dunno. You've always said you wanted a smaller less formalized
thing in Las Vegas. There's nothing stopping anybody from doing just
that! :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Feedback:
Mary Beth writes:
>>* What activities worked, what did not work, which should be
>>repeated, and which should be ash-canned.
>Overall, the activities I attended (mostly the nighttime events) were
>fairly well organized. The growing size of the group does demand that
>in the future you may need to schedule two to three events per night
>to comfortably handle the number of people involved, as well as to
>provide activities consistent with the different comfort-levels of
>the attendees.
>The Eating Out Night was an excellent example of having different
>venues available to people according to their comfort levels of being
>in a low-to highly-trafficked mainstream venue.
I do think that EON is one that merits repeating and refinement. It
not only breaks up the group, but allows people a choice.
>I missed Monday night as I was one of the people who went to Flex, hung
>around for about 15 minutes, but wasn't told that the group had moved
>to another venue. No big deal. I agree that it was a very good idea
>for the entire group not to be sitting together at the Follies
>Bergere. It was much better to be scattered around the venue.
As in your past 2 comments, I do believe one key to managing a larger
group is to keep the group broken up to some extent except for a few
designated maximum-turnout activities.
>I'd also like to suggest that a consideration for next year's
>production show be "Fashionistas" at Krave. It is adult in the R-rated
>sense (no frontal nudity, but a lot of creative use of latex and
>vinyl) and was a very entertaining show.
There was some interest in Fashionistas this year, but it never really
took off.
Does this mean you're volunteering to help with a Fashionistas activity?
(Yeah, walked right into that one, didn't ya?) :) :) :)
>>* Which vendors were worthy of our business, which were not, and, of
>>course, ideas for places to go where we have not gone yet.
>I can wholly and enthusiastically recommend Sako at LaRue's and Lisa
>Marie at the Sahara Destination beauty parlor for getting one's hair
>done.
>>* Thoughts about the size of DLV, the length of DLV, the position on
>>the calendar, etc.
>A week in Vegas is about right. Since so many people have to leave on
>Saturday and Sunday morning, the "big event" should remain on Friday. I
>understand there was a last minute glitch this year that forced the
>event to Saturday. Perhaps Saturday should be a redux of Wednesday,
>with several different venues recommended scaled to different comfort
>levels.
Actually we never really planned a "big event", but we had, on paper at
least, were several big guns that were sure winners in the past (Cagle
Show, Carluccio's, Garden Party, Annual Mixer, High Tea) and some new
ones (Krave, Lou Martinez) which we intended to come together into a
very strong final 30 hours or so.
Unfortunately a couple 11th-hour snags and the resulting chain-reaction
caused our final 30 hours or so to be much weaker than we wanted.
I was actually getting quite concerned about the turnout for the Cagle
Show on Friday and the Carluccio's dinner on Saturday. It seemed like
every time I talked to somebody, there was talk about blowing off one or
both of them and getting impromptu groups to go off and do their own
thing.
Fortunately we had good turnouts at both, and some of the people that
I dragged kicking and screaming to Steven Davids ended up staying
long after the Cagle Show. :)
. . .
>>* Our volunteer force. Do we have enough volunteers to continue with
>>an event of the predicted size and length?
>The volunteers were available when needed and did yeoman's work. Bless
>them all, their work is appreciated.
Yes, the active volunteers performed quite commendably.
However, I'm wondering if we're starting to approach the limits of what
our volunteer force can be expected to do? We did have a very rich set
of activities planned, but when the apple cart got upset, we just didn't
have the resources to come up with an equally rich replacement set.
. . .
>>* Our suggested hotels. Did our people like them? Were there any
>>major issues?
>No issues at the Sahara. I have a gut feeling, though, that at some
>point it will be imploded and rebuilt as an upscale hotel.
Speculation on the street seems to be that both the Stardust and the
Tropicana will be re-invented at a much higher scale within the next
several years, but that the Sahara, IP and Riviera will remain more or
less as-is as the "classic Vegas" crowd migrates to them, having
abandoned the Stardust, Tropicana, and Frontier.
>>* Our model. Recreational and participatory activities only. Unpaid
>>registration. Each activity autonomous.
>This is an excellent model for this event. Having a paid registration
>would require a full-time staff and would open you up to legal
>problems should something happen where an event is canceled and you
>have to provide refunds.
I see a paid registration and a common pool of funds driving all
activities as a big pain in the @$$ and a personal risk much greater
than what most of us (definitely including /me) are willing to take.
>The Honor System has served you well. Also,
>I've been to enough other events (Southern Comfort, IFGE, etc.) to
>know that the last thing I want to do in Vegas is sit in a ballroom
>and be lectured to by some "expert".
If people do want that kind of thing, there are many options out there
already. Just throw a dart at a calendar and you'll be within 4-6 weeks
of one somewhere. We don't need to duplicate what's out there already.
Our people are innovators, not replicators!
>So no symposiums or rubber chicken dinners, please. The autonomy is
>the best thing about DLV. I am strictly a night person, and do not
>attend the daytime stuff (other than an occasional lunch). I wouldn't
>want to have to pay a registration fee to gain admittance to daytime
>events that I have no intention of participating in.
>>* Any other organizational items you want to bring up.
>Would suggest that on future limo tours we spend 15 to 20 minutes on
>Freemont Street instead of blocking the Four Queens entryway.
>>Dance Night. I wasn't there, but heard it worked. I guess there was
>>a minor misunderstanding among some of our people as to the club
>>etiquette and the use of the booths.
>Dance Night at Krave would have been a lot better if we didn't have to
>sit through the interminable "Men of Krave" show, but we had no
>control over that.
>For those unfamiliar with major-city nightclub etiquette, booths are
>*always* reserved - i.e. you have to pay to use them. Otherwise you
>stand, or find a spot of wall to lean against. This is de rigueur
>policy for almost all upscale nightclubs. That said, Krave is an
>excellent big-city dance venue, and should be an option going
>forward.
>I didn't get around to checking it out, but there is a Pussycat Lounge
>at Caesar's Palace, which is a recreation of a 1950's burlesque
>review. Definitely mainstream, but maybe one of the local girls can
>check it out sometime this year for appropriateness.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FSE and Dance Night:
Jenni writes:
>The FSE event was okay, only a few showed up that I was aware of, but
>we still had a great time. I believe someone at the Bahamas dinner made
>mention that the show closed at 9:30 PM and that is really when it gets
>started. There is so much to do there in groups with all of the shops
>and antiques of people. The light show was really wonderful and very
>impressive.
Unfortunately that kind of public exposure is a bit too much for many
of our people.
We do need to keep things like this as options.
>The Dance Night was incredible. Some of us had checked out Kraves on
>Tuesday night which was fun, but Friday night, they treated us like
>Queens.
>They would like to speak to you about using their facilities,
>which are beautiful for future events.
Speak to me? Aren't you the Krave rep? :) :) If you/they want to plan
something special at Krave for DLV 2006, please go ahead and do the
preliminaries.
>We were unaware of a table charge, but got that straightened out after
>several of us chipped in extra money (thank you Tawnie, Barb, Linda and
>Val) and we had many satisfied girls. One of our attendee's got her
>feelings hurt because of an early misunderstanding, yet the rest of the
>evening seemed to flow undisturbed.
>We were unaware that Kenny Kerr was going to perform which some liked
>and he acknowledged our attendee's which added to the specialness. A
>total of 31 girls attended.
31 huh?!!! That has to be the largest Dance Night turnout in the
history of DLV!
>With better understanding of Kraves format, next years dance night
>could really be a blast.
I take it then that the dance fans prefer Krave over Gipsy? Is this
correct? Comments, anybody?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Administrivia:
This is the Diva Las Vegas 2005 organizational list.
This mailing was addressed to: annie@annie.net
One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:
dlvorg@geekbabe.com <--- NOTE: all lower case
Please do not send binary attachments (photos, etc.) directly to the
list, as the list processor will not properly handle them. If you want
to send photos and the like, mail to: annie@annie.net
Archives of this list appear on the web at:
http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org05arc/
To unsubscribe: Simply reply to this message with the word UNSUBSCRIBE
in either the Subject: field or the first line of an OTHERWISE BLANK
message body. The word "unsubscribe" (case is insignificant) should be
the only item in the subject field or the first line of the message,
justified to the left.
To send material to this list: Send submission as regular e-mail to
the address: dlvorg@geekbabe.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed May 25 2005 - 08:22:33 CDT