[dlvorg] Late mailing, sorry - Getting started planning DLV 2014 ...

In this mailing:

Org List
Getting started with DLV 2014
Strategy for DLV 2014
Costume affair
PM confirmation
Fremont, dining, shows
Technology
Pinkfest
Administrivia
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Org List:

This is the DLV 2014 Organizational Mailing List (dlvorg_at_geekbabe.com)
Replies to this message will be forwarded to the DLVORG list and not
the DLV-Announce or DLV-Discuss list.
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Getting started with DLV 2014:

A profuse apology for the tardiness of this mailing. :( Your esteemed
Moderator was trapped in a land of unreliable connectivity and then
diverted due to weather while getting back to net.civilization! :(
. . . . .

First a reminder. If anyone has any photos which have not been sent in,
please do so ASAP, as our Call For Photos will be closing shortly.

Also, if you sent in photos and they do not appear in the staging area,
please let us know what, specifically, is not appearing. Please do not
resend "just to be sure" as chasing down duplicates is time-consuming
and will delay the preparation of the final photo pages.
. . . . .

Please keep the ideas for new and for repeat activities coming. Now
is the time to discuss new ideas as well as new venues and such.
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Strategy for DLV 2014:

Annie writes:

Nothing is in stone yet; the dates of the event, the length of the
event, the start and stop days, and in particular the day to day
schedule.

>From 2007 forward, we've always had a six-day event.

There's always a calling to go (back) to a seven-day event.

The six-day event appears to be close to the right size for our current
volunteer force. Even the six-day event stretched the volunteer capacity
in 2011 and 2013. In those years, when we called for help in filling out
the schedule with some badly-needed smaller activities, it was not those
doing little or nothing who answered the call, but mostly those doing
multiple activities already. We are right at the limit with the six-day
event and really can't consider going to seven days without a solid
increase in our volunteer capacity.
. . . . .

Over the past several years we've divided our days into three classes,
based upon the primary goings-on of the evening. Those are:

1. Maximum-attendance single-track evenings.
2. "Anchor" activity evenings, with smaller second/third track options.
3. Multi-track evenings.

Six days works out to two of each. We've had two very large gatherings,
one toward the start and one toward the finish of the event. "Anchor"
activities are such things as the Limo Tour and the recent EHM
reception, and are supported by various smaller alternatives.

Multi-track evenings have been our traditional "Eating Out Night" and
"Mainstream-Alternative Night" but those terms may be deprecated. These
are multi-option evenings of everything and anything.

As for daytime strategy, we've never really had any, other than maybe
such things as not scheduling golf right after a very intense late night
before. We've always had the recurring lunch, and last year the
recurring coffee session, both which will probably be repeated.
. . . . .

JoAnn Adds:

This might be the place we work on an afternoon program for 2014 -- a
11am to 4pm slot of activities? We have a number of such events in this
time slot, maybe we formalize it [call/ designate] and for every day?
. . . . .

Annie continues:

Our commercial vendor-based activities occur during the day, and in the
past few years we've been seeing far more mainstream vendors doing
various sessions for DLVers. Ther is one more who wants to get on the
slate for next year. We try to give the commercial vendors a "clear
channel" in their timeslot and not put them up against any competitors'
sessions.
. . . . .

JoAnn continues:

We need to "protect" the time slot of each of our vendors so they do
not compete with another!
. . . . .

Annie continues:

There has been little or no interest in changing the basic daily and
evening format of our event. If there's any desire to do so, now is the
time to say so.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Costume affair:

Sherry writes:

I think a really fun event would be a sort of costume, let it all hang
out, nite. Sort of like the EHM. But, that would be hijacking her event.

Any ideas of how that could be arranged? I don't live in Vegas and have
no idea how to locate a venue there.
. . . . . . . . . .

JoAnn responds:

I think we should truly investigate a prom/costume event---" Holloween
in April event" which does fit into our "operating format" and not have
venue registration fees, etc. This needs to tag-on with Annies
comments below.
. . . . .

Annie responds:

A Costume Party has been discussed off and on over the years but it's
never happened. No particular reason, just never happened.

My suggestion for a venue is to reach out to any of several alternative
bars in the area and see if they are interested in doing a very good bar
sales business on an otherwise slow night. Escape Lounge comes to mind
immediately, as well as Freezone, since we are now on each other's good
lists again. EDIT: Hold that thought on the Freezone until the dust
settles. See the Discussion Forum.

There are several others.

I can envision the Costume Party fitting in any of several timeslots,
depending on the size of the affair you're thinking of. It could fit
very well on a multi-track evening as a smaller affair, or as an anchor
activity, or even as a second-track option against an anchor.

It's really up to you and those helping you plan it as to what it is and
of what scale. If you need ideas and assistance, ask and you shall
receive. :)
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PM confirmation:

Gina writes:

Project managers sound good to me.
. . . . . . . . . .

JoAnn responds:

Stay with the "flow" --- "Co-Project Managers" is fine with me.
. . . . .

Annie responds:

This is the only comment received. If no objections come in within
the next list cycle, we'll consider the PM team to be confirmed by
consensus.
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Fremont, dining, shows:

Delaney writes:

If you like, I would likely repeat Fremont and Oscars on Tuesday, and
if an activity is needed Sunday (or another day).

I will schedule Alize, Nove Italiano or Pamplemousse. I know it's a long
way down the road, but I can also schedule one of these for the Saturday
pre get-together, should there be agreement to go that route.
. . . . .

Annie responds:

Thanks, Delaney.

Although the particular days of the week may or may not be similar to
those on our 2013 schedule, all of the above will work quite well, and
we'll definitely have a couple of multiple dining evenings.

>From what I understand, Pamplemousse was definitely a hit.

We'll work on ways of reducing fall-out, and hopefully the Oscars thing
will be better attended. We may want to limit sign-up on the higher-end
dining options to those who have a cell phone on file, and encourage the
Coordinators to do a quick confirming call.

Now {sigh!} I really wish I could understand why the Pre-DLV thing in
recent years has not been that well attended.

Up through 2010 we always garnered a crowd of at least 30 at these, but
in recent years the attendance has never reached a critical mass.

I would hate to think that 8-10 people is the "New Normal" for things
like this. Any ideas for venues/strategy, etc. would be welcome.
. . . . .

JoAnn adds:

I say-- understand it is "pre" so expectations should be one location
and maybe 15. Secondly, it should be something unique and really
separate from the regular faire of DLV. More discussion here.
. . . . .

Delaney continues:

I am also willing to look at coordinating the show at Caesars, depending
on the headliner - I do not yet see the 2014 schedule on line, but the
current rotation is Celine, Shania, and Elton John - all of whom are
fine with me.

The difficulty is the timing; realistically a group block of tickets
will need to be purchased before many are willing to commit; so any
suggestions are welcome.
. . . . .

Annie continues:

With Caesars shows being reserved seats only, it presents a challenge
as to paying separately but sitting together. Over the years a number
of approaches have been tried, such as ...

1. The Coordinator collects the $$$ from show-goers and goes to the box
office and buys the best all-together seats bright and early on the day
of the show.

2. The Coordinator buys a block of tickets, all together, and re-sells
them to the show-goers. Obvious disadvantages are that there may be more
demand than supply of tickets, and there is a significant risk of taking
a financial bath!

3. Letting everyone be on their own to get tickets. Suggest a row or
section so everyone can be in the same general area. I know that for
the recent Jersey Boys show, we were all in the same row, but quite
scattered about within that row.

4. Negotiating with the producers. This worked well for smaller shows
such as Kenny Kerr, Showgirls Of Magic, and "V", but probably would not
be even worth trying with the larger headliner shows.

It's really up to whoever adopts the activity to decide which method
to use. We're also open to any other suggestions along this line.
. . . . .

JoAnn adds:

Let us limit it to a 12 ticket block (why 12? no reason) and see if we
can get it on PayPal?
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Technology:

Kandi writes:

Since this is my first ORG list mailing, I just wanted to say thanks
for all your efforts to make DLV happen each year. I enjoyed DLV 2012
very much and sorry to not attend 2013 due to scheduling conflicts.

When I read this, "1. Use technology to overcome a few rough spots, in
particular some error-prone items we're doing manually, such as check-in
and Limo Tour ticket sales."

It gave me some ideas that I will share with the group. I hope to
support your efforts.
. . . . . . . . . .

Thanks, Kandi.

Here is what I have in mind for these particular items.

For check-in, allow certain volunteers, potentially any Coordinator, to
check people in (or actually just mark them present), using a smart
phone. This would be in addition to the name tag distribution. IMAO this
would be very effective in catching stragglers. No "app" needed, just
any of various smart phones with a browser. This would also time stamp
the check in and record who checked them in. This would simply set the
"present" flag and would not fight with the manual check-in list
reconciliation at the end of the event. I envision this reducing the
size of the "Missing In Action" list, or at least eliminating from it
most of those who did indeed show up.

We would still have the challenge of getting the name tags distributed
but this would much better record who was actually present.

For Limo Ticket sales, the obvious answer is to limit the number of
adult beverages consumed by the one doing the selling, but that's no
fun! :) Having a similar method hook into the sign-up data would flag
the ticket as "paid" and keep a running total of how much has been
collected in the Limo Tour fund. It would also help in the case of
lost tickets.
. . . . .

JoAnn adds:

This might need to go onto a PayPal system. Again, more discussion.
. . . . .

Annie continues:

I think that something like Paypal could be of benefit, particularly in
controling the cases of those who nonchalantly fail to follow through
and pay. However, I don't want to see Paypal as the only option, for
this or for any other activity payment. I don't want to see us lock out
anyone who, for any reason, cannot or chooses not to use some commercial
service.
. . . . .

If you have any other ideas on the above which retain our principle of
simplicity and do not involve the re-invention of the wheel, I would
sure like to hear about them.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pinkfest:

Beverly writes:

First is to plan on attending Pinkfest in Chicago in October. It is very
similar to Diva Las Vegas ...
. . . . . . . . . .

Annie responds:

Thanks for the "Shameless Plug" for Pinkfest. It saves me from doing yet
another one. :)

Seriously, I would encourage those on the ORG group to consider Pinkfest
as it's a lot of fun and is just what the doctor ordered for curing the
mid-year Jonesin' For DLV Blues. :)

For those interested, either join the mailing list
(pinkfest_at_geekbabe.com) and/or read the Pinkfest Discussion Forum on
line here:

http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/mydlv/mainforum/viewforum.php?f=13

For those who prefer the Yahoo Groups type of interface, surf here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinkfest/

The content's the same on all media.

The one thing I would like to emphasize for anyone considering attending
is to not procrastinate on making your hotel reservations! Book now, even
if the price is on the high side of what you want to pay. If a better deal
happens, re-book and cancel your original. Many hotels in Chicago **DO**
sell out on most weekends.

I hope to see quite a few of you there this October! :)
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Administrivia:

This is the Diva Las Vegas 2014 organizational list.

One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:

dlvorg_at_geekbabe.com <--- NOTE: all lower case

Diva Las Vegas 2014
Dates to be announced autumn of 2013
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

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Received on Sat Jun 15 2013 - 07:30:58 CDT