[dlvorg] Name tags, timing, brochures, etc. ...

In this mailing:

Org List
Where things stand
Name tags and check-in
Timing
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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Where things stand:

We're expecting a report from those visiting Las Vegas toward the end of
the month. Unless there are items of some urgency, this will be the last
ORG mailing until we have that report, which will cover the venues for
our 2014 Welcome Celebration.
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As many of you probably heard, both Krave and Drink And Drag have closed
due to liquor license issues. They have been removed from the Big List
and, of course, they will not be available for our activities in 2014.
. . . . . . . . . .

Gina? Any news about Charles? Has he been "beamed up" to an on-stage
role again? :)
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The DLV brochure has been updated for 2014. The images for the two sides
are on line here:

www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvbro1.pdf
www.geekbabe.com/dlv/dlvbro2.pdf

Please feel free to print these out and distribute to friends, groups,
etc. These have been shown to print quite nicely on most color or B&W
home and office printers.

Another option is to have them printed at a FedEX/Kinkos type place, and
most of those can print color or B&W copies directly from the .pdf files
on the web.

Please feel free to distribute these far and wide. :)
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Name tags and check-in:

Annie writes:

One thing I want to see this coming year is more effective tracking of
who is actually present. In our most recent years around 10% of our
marked-as-present attendees were counted by way of the "Missing In
Action" lists which were published shortly after our event concluded.

This means that, for any of several reasons, at least 10% of our people
are missing the designated check-in opportunities. My hunch is that
there are others as well, and that our headcounts for at least the past
few years have not included everyone who was present.

This last year our check-in process was single-threaded, one check-in
kit only. It's easy to see that many otherwise active and cooperative
attendees failed to check in simply because they and the singular
check-in kit did not cross paths.

This coming year we'll be trying out a simple process where potentially
almost any volunteer can mark an individual as present using a smart
phone (or netbook/laptop if they choose). We have a few of our
volunteers here at Pinkfest this week and I'll be showing the process
and getting feedback.

I envision this process as being in addition to and not in place of the
usual check-in process where the name tags are given out and the name
is marked as present on a paper copy of the roster.
. . . . .

Now let's talk about name tags, and feedback on this will be most
appreciated.

The big burning questions I ask every year are along the lines of
do we want the pre-printed name tags and are they useful.

With homage to Richard Dawson, Survey says .....

+And what about the request to wear name tags?

+I found them to be helpful: 40
+I don't really care either way: 36
+I did not like them: 5

A significant plurality, almost a majority (40/81) found the name tags
to be helpful. Only five of the respondees did not like them.

I am definitely in the group that finds them to be helpful. I was very
embarrassed a few times last year when I did not recognize a few of our
people who I definitely should know! That reminder of the name is very
helpful to me, personally.

I also think that pre-printed tags add a sense of professionalism and
"class" to our event.

I daresay that doing the pre-printed name tags is the most intense of
the high-maintenance projects we have! I've done it for a few years and
I know it's a pain. When I've done it, I've automated it so it's driven
directly from the registration data and still it consumes time and
effort.

There's also a lot of waste! My guess is that 30-40% of the prepared
tags last year went unclaimed. In previous years we've prepared two to
four sets of tag inserts in order to have multiple check-in locations
and it's easy to see that most of the inserts ended up being discarded.

One idea which keeps coming up is to have each attendee print out their
own name tag on their home or office printer. This would be very easy to
do (have each individual's tag image available on line) but I have the
feeling that only a small percentage would actually follow through and
print this out and use it.

Anyway, thoughts on name tags will be appreciated.

Assuming we continue to do name tags as we have in recent years, Vera
and Dennis have "first refusal rights" to do it this coming year.

Also, we do have quite a stash of tag holders at this time, so most
likely no more will need to be purchased for DLV 2014.
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Beverly writes:

On the subject of name tags, I am strongly in favor of the use of these.

I am terrible with remembering names and hate to be put into the
situation of showing my forgetfulness. I would also like to suggest
using the largest font possible so the name can be easily seen from a
distance.
. . . . . . . . . .

JoAnn writes:

Name tags--

JoAnn here.

I really like name tags because I am embarrassed to ask someone's name
when I know I should know who they are. It is most helpful!

We should consider to "incentivize" name tags. By that I mean what can
we do for a "positive approach" to get everyone to pick up the tag so we
have everyone registered.

What about a free Limo ticket drawing? Or three(3) free drinks at the
Opening Event? Other ideas...
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Timing:

March 30 is the earliest in the calendar year that we have ever held
our event. This means that we have about three weeks less to plan and
implement things than we usually do.

Several of our customary milestones and checkpoints will need to be
moved forward (earlier) on the calendar.

Here's a list of many of these items and how they will be affected by
our escalated timeframe:

Now: As soon as Pinkfest concludes (this Sunday) we will be ready to
"seed" the DLV 2014 schedule. The next ORG mailing will contain the
first working copy, consisting of items that have been decided upon or
planned so far. Everyone who is currently planning activities should
be thinking in terms of which timeslots will work best for those
activities.
. . . . .

Mid November: Suggested hotels announced. This is one item that is
really not affected, per se, by the date, but we'll need to get that
taken care of in order to move on to other things.

Again, a reminder: Those who wish to try negotiating around resort fees
and/or negotiating "special group rates", please do so without delay and
prepare to present your findings in early November. We will not be
holding up the hotel selection process over resort fee issues.
. . . . .

Early December: Test registration using ORG group. (That's YOU!) :)

There have been a few "flow" tweaks and additional error/sanity checks
added to the registration tools. We'll be sending out a test batch of
re-registration e-mails to you, the ORG group, in early December in
order to test the registration processes.
. . . . .

Mid December: Returnee re-registration opens.

This will be the main batch of re-registration e-mails. If history
repeats itself, a good percentage of our 2014 attendees will register
prior to the holidays this year.
. . . . .

Mid January: "Warm newcomer" registration opens.

This includes current mailing list members. This phase of registration
usually goes smoothly.
. . . . .

Mid February: General ("cold newcomer") registration opens.

This is the "open the flood gates" phase! :)
. . . . .

Early March: Activity sign-up begins.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE FOR MANY OF YOU!

This will be a hard-stop cut-off.

All activities which need any kind of a sign-up, reservation or
headcount need to be solid as of this time! Before the activity sign-up
e-mails go out, it's almost trivial to add new items to the sign-up
screen. After they go out, it's very close to impossible.

It's been shown that attempts to do a one-off manual sign-up for some
activity that is not final at the time the sign-up e-mails go out will
get a totally abysmal response!
. . . . .

March 26: Registration closes, LFM goes out. Sending this out on the
Wednesday prior to DLV gives us wiggle-room of a day or so in the event
of technical issues or last-minute hold-ups. After this mailing goes out,
our event essentially runs on autopilot.
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Those are some of the checkpoints and milestones which will be affected
by our earlier timeframe this coming year.
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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
Sunday, March 30 - Friday, April 4
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

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Received on Wed Oct 16 2013 - 06:27:02 CDT