In this mailing:
Org List
Things in the near future
New attendees and their return rate
Voice coaching
Thoughts on name tags
Transportation, lunch and locations
Administrivia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Org List:
This is the DLV 2017 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.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Things in the near future:
The holidays will soon be upon us.
We are now about five months out from the big event.
Next week we'll seed the schedule with the recurring activities and the
other activities which are somewhat solid. We'll also open the
discussion on overall daytime and evening strategies for the week.
This week we're opening another topic of discussion, that being new
attendee introduction and assimilation.
. . . . . . . . . .
Last call for objections in naming Flamingo, Paris, and Four Queens as
our suggested hotels for DLV 2017. These will be posted on the web site
on or about November 8 unless objections are raised by then.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
New attendees and their return rate:
Annie writes:
Circling back to our discussion on ages and related topics, the
conclusion I was hearing from that discussion was that the topic of age,
in and of itself, is not a major concern. (If anyone disagrees, please
say so, as in now!) The concern I was hearing appeared to be more along
the line of the overall strength of the attendee base as a whole,
regardless of age.
The specific concern that I was hearing was that our attendee base is
vulnerable to a decrease in numbers as the existing attendees age and
the need (demand) for TG events decreases.
We do not appear to be having any significant difficulty attracting new
attendees to our event. Where I think we could do much better, however,
is in the area of turning those first-time attendees into regular
attendees!
There's quite a bit of variance, but over the past several years, the
percentage of new attendees for any given recent year who eventually
return is around 49% on average. Here's the way this looks for the
first-time attendees of the years 2010 through 2014:
2014: 13/29 (45%)
2013: 15/30 (50%)
2012: 11/28 (39%)
2011: 18/35 (51%)
2010: 18/31 (58%)
I think one of our best opportunities for keeping our event viable is to
do what we can to improve on the return rate.
Anyone in business will tell you that it's better for the bottom line to
keep an existing customer than it is to seek a new one. I believe much
of this is true for our event as well. The majority of new attendees in
recent years (it's close, but still a majority) have never returned. If
there's any way we could boost this figure by 10-20%, I think we could
do a better job of growing the event and keeping our numbers stable.
As I was first thinking about this and doodling with the numbers, the
following note appeared in the general DLV email:
+I could be a first timer to your gathering!
+In reading through the site, my only fear is the "clique" and not
+be included possibility.
+I have been "out in public" on a few occasions but my reasons for
+attendance would be to meet and socialize with new friends. Staying
+at various hotels and having no central meeting place makes me
+curious as to how one will connect up with the other girls.
+Please help me with some additional information.
I responded that we do have a newcomer session, and will probably be
expanding on it this year, as well as some detail on how many people
stay where and how rides are arranged and shared and such. However, I
realized very quickly that in the case of this potential attendee, as it
is with countless new attendees, if she is welcomed and is assimilated
into the fold, she will probably be a regular recurring attendee, but if
she feels like an outsider, she's a one-and-out like a significant
percentage of our new attendees each year.
We've tried doing such things as reserving spaces at tables for newbees,
which really was not effective, IMAO. We had a contest with a
significant prize for the returnee voted as "most welcoming and
inclusive" by the newcomers but that costs real money and is only good
for a one-shot unless some kind of a major sugar-mommy appears out of
the blue.
To give an example of something that I think may help us (and we really
do need feedback on this!) I'll reflect on a (non-TG) event I attended
this summer. This was a yearly gathering of a club I've belonged to for
some time, but whose events I have never attended because of my personal
schedule.
On the second evening of the event, they had a "First-Timer Reception"
and yes, as a first-timer, I attended. They did a very good job of
welcoming the new people!
In the room this was held, a fairly formal receiving line was in place
at the entrance. (Yeah, shades of Junior Cotillion!) This consisted of
the officers of the club, the President of the affiliated corporation,
and some of the volunteers who put the event together.
Scattered around the room were various old-timers and volunteers who
would actively reach out to those falling off of the trailing end of the
receiving line and introduce themselves, do some small talk, etc. I'm
very sure this was planned to be that way.
Of course there was the cash bar! :) :)
After about 1/2 hour or so they opened the room up to the general
membership as well and the whole thing became a very happy happy hour.
One thing I most definitely noticed was that there were (I assume quite
intentionally) not nearly enough seats for everyone. There were maybe
three or so 4-tops scattered about as well as a number of stand-up
tables with a few stools.
Now the big burning question is: Would something like this (a more
formalized new attendee reception) be workable for our event?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Voice coaching:
Cami writes:
I think voice lessons would be great but my senses is that we would have
to pay for someone to come. And I don't really have any direct contact
but I could certainly do some research. Let me see what I can find out.
. . . . . . . . . .
Sue writes:
I might be the one that you remember bringing up a voice class. I had
run it past Kathe Perez about it being possible. When I wrote here on
the org list, I got a couple of negative responses about this not
fitting the vacation model and no positive responses, so I dropped it.
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Yes, Sue, it was you who brought this up a few years ago. I don't recall
any push-back on the idea, just some brief discussion and no further
action on the part of any of us. We do still have the name and the
contact info.
In addition, I may also have a contact along this line, more of a
clinically-trained speech pathologist who works in this field.
Personally, I don't think this is going any further out of our "vacation
not convention" model than any of our many vendor activities, which have
been happening since the very early days of DLV.
What I would like to do is to pose the question to the Teeming Millions
in the Discussion Forum in order to try to gauge the demand for such a
thing. This is one item which will probably cost real money, so I think
we need to do an assessment of need prior to moving forward.
Any comments on this? :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thoughts on name tags:
Aleta writes:
Could we have a paperless name tag option, I'll keep a QR code on my
phone. Perhaps like my Amtrak e-ticket?
. . . . . . . . . .
Annie responds:
Let's (re)open this for discussion.
"Do we need (or want) name tags?" has become a recurring question and in
each previous iteration the (passive) conclusion has been along the line
that yes, they are a Good Thing and in our case they primarily serve the
purpose of easy name recognition.
Our survey responses usually show that a majority or close to a majority
of the respondees found the name tags to be helpful for just that.
With our event model, we really do not have the need for strict access
control or proof of payment of a registration fee.
Such a thing as an Amtrak E-ticket or a Southwest mobile boarding pass
would be good for access control or payment verification, but those
things really do not meet the need of familiar name recognition.
Our name tags facilitate familiarity and, although they are a pain to
produce and distribute, I think they do a good job.
One thing I've looked into are electronic name tags. Some events use
these and in some cases they become quite the conversation piece. The
simpler ones are static, kind of like the electronic price tags that
some shops are now using. (If you don't really pay attention, you don't
know it's an electronic display and not a printed tag.) Others are more
elaborate, with multiple colors and things such as a "crawl" saying
something like "Hi, I'm Jennifer and I'm from Allentown and this is my
second year here" and such.
I have not been able to find vendors of smaller (as in less than 500 or
so) quantities of any of these and in those quantities, the price for
the ones that are basically an electronic price tag on a lanyard are
$4-5 or so and the fancier ones are $10-ish and up per unit. Obviously
these are out of our price range for now.
As of now I do not see any practical alternative to the printed paper
name tag. We've tried these without the pre-printing, meaning hand
written by either the attendee or the registrar, and it' very obvious
that the pre-printed ones look nicer, are easier to read, and offer more
effective name recognition.
If anyone can think of any other way to accomplish this level of name
recognition without the paper tag, please let it be known.
One thing that has worked reasonably well is to have the QR codes on the
back of the tags. This gives an easy one-click to the Attendee
Information Portal, plus, assuming we go with this again for 2017, it
will allow us to do a quicker check-in which is less prone to human
error by simply scanning the tag(s) at check-in which will then mark the
attendees as present and accounted for.
I think that Vera and Dennis have done a bang-up job producing the tags
for the last few years! I hope they are willing to produce them this
year as well. What I do think we need to do is to give them some relief
in the way of helping them distribute them and not require them to
schlep them all over the place! They need to be able to enjoy the event
as well! :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transportation, lunch and locations:
Aleta writes:
> +Please keep the lunch down in price and central locations.
A central location is important, we need to keep the options open.
> If there is ever a requested mandate, this is it! Of course it's up to
> those coordinating the lunches to call the tune, but reasonable pricing
> and convenient locations are what the Teeming Millions are shouting out
> for.
I am in agreement here. I think a good lunch can and should be
inexpensive. I've become strongly in favor of food court options, in the
pattern of the lunch at the Fashion Show Mall.
There are several of these, one of my favorites is the Fulton Street
Food Hall at Harrah's. The quick serve system allows guests to settle
their own bills and choose where they want to sit. Personally I'm not
into doing regular sit down service anymore. I feel it time to try
something new.
> +Organize car pool-match drivers and riders, share cab or uber to
Uber and Lyft are shareable
https://help.uber.com/h/2ccba301-152e-4747-b207-e4281a1a2ba5
https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/213582428-How-to-Split-Payment-Betwee
n-Passengers
Of course with any sharing venture there needs to be coordination and
agreement. Some may not have the technology, others may not have the
payment form, small bills? Hopefully there is room for random acts of
kindness, and also not taking advantage of others.
Keep in mind that taxi cab riders are subject to a $3 charge for using a
credit card. Some taxis do not accept credit cards.
Here is a PDF file of relevant information
http://taxi.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/taxinvgov/content/Rider_Info/TriFoldwebsite.pdf
> +We also need to recommend transportation by Uber and Lyft it was
I use Uber and Lyft several times a week here at home and also in many
of the cities I visited over the summer. I find these services from both
companies to be of great utility for me. During DLV 2016 I think I took
sixteen rides on these services, made it easy getting to and from my
house, especially for those afternoon naps and late nights.
> Does anyone have any ideas on anything we can be doing to help out with
> transportation?
RTC Transit, our public transportation service, yes I use it, and often.
Yes there's an app for that.
Yes, I use it.
> Years ago we had more of an organized ride share thing, which worked
> well for a while but broke down as our headcount kept creeping up.
Now that we have Uber/Lyft, things don't have to be so formalized.
> +Being new to Diva, I did feel that there were a lot of groups already
> +formed and it is hard to meet new people. People were friendly to me
> +but most went back to their group. Not complaining because I
> +understand people are comfortable with people they already know.
It's an unfortunate fact of human nature, don't be afraid to seize the day,
and own it.
> The two "car" activities both scored above 4 on the enjoyment scale.
>
> All? Is this something that you think our people would be interested in?
>
> Comments please. :)
I am very concerned about this off the beaten track location. Yes there is
public transportation to it, but infrequent especially on evenings and
weekends.
http://www.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/uploads/routes/2015/11/217.pdf
Yes Uber and Lyft would work. But I have a good friend who does not have a
smartphone. This could be a deal breaker for her.
. . . . . . . . . .
Thanks, Aleta.
Question to you and to all, would it be practical to do some kind of a
more organized group transportation thing using Uber/Lyft? Comments on
this please.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Administrivia:
This is the Diva Las Vegas 2017 organizational list.
One address for all items regarding this list, additions, removals,
changes, submissions, questions, etc.:
dlvorg_at_divalas.vegas <--- NOTE: New address, all lower case
Diva Las Vegas 2017
March 26 - 31, 2017 (tentative)
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Archives of this list appear on the web at:
http://www.geekbabe.com/annie/org17arc/
Org Chat Forum is on line here:
http://www.geekbabe.com/dlv/mydlv/mainforum/viewforum.php?f=17
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_at_divalas.vegas
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Received on Wed Nov 02 2016 - 05:46:05 CDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Wed Apr 12 2017 - 05:46:49 CDT