drainedQ. Where are Dealers Room & Art Show, and major events?
A. At the Colorado Convention Center in the Exhibit Hall. Major events will be in the 5000-seat theatre.
Q. What sort of load-in access will there be?
A. That depends on what you're bringing in. No detailed answer about the loading dock.
Q. Union Rules?
A. IATSE has the tech and rigging contract, and our tech people will have to work within that. Colorado is a right-to-work state, and decorators can choose to use union or non-union labor. We'll do our best to make it easy on us.
Q. Do dealers need licenses, and do they need to collect sales tax?
A. Yes; there is an event-based license for sales tax, with a fee of $12-$16. Tax rate is around 7%.
Q. Are facility contracts signed?
A. To the extent that contracts are every final, yes?
Q. How many hotel rooms?
A. Rooms in the Hyatt: 250. Adams Mark: 183. The Grand Hyatt, the Westin, the Marriott, Crowne Plaza (175); Westin is the farthest away – about ¾ mile – although a free, frequent, handicapped shuttle covers most of that distance. Downtown Denver has been recently rebuilt, in the 1990s, and is flat.
Total rooms: 1593. Expected attendance: around 4000; 4500 optimistically.
Q. What are you planning to do to honor your guests?
A. [Waffle] We're still in the process of asking them what they want to do.
Q. Recent Worldcons have had mismatches of guests to programming size, with rooms too small. Will you prevent this?
A. To the extent possible, yes. Most of our rooms are actually too large.
Q. Recently, PR1 arrived – rather late. When is the next one?
A. Around the first of January; will include Hugo Nominating Ballot, Room Booking Form, WSFS Constitution; Masquerade Info.
Q. Any major new staff?
A. Jill Eastlake has agreed to run Masquerade.
Q. Any others?
A. Not at this time, but maybe by the end of SMOFCon. [Waffle] All of the Division Heads are here. [Division Heads stood up and were introduced.] They are talking to lots of people and you should talk to them.
Q. Information: Things are running late. What are you doing about this?
A. Working hard. [Waffle] We're trying to catch up. Adjusting to the two-year lead time has been somewhat challenging. We're not irretrievably late on any of the things we can do.
Q. I couldn't find a map of the facilities or of downtown on the web site?
A. Laurie Mann, webmaster, agreed that this needs fixing.
Q. Where will parties be?
A. The Adam's Mark, which will be a Sheraton
Q. How many, and how large, are the party suites?
A. Not enough, and not large enough. We're expecting to have some difficulty seating all parties where they want to be. Contact information about parties will be in next PR, and people need to get their requests in early. We're studying holding some parties in function space.
Q. With projected less than 4500 members, how will this affect your budget?
A. Budget shows that 4000 people will cover everything we need, but not everything we want. If more people register earlier, we can fund more of the things we want.
Q. Does budget include reimbursement for staff/participants/etc.?
A. No, that is not funded, but it's the first thing that would be funded out of a surplus.
Q. Current Dealer Status?
A. Dealer letters were sent November 21st. Applications rec'd by end of December will be in the "first pool."
Q. Major positions seem to be empty right now. What's going on with Programming.
A. [From Mary Morman] We don't intend on listing the individual members of our "Brain Trust," because we don't want them bugged. [Sounds of dismay from the audience.]
Q. There appear to be few people listed in Exhibits other than Art Show.
A. These are being filled in now, with Ian Stockdale getting active as the new Exhibits DH.
Q. Because of the lack of information, people fear that things will be tossed together at the last minute haphazardly. What can you do to allay these fears? What specific things are you doing?
A. Some specifics include a program track honoring the Ghost of Honor; a Bujold-themed dance; a technology of reading program track.
Q. What sort of Handicapped Services will you provide?
A. [Sally Worhrle] Recapped the usual sorts of assistance recent Worldcons have provided.
Q. How late will activities go in the Convention Center.
A. We have it until midnight; some things will be that late (Hugos, Masquerade); some functions and programming until 8:30 or so.
Q. How big is the major event space?
A. 5000 seat theatre. Sort of like Glasgow, but larger. Still not as much backstage as we might like. 3 rooms signs of Interaction large Green Room. Doorway to stage 12-14-feet high.
Q. What's open and available downtown at night?
A. Some until Midnight; a few until 2 AM.
Q. What's the corkage situation?
A. Large parties – like bid parties – will probably need to work through the hotel. [Patty Wells] There are a couple of good-sized function rooms in the basement with corkage waivers. One will be the Con Suite; another will be good for parties (2000 sq. ft.); we're negotiating for more if we can get it. It will probably be a bit difficult for bidders and big parties. [Sandra Childress] Would like to work directly with the party holders; more information in PR3 (not PR2; a wildfire got in the way).
Q. What will make D3 especially memorable?
A. Some of this mentioned earlier. Critter Crunch (Robot Wars) should be there at least one day. Several different types of dances planned. We have been discussing "Square Dance on Ganymede" as a Farmer in the Sky tribute.
Q. Anything else?
A. Membership rates go up January 1. We realize this may generate complaints because it wasn't announced in PR 1; however, it is on the web site. The web site will have the Hugo Ballot and Booking Form as well.
Late question for Denver asked after Anticipation.
Q. Move in
A. Monday-Tuesday; Opening Ceremonies Wednesday. Close Sunday 3 PM and move out that day only. No move-out day. Dates Wed Aug 6 to Sun Aug 10, 2007, which are Wednesday through Sunday.