This is the same argument that is proposed every time this topic is
broached. COMMON is larger than all the other local user group conferences,
and needs to find a space that fits all their sessions, attendees, vendors
and staff. The choices are always questioned by people who think they know
better, but post-conference, the complaints about the location are usually
limited to walking distances at the conference. And even that fades in a
week or two. COMMON, IMO, does a great job of finding their conference
locations.
COMMON offers excellent value for the money you spend in total. Looking at
the room rate and deciding on a conference based on that is probably not a
good business decision. Besides, attendance does not ever seem to be
impacted by the room rate for a conference location.
For individuals who pay their own way, it makes a huge difference, of
course. For those people who come to make contacts and sell their services,
it is a great investment - they keep coming back! For those people who pay
their own way, some volunteer, some speak and that all helps.
There is no easy way to please everyone, and the people most impacted seem
to be the lone contractors. They tend to be the noisiest, anyway.
However you look at it, COMMON is a great deal - regardless of room rate.
On 8/23/07 10:59 AM, "Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't care where it is or what hotel it's in, $199 per night is
ridiculous! If COMMON can't do any better than that, it will probably
hurt their registration numbers. By the time you add everything up, I'm
not sure COMMON is really that good of a deal any more with these kinds of
charges.
Thank you,
Ronald L. Zimmerman
midrange.com
