ConGlomeration needs your help.
As you may have heard, ConGlomeration is changing host hotels for our 2011 convention. By popular demand, we are returning to the lands of RiverCons past -- the Crowne Plaza Hotel, formerly known as the Executive West. You told us (loudly and often) the old digs just weren’t cutting it, so we’ve upgraded in a serious way.
Now we need you to do your part and support the new hotel. We need you to book room-nights at the Crowne Plaza for the 2011 convention and we need you to credit the convention when you make your reservation. The future of ConGlomeration depends on it.
The new venue will cost us significantly more than the old hotel. Despite this added expense, we have refused to raise our membership rates. However, if we book enough credited room nights -- which means using our private booking portal and our discounted room rate -- the Crowne Plaza will lower the cost of our rented convention space. The more credited room-nights our members reserve, the lower our rental costs. Book enough credited room-nights and the convention’s rental costs might just be comparable to the old location. Book too few room nights and the cost of the convention space spirals perilously upwards.
If we fail to collectively book enough credited room-nights, ConGlomeration 2011 may be the last ConGlomeration for the foreseeable future.
Despite many rumors and assumptions, ConGlomeration doesn’t have much in the way of operating capital and almost all of what we do earn from membership admissions goes toward paying for the current year’s convention. We earn just enough extra cash each year to mail out our flyers, maintain our PO box, and place a deposit on the next year’s convention venue. These funds are the bare-minimum needed to jumpstart the convention each year; we can’t stage the con without them.
At present, ConGlomeration can cover the worst-case cost of the Crowne Plaza convention space with our meager cash on hand but it would likely leave us without the seed funds to stage the convention next year.
The future of ConGlomeration depends on credited room-nights at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. That means booking through our portal on the hotel website -- not booking through an online travel service like Orbitz, Priceline or Travelocity. If you prefer to reserve your room by phone, please do so at (888) 233-9527, mention ConGlomeration specifically to the booking agent and request our discounted rate. We know times are tight -- and that the new hotel will cost about $13 more per night than the old one -- but we hope you’ll agree the major upgrade in facilities is worth the minor bump up in cost.
If you have any questions, contact us at committee@conglomeration.info. We’re here to help.
Our members promised to support a better hotel. We took you at your word and booked the the venue the membership specifically asked for. We gambled, and we bet on our members to come through. We know you won’t let us down.
See you at ConGlomeration 2011, and save a spot at the room party for us!
Sincerely,
The ConGlomeration 2011 Organizing Committee
Sean Reck, Chairman
