Planning my first PAII conference! Lets get this party started!!!

[Copperhead]

I understand the frustration some are expressing here with regard to 1.) the complimentary internet connection at the Embassy Suites, and 2.) the fact that we’re not promoting or utilizing the Charleston-area B&Bs as a lodging option.

Let me explain some of the basics of planning a conference for 500-800 people. First, you should know that PAII is known as a “space hog” in the meeting planning business. This means that the amount of space we need for our educational sessions and trade show is A LOT compared to the number of sleeping room nights booked through our event. We have up to 8 or 9 workshops running simultaneously – so we need a lot of classrooms. We need a giant ballroom for general sessions. And we need enough space for 100 10x10 exhibit spaces. That’s a lot of space. The problem is that we have so many couples and people sharing rooms that the relative number of rooms we can commit to in a contract is low. Most large hotels that can accommodate our meeting will give us most of the meeting space for no charge or relatively small charge, if we commit to a certain critical mass of room nights, as well as a pretty large food and beverage minimum. In our case, our F&B minimum is usually $100,000 for the Innkeeping Show. We typically commit to a minimum of 1,300 total room nights spread over 4 or 5 nights.

If we were to promote staying at B&Bs (and there are at least 50 in the Charleston metropolitan area), we would have to reduce the minimum room block in our contract – and it would be a risky guessing game for us, because we have no idea how many attendees would actually stay at B&Bs. If we lowered our room block commitment, we might have to pay more for the meeting space or might be required to raise our F&B minimum. Well, actually, we WOULD have to - there's no question about it. If we agreed to that, we would have to charge higher fees to the attendees and risk having fewer people come due to increased costs.

Most attendees highly prefer staying at the host hotel, because all they have to do is ride the elevator down to the event. The Embassy Suites that is adjacent to the Charleston Area Convention Center is about 12 miles from downtown Charleston – anyone staying at a B&B in Charleston would have to have their own transportation and might have to deal with parking issues in downtown, depending on the B&B and what space they have on the property. (Before anyone gets upset that we’re not actually having the meeting in downtown Charleston, please know that there is no property in the historic area of Charleston that could accommodate a group our size, and we will be bussing everyone downtown one night for a big party at the Charleston Visitor’s Center on Meeting Street – so we will spend some time in the historic area). The rate we negotiated is $119 – far lower than we’ve historically negotiated at conferences. We did this because we wanted to be sure to keep costs as low as possible for attendees. This was a big reason we chose the Charleston Area Convention Center and Embassy Suties – the other modestly-priced cities we looked at east of the Mississippi were $30-60 higher per night. With complimentary internet and breakfast in the morning for $119, we were pretty pleased with this deal.
I’m asking my meeting planner about the “One complimentary wireless internet connection in guest rooms per day.” To me, that is confusing. If there is more than one laptop in a room, it doesn’t make sense to me that only one of them would be able to connect. I’m investigating this, because it seems like a strange policy. That’s one of the minor things we can probably still fix, even though we have a contract with them. We might just need to explain that we have a higher number of folks who share rooms than what they’re used to. I’ll try to update everyone soon.
So, while I appreciate the sentiment to patronize the Charleston-area B&Bs – trust me, I’m the biggest advocate for our industry - it’s just not practical. We do ask local innkeepers every year to offer our attendees special rates for folks who want to come early or stay late. It works out nicely, because our conference always ends on Thursday afternoon, and many of our attendees often stick around for the weekend to explore and enjoy a little extra time away.
We haven’t posted the prices yet, but the rack rate will be $489 per person. But, we will have a big 2-day sale on Aug 30-31 with $100 off for all registrants, and subsequent sales throughout the fall with more discounts, but not as big as $100 off. Mark your calendars now, but we will of course send reminders. The rate will include lunch each day, two receptions and a big Lowcountry feast in downtown Charleston. We’re providing more F&B than ever before..

Thanks for the info Jay...Especially for the rate info!

 

[Morticia]

I understand the frustration some are expressing here with regard to 1.) the complimentary internet connection at the Embassy Suites, and 2.) the fact that we’re not promoting or utilizing the Charleston-area B&Bs as a lodging option.

Let me explain some of the basics of planning a conference for 500-800 people. First, you should know that PAII is known as a “space hog” in the meeting planning business. This means that the amount of space we need for our educational sessions and trade show is A LOT compared to the number of sleeping room nights booked through our event. We have up to 8 or 9 workshops running simultaneously – so we need a lot of classrooms. We need a giant ballroom for general sessions. And we need enough space for 100 10x10 exhibit spaces. That’s a lot of space. The problem is that we have so many couples and people sharing rooms that the relative number of rooms we can commit to in a contract is low. Most large hotels that can accommodate our meeting will give us most of the meeting space for no charge or relatively small charge, if we commit to a certain critical mass of room nights, as well as a pretty large food and beverage minimum. In our case, our F&B minimum is usually $100,000 for the Innkeeping Show. We typically commit to a minimum of 1,300 total room nights spread over 4 or 5 nights.

If we were to promote staying at B&Bs (and there are at least 50 in the Charleston metropolitan area), we would have to reduce the minimum room block in our contract – and it would be a risky guessing game for us, because we have no idea how many attendees would actually stay at B&Bs. If we lowered our room block commitment, we might have to pay more for the meeting space or might be required to raise our F&B minimum. Well, actually, we WOULD have to - there's no question about it. If we agreed to that, we would have to charge higher fees to the attendees and risk having fewer people come due to increased costs.

Most attendees highly prefer staying at the host hotel, because all they have to do is ride the elevator down to the event. The Embassy Suites that is adjacent to the Charleston Area Convention Center is about 12 miles from downtown Charleston – anyone staying at a B&B in Charleston would have to have their own transportation and might have to deal with parking issues in downtown, depending on the B&B and what space they have on the property. (Before anyone gets upset that we’re not actually having the meeting in downtown Charleston, please know that there is no property in the historic area of Charleston that could accommodate a group our size, and we will be bussing everyone downtown one night for a big party at the Charleston Visitor’s Center on Meeting Street – so we will spend some time in the historic area). The rate we negotiated is $119 – far lower than we’ve historically negotiated at conferences. We did this because we wanted to be sure to keep costs as low as possible for attendees. This was a big reason we chose the Charleston Area Convention Center and Embassy Suties – the other modestly-priced cities we looked at east of the Mississippi were $30-60 higher per night. With complimentary internet and breakfast in the morning for $119, we were pretty pleased with this deal.
I’m asking my meeting planner about the “One complimentary wireless internet connection in guest rooms per day.” To me, that is confusing. If there is more than one laptop in a room, it doesn’t make sense to me that only one of them would be able to connect. I’m investigating this, because it seems like a strange policy. That’s one of the minor things we can probably still fix, even though we have a contract with them. We might just need to explain that we have a higher number of folks who share rooms than what they’re used to. I’ll try to update everyone soon.
So, while I appreciate the sentiment to patronize the Charleston-area B&Bs – trust me, I’m the biggest advocate for our industry - it’s just not practical. We do ask local innkeepers every year to offer our attendees special rates for folks who want to come early or stay late. It works out nicely, because our conference always ends on Thursday afternoon, and many of our attendees often stick around for the weekend to explore and enjoy a little extra time away.
We haven’t posted the prices yet, but the rack rate will be $489 per person. But, we will have a big 2-day sale on Aug 30-31 with $100 off for all registrants, and subsequent sales throughout the fall with more discounts, but not as big as $100 off. Mark your calendars now, but we will of course send reminders. The rate will include lunch each day, two receptions and a big Lowcountry feast in downtown Charleston. We’re providing more F&B than ever before..

Thanks for the info on the admission price for the 'event'. We see the 'critical mass' thing here all the time. We have one hotel that can host large events and we rarely get the 'overflow' but we do get all of those people who can no longer find rooms at the hotels.
We'll be staying in downtown because we love the city. The place we stay has off-street parking and the drive up Spruill Ave to North Charleston is not that bad.

 

[JBloggs]

Anyone with recommended lodging please post it here.
Thank you Jay, I completely understand the whole "conference" concept, I just thought, jeez let's give these Inns a push who are there. Dh attended and I.T. Conference and the hotel charged 9.99 for one time use of the high speed internet, so I thank you for letting us know in advance that this hotel is not offering free internet, and updates on if they will change that.

 

[jkarennj]

Anyone with recommended lodging please post it here.
Thank you Jay, I completely understand the whole "conference" concept, I just thought, jeez let's give these Inns a push who are there. Dh attended and I.T. Conference and the hotel charged 9.99 for one time use of the high speed internet, so I thank you for letting us know in advance that this hotel is not offering free internet, and updates on if they will change that..

Great to hear you understand the conference planning details - it's a tough science to get right and we take A LOT of risk, because PAII has to pay for any rooms that we fall short of our contractual minimum. And when members know this, they tend to want to support the association by staying at the hotel, rather than an off-site property.
Just to be clear - there is complimentary internet access for attendees staying at the Embassy Suites (or our overflow hotel across the parking lot, the Residence Inn). I'm not sure where you picked up in my message that the hotel is not offering free internet.
The question is - are they only providing one free passcode per room, because the language we used on the web site says "One complimentary wireless internet connection in guest rooms per day." My meeting planner said this a.m. that there is going to be free internet access for all people staying in guest rooms at the hotel. I asked her to please verify that with the hotel.

 

[JBloggs]

Yes the wording is iffy. Complimentary WI FI in guest rooms? That is not what it sounded like. Not even close to that. Maybe we can get the list of local McDee's and others with free wi fi 24/7. do'h.

 

[Morticia]

Anyone with recommended lodging please post it here.
Thank you Jay, I completely understand the whole "conference" concept, I just thought, jeez let's give these Inns a push who are there. Dh attended and I.T. Conference and the hotel charged 9.99 for one time use of the high speed internet, so I thank you for letting us know in advance that this hotel is not offering free internet, and updates on if they will change that..

Great to hear you understand the conference planning details - it's a tough science to get right and we take A LOT of risk, because PAII has to pay for any rooms that we fall short of our contractual minimum. And when members know this, they tend to want to support the association by staying at the hotel, rather than an off-site property.
Just to be clear - there is complimentary internet access for attendees staying at the Embassy Suites (or our overflow hotel across the parking lot, the Residence Inn). I'm not sure where you picked up in my message that the hotel is not offering free internet.
The question is - are they only providing one free passcode per room, because the language we used on the web site says "One complimentary wireless internet connection in guest rooms per day." My meeting planner said this a.m. that there is going to be free internet access for all people staying in guest rooms at the hotel. I asked her to please verify that with the hotel.
.

The wording made it sound like one log in per room/per day. Potentially that if you checked email in the morning and logged off the WiFi (or got bumped off as happens a lot at hotels) that your next log in would cost you. It's just how it sounds.
'Free WiFi all day in all PAII guestrooms and convention areas of the hotel' is what we're looking for. Essentially, we want to get what we all give.

 

[Sunshine]

I'll be leaving from St Louis MO. Knoxville TN looks like a good place to spend the night..

MTL, we'l be leaving from Boonville!!!

 

[Sunshine]

Where are you Samster?.

Georgia, but probably too far South for you. :-(
.

I LOVE Georgia, have always wanted to go there!!!!

 

[Sunshine]

OK, so if I read this correctly, Aug 30 and 31st you are offering a discount, So we should wait til then to register if we want this big discount? And it will reduce the cost to $389 per person?

 

[gillumhouse]

I just shot craps! Even with the discount $389 + travel puts it out of my league. I have to save that for the trip to Germany in May. Have fun, Folks. If I am enroute for anyone - you are welcome to "motel" stop as my guest which means the rate is Thank you so there is no misunderstanding.

 

[JBloggs]

Remember folks you can write this off for your business.

 

[MTLLodge]

Great Sunshine, we'll meet up and have us a convoy! breaker breaker good buddy.

 

[gillumhouse]

Remember folks you can write this off for your business..

Although it IS a deduction, I DO have to come up with the cash (trying to dig out of the cc grave) and with the trip of a lifetime for me coming in May.... The cost of registration equals what I hope to have for spending money for Germany.

 

[JBloggs]

I just wanted any one who was hesitating to remember that it is for business purposes. We are just a very friendly touristic business.

 

[egoodell]

We are about 10 hours from Charleston, and we will most likely go to the conference. Anybody travelling along the Northeast corridor is welcome to stop by and caravan with us..

We are planning on going as well. If anyone is along the way and we are not booked they are welcome to make a stopover here in Charlottesville. We are 45 minutes west of Richmond, on the way to 95.
RIki

 

[JBloggs]

http://www.charlestonwatertaxi.com/
If the weather is nice. Two years ago we were in Charleston that same week and it was 75 and gorgeous. Dolphins all over the place.

 

[greyswan]

And we're 35 miles west of I-85 in southern virginia.... we're another stopping off place, too! Not sure if we're going.

 

[Emily Spiers]

I'll be heading down with my dad from Ohio. We'll probably take I-77 south.

 

[Emily Spiers]

Resurecting this thread:
Update on the conference page:
[h4]Embassy Suites Offers:[/h4]

• Complimentary made to order breakfast daily for overnight guests
• Complimentary self parking for overnight guests
• Complimentary airport shuttle for overnight guests
• Complimentary wireless internet in guest rooms

No more mention of it being one connection.

 

[JBloggs]

Thanks Em.