1 - wireless - I may come off a bit rude, but who cares? Really? Do you really need to have wireless access at the bar? In the restaurant? Pool? Come on! Think about all the self-absorbed assholes that will be sitting in the restaurant with their laptops on the table surfing & chatting away with their friends. I can see maybe needing it in a seminar - that one could be valid. But I doubt very heavily that I'll be walking around the lobby surfing uncomfortably in a chair when I can walk a couple 100 feet to an elevator, go up to my room, sit at a desk & plug myself into the network that I'm already paying for thru the hotel.
2 - seminars - have you guys considered that by giving free access to the seminars, that the show floor itself might become even less popular?
3 - food - breakfast & lunch for 3 days for 5000 people? I don't even dare ask what's on the menu - LOL (enjoy the cereal & soup)
4 - hotel - it was supposedly closed to just us the last 3 years. So now we have to pay a little bit more to actually have this happen?
5 - mailing the badges - best fucking idea yet!
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You know what our problem is? We're too educated. Joe Blow contractor that goes to a convention in Cleveland on lumber & home building has no idea who's running the show, if the Home Depot party that he's enjoying at the hotel is endorsed by the convention or if the Lowes party down the street at a bar isn't endorsed. He doesn't know that sponsors can pay to sponsor the badge, the banners in the lobby, the pool, the seminar, meeting rooms, etc. Nor does he care. But if you told him that this year, you were going to charge him 2 times as much as you did last year & he was gonna get basically the same convention as he did last year (with more sponsor banners floating around, but free cereal) he'd probably decide to stay home with the wife & kids.
It just seems like AVN is trying to recover lost revenue by raising the price of the badge & thus screwing the everyday Joe Blow webmaster.
I'm gonna stay home with the wife & kids & save myself $2500.