Signing up for Internext

[RawAlex]

Emmanuelle, that is why we lie through out teeth. I trust AVN about as far as I can comfortable spit a rat, disabling the barcode scanner thing on badges is a MUST DO when you get to the shows. There is nothing good going to come to your mail through this system.

Aly: Simple suggestion: can you at least allow us to provide a difference address for mailings and stuff? Using the address on the credit card for a bunch of people means stuff going to their home by mail, where their kids and such might see it before they get a chance to filter out the porn stuff.

The $16 is a "resort" fee that includes shuttle bus and other "resort" things... the internet (wired) in the rooms is included in that. Last year I bought a wireless unit and used it myself.

What AVN seems to be suggesting is that they will make sure that there is wireless access throughout the whole hotel area, likely out by the pool, in the lobby area, bars, eateries, etc.

As for trapped, I think not. Walk out the door, hop in a taxi, and say "Take me to" and name somewhere to eat. You are only trapped because you let yourself be trapped. Buying $15-$20 hamburgers isn't anybodies idea of fair pricing, so don't eat there.

There is also a nice depanneur (I love quebec) about 1 block south, you can go get your snacks and stuff down there, rather than paying hotel prices for it.

There are options, you just have to have the desire to apply them.

Alex

[emmanuelle]

Options are good, but after dropping several thousand dollars on flights and accomodations for our group, I don't want to eat at the 7-11.

We got smart last year and picked up a $15 blender at Walgreens, and $100 of liquor/mix which sustained 4 of us for several days

[Cleo]

Without a car there is not a lot around the hotel and cabs get real expensive real fast.

The hotel was built there because it was relatively cheap to build it there since it was, still is, kind of a run down part of town stuck halfway between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Really the only thing good about that part of town is the Diplomat Hotel.

[RawAlex]

Emm: I am not suggesting you eat dinner at the 7-11... but for soft drinks, bottled water, etc, it's a great way to save a TON of money over what the hotel would charge you.

Cleo, I agree you have to go a little bit to find food, but 4 people in a taxi for $40 round trip isn't bad when compared with $20 club sandwiches.

Yes, it's a tourist trap, yes it sucks... but that's where the show is, love it or leave it.

Alex

[Torn Rose]

Alex, my first Internext in Miami we was refused a ride from a cabbie parked outside the westin since it “wasn’t far enough for his time”, which started a huge fight with the westin staff and the fallowing night Toni and I, Brett/Sammy and Emma spent well over 2.5 HOURS in a cab for a 15 min ride and I am not exaggerating one bit, so I agree with being "stuck there" when the cabbies have no clue on how to fallow directions even when I buy him a map.

And I have been in many cabs/limos with MANY MANY people over the last 5 years where it would only be a few bucks per person and ended up having to pay 1/4 to 1/2 of a $60 - $70 the fare since people can not be trusted.

I will have a car **IF** I go, but for people who do not have a car I strongly suggest stay the hell away from the cabbies down there, they have zero clue what they are doing.

[emmanuelle]

Oh what a night!

Put a well stocked cooler in your trunk, hand over a kickback to the doorman, and you can be our chauffeur all weekend long :-)

[RawAlex]

I have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to go to this show. It's lost. The hotel is too expensive, the cab rides are from hell, and I will have to buy chips at the hotel for $5 for a short can of pringles.

It's a lost cause.

Alex

[Cleo]

On the plus side Florida has heat, humidity, mosquitoes and hurricanes but no earthquakes.

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by Aly

Badge Cost:

Alex also covered this perfectly on GFY. The badge cost is $250 with early registration. That's a lot more than it was last year. Last year, the trade show itself was the revenue source... that's why people had to exhibit in order to throw 'official' events, otherwise, they would have been 'leeching' off the event. But lots of people wanted to be involved and have events and so on without having a booth, so that requirement was removed. That does, however, amount to a serious loss in revenue (including that necessary to cover basic costs) for the show. So, to even this all out, attendance in any way now has a flat fee. That fee covers entry to all events, including exhibits and seminars and so on. And, yes, the nice folks at Internext are also having wireless access added to the entire event.

This part is just really irking me to no end. What does Joe Blow webmaster get for the increased price? And don't say the seminars, because, for me anyway, I probably wouldn't have gone to them if they were free LAST year.

[SirMoby]

Is it just me or is ther eno information about the show like registration prices and cost of rooms?

[Tev]

If I can help it, I am most definitely not going to FL this year. Too damn hot and humid, but ya never know.

UW, if your goal for a show is to meet and talk with webmasters one of the conferences is a better way to go than a trade show. A lot more people attend the trade shows usually up to and including surfers so if is harder to hook up with people or get to spend time with them.

I agree about the AVN shows shrinking, and that comes from companies not getting a good ROI on exhibiting, AVN should start to look at what they can return to the exhibitors to make it worth their while rather than pass the cost onto the attendees, but that is just my opinion.

My real biggest complaint ever with the AVN shows have been the time it takes to get badges. I stood inline for almost 3 hours just to get my badge at the Vegas show this year, I almost said fuck it and just left, but people I wanted to talk with were on the floor so I waited to get the badge.

[Aly]

Here are some of the key features and benefits the Summer Internext Conference has added since last year:

- They've paid the hotel a lump sum for wireless Internet access to be turned on in every possible corner of the property. Meeting space, the exhibit hall, seminar rooms, the lobby, restaurants, swimming pool....etc. This allows for all attendees to do get online freely.

- They're building up the Seminar program so that it is on par with what is now done at the Vegas show. Typically the summer event has only had 6 or 7 seminars. This year there will be a full seminar program, designed to deliver the same educational value that people have come to expect from the larger Winter event.

- They will be providing complimentary Breakfast (in the Feature Pavilion/Exhibit Hall foyer) and Lunch outside the seminar room.

- They are shutting down the entire Diplomat Resort for Internext. Other than the convention center lobby (registration area), no one will set foot on hotel property without a badge. This is a tremendous benefit to all show participants. This is an exclusive Industry event. Only those individuals who are looking to do business will be there.

- As requested, they are mailing badges out prior to the event to all pre-registered show goers. This will cut down the wait time on-site.

Overall this event is about ACCESS.
Participants pay for a badge that grants them access to the market they want to reach – the people they want to do business with, access to the seminars, access to parties, access to do business without restriction anywhere and anytime. The point is, once you get the badge - the entire resort property becomes your business forum. You are paying for access and Internext is creating the optimal atmosphere conducive to your business needs.

- There are also other networking events currently being designed to offer additional benefits to all attendees.

|cool|

[Greenguy]

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!

****

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.

[Chop Smith]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

I'm gonna stay home with the wife & kids & save myself $2500.

Is that your final answer?

[emmanuelle]

[quote=Greenguy]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.
QUOTE]



I'm sure that the people who do buy booths will appreciate not having to pay hundreds of dollars to have net connections on the floor.....

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Aly

- They're building up the Seminar program so that it is on par with what is now done at the Vegas show. Typically the summer event has only had 6 or 7 seminars. This year there will be a full seminar program, designed to deliver the same educational value that people have come to expect from the larger Winter event.

Aly, I don't know you, but it's obvious that others here have a certain level of respect for you, so forgive my undying attacks is they seem rude. (My bad, I've lived in a cave for quite some time.) But you can't really tell me that the same individuals who penned that demographic questionnaire are going to be able to educate us. They simply don't know us.

It has just occurred to me (forgive me, I'm a slow thinker) that AVN never really considered the webmaster to be within their demographic. The show is completely designed for, and about, sponsors. It's their tradeshow, not ours. I guess I have no point in arguing on. Damn.

PS.- Hi Tev! Long time, no see.

[Cleo]

I seem to remember paying $20 a day for wired high speed in my room. I like the idea of free WiFi everywhere.

I don't care about the seminars as I never go to them anyway.

Probably won't eat the free food.

I live here so if I do go, I'm really thinking of skipping it, I won't stay at the hotel. Last one I paid for a room for three days and never even slept in it.

[Aly]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

Aly, I don't know you, but it's obvious that others here have a certain level of respect for you, so forgive my undying attacks is they seem rude. (My bad, I've lived in a cave for quite some time.) But you can't really tell me that the same individuals who penned that demographic questionnaire are going to be able to educate us. They simply don't know us.

It has just occurred to me (forgive me, I'm a slow thinker) that AVN never really considered the webmaster to be within their demographic. The show is completely designed for, and about, sponsors. It's their tradeshow, not ours. I guess I have no point in arguing on. Damn.

PS.- Hi Tev! Long time, no see.

Good lord! ... We're about to agree about something..!

You're right, the Internext staff are NOT in a position to design the seminar schedule etc...

...I'm designing it along with AVN Online's new editor and three experienced, intelligent members of the industry who have nothing to do with AVN or Internext directly. (And I have no idea if they plan to sponsor or advertise... that's irrelevent to the choice.)

Great point! Thanks!

[RawAlex]

Aly, are we correct in saying the "resort" fee will disappear because (a) nobody in our group will take the shuttle bus to the other building, and (b) internet is now free everywhere?

take that $16-$20 off the room rate, and I think more of us would be happy to handle an increase in the badge costs. But if we are still paying for what we are getting for "free", then you have just found a way to double charge us.

Alex

[SirMoby]

Hmmm......

Maybe reserving a block of rooms in Buffalo or Chicago that weekend might make for a better venue I'd much rather do that then spend $250 to enjoy the beer that a sponsor is playing for.

[Aly]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Aly, are we correct in saying the "resort" fee will disappear because (a) nobody in our group will take the shuttle bus to the other building, and (b) internet is now free everywhere?

take that $16-$20 off the room rate, and I think more of us would be happy to handle an increase in the badge costs. But if we are still paying for what we are getting for "free", then you have just found a way to double charge us.

Alex

Darling, I don't think a resort fee gives you free internet access. I recall paying daily for it last year whenever I logged in. That would no longer be necessary. As far as other hotel fees and charges go, Internext really has nothing to do with those and doesn't actually make any money off any hotel charges at all. (which seems like a lost opportunity to me frankly... but I digress!)

[Aly]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Aly, are we correct in saying the "resort" fee will disappear because (a) nobody in our group will take the shuttle bus to the other building, and (b) internet is now free everywhere?

take that $16-$20 off the room rate, and I think more of us would be happy to handle an increase in the badge costs. But if we are still paying for what we are getting for "free", then you have just found a way to double charge us.

Alex

OKAY.. sorry for the delay in answering. Renee contacted the hotel managers for me to clarify exactly what this 'Resort Fee' is (it's a new thing)....

You're right in that it does include internet access in each bedroom, (Internext has set it up so that all the rest of the property is wireless) but it also covers:

- Access to the Health club/Gym
- Free local calls
- Free long distance calls within the continental U.S. (up to one hour per
call)

[Cleo]

This is why I was getting confused. Last year we had to pay extra for internet and this year it is included in the resort fee so I have to get it.

[Aly]

Originally Posted by Cleo

This is why I was getting confused. Last year we had to pay extra for internet and this year it is included in the resort fee so I have to get it.

Yes, it confused me too!

The thing is, this is a change the hotel made at some point in the past year; it's not something that the Internext crew implemented, so I can't make the hotel not charge that.

What Internext is setting up is wireless across the entire hotel though, so at least you're not limited to your room if you need to get online.

[RawAlex]

It's funny as heck to pay for something in the room that will be free in the hallway.

Ahh well.

Alex