Hotels and Convention rooms

Obviously, first up is the hotel. You need on average (as mentioned in the previous sections) at least two rooms for simultaneous functions*, a Con Suite, a Video Room (can be combined with Consuite), an Art Room if you are hosting an art show, a Dealer’s Room if you are having dealers (again, the latter can be combined if there is a room large enough to comfortably hold everything, “everything” preferably including Artists’ Alley), and a Main Meeting Room big enough to hold everyone for Opening/Closing Ceremonies, as well as the Masquerade (and Banquet, if you are having a Banquet in your hotel). Hotel rooms differ in cost, size, and set-up; sometimes you can get a single large room that is big enough for the O/C Ceremonies, but can be split by a pre-installed accordion divider, thus giving you the two rooms you need for your daily events.

* Comparison of Gathering Convention room sizes *

*the number of function rooms needed is dependant on number of attendees. The Gathering, which at least until 2004 has averaged about 150 attendees a year, gets by with three main function rooms. Many more attendees might mean more needed function rooms, otherwise you may simply not have enough space for everyone. Panel rooms can only fit so many people, after all.

You want your hotel to be nice, but five-star is not required. Fans tend to be more impressed by nice rooms for a low cost more than they are by, say, a champagne fountain in the lobby. There isn't anything wrong or embarassing about having your convention at a Holiday Inn, as long as it has the neccessary meeting space. Site is important, too- you want your hotel to be easily accessible by various forms of ground transportation. Having it be on route of local airport’s shuttle services is a plus.
Your attendees will likely spend a great deal of their time in the hotel during the con, but they will need to leave to eat and site-see. Having your hotel near your location’s prime attractions is a plus. It is nice to have a list of local eating establishments and their general price level listed in the con packets, as well as how to reach them and Any Other Local Things Of Interest. If there is a mini-golf course nearby, include it. Tourist attractions, museums, etc. For the Gathering, having a post-con trip to a nearby theme park has become a sort of tradition (Busch Gardens, Coney Island, etc) so if there is one nearby make use of it. If not, don’t sweat it.
If you are staff, don’t plan to attend this. By the time it rolls around you will likely be too exhausted to leave your bed.

Consuite:

Try to get an actual suite for this; big living room area with a door separating the bedroom. The bedroom is useful for people who need a moment of quiet, the con attendee who just fainted from heatstroke, holding RPG’s so as not to take up a whole con room for them, and again, having a couple staff members making personal use as their bedroom will save them that much cost. Whoever is in charge of the Consuite should be one of these, for obvious reasons.
The Consuite should be open 24 hours a day, for any attendee who would like access.
See the above section pertaining to the Con(suite) Host for more information on what a Consuite should entail.

A 1-bedroom Suite for Consuite (using Hotel Windsor, Philly, as an example) tends to run about $180 a night. The Suites at the 2005 Vegas hotel were $150 a night.

Function Rooms:

These are the medium-to-large sized rooms that you hold all panels and events in, as well as the Art and Dealer’s rooms.

Strike a deal for these. Strike the best one you can. Do your best to make the hotel staff accept your hours of need for the rooms- events have run past 2am before. You will probably need a Dealer’s Room, an Art Room, and at least two rooms for whatever panels and events you are holding. You will also need a large room for opening and closing ceremonies, and banquet/masquerade, and the radio play...if said room can be divided by an accordion wall into smaller rooms, you have your panel rooms right there. Hotel rooms tend to be rented by the day, but see what arrangements you can make. You do not want to be stuck with large room that is getting no use. Plan your time and space wisely.

Oh, and have whomever is doing your event planning take a good look at the hotel space, so they can be sure of the space limitations when organizing set-ups for the Dealer’s and Art room. This is more important than you may realize, as your room size DOES limit the number of Dealer’s tables / art panels you can fit, and thus will affect the budget. More dealers = more money, as well as more impressed con attendees. Provided you can get enough dealers to fill the space.

A medium-sized Function room usually costs about $250…per day. Keep in mind that you will not need any Function rooms on the last day of the con, except for the Art Room, and the big room for Closing Ceremonies that you likely did not use for the middle days of the con. (again, unless it had dividers.)

Larger sized function rooms- typically ballrooms- tend to run between $350 and $750, per day, hence why you should only get one for the days/times you absolutely need them.

Check your contract to see exactly what hours you are paying for; if it is in 24 hour blocks, you should have use of the Event Rooms during any point of those 24 hours, even 3 am. Best confirm this with the hotel regardless of what the find print says, to avoid a confrontation right before a panel or event is scheduled to start, especially if it is late at night liek the Blue Mug. (And you don't want to have the Blue Mug in the Consuite.)

Whomever is playing Consuite Host/ess is by default in charge of the video room as well. If your video room is the Con Suite, that much the better, although if you get a small room as part of a package deal for event rooms that you just can't find any other use for, you may want to consider making it a room solely for airing movies and TV episodes. If you don't want to combine the Con Suite and this room, just consider getting a regular hotel room or another suite as opposed to dedicating an event-sized room to it; it will be cheaper in a smaller room.

You will need somebody in this room at all times to make sure no one breaks or walks away with the Projection Equipment/TV/Computer Link-Up or the DVDs/Video Tapes/CDs of the media you are showing, as well as to change up the media when it finishes playing. Have a wide selection of media available, from both movies to TV episode to “Anime music videos” if you can manage. Most Gargoyles fans have already seen most episodes of Gargoyles, so while it may be useful to have a taped copy of the series left in the Con Suite for the few newbies who haven’t had that honor, Gargoyles eps are not necessarily needed to be shown in the video room. Apply this to your own fandom as you would.

In the case of the Gathering, other animated series/episodes that gargoyles talents have voice-acted in, or directed, are good choices. 3x3 Eyes, the Atlantis sequel, the dub of Princess Mononoke, Nazca, and the Roughnecks Chronicles are all prime examples.

Art Room and Dealer’s Room:

See the sections on staff positions of Heads for each of these rooms for the specifics on running them, and the section on Function rooms for the relative costs.

Registration:

You don't need a room, just table or two in a nice visible place near the entrance to the convention area (or in the hotel lobby) to set up and make yourself visible to pre-registrants and walk-in attendees alike.