Each year, a contract must be negotiated with a facility at which the con will take place. This has been, historically, at a hotel as so much of the event happens late and so many of our attendees reserve hotel rooms. The Hotel liaison's responsibility is to take care of said contract and ensure that both parties are satisfied; but that both parties honor their end of the agreement. It is a thankless job, but it has benefits. There is a lot of yelling involved.

During the convention, he/she is the first point of contact between con attendees, staff members, concom and the hotel, ensuring that any issues that might arise are taken care of to the satisfaction of all involved parties. The Hotel Liaison arranges attendee room blocks, a quiet floor, and a room party block before the convention, and deals with reservation problems and facility snafus during the convention.

This year, we are at the Regency Hyatt Dearborn.

• Dealer's Room
  • Pricing on security for the overnight
• Panel Space
  • Verify end times for Dearborn ballroom
• ConSuite
  • Broom, dustpan & vacuum in room
• Green Room
  • Private dining area, perhaps?
• Misc
  • Signs in lobby ('Penguicon' banner, etc)
  • Fire performers outside

Will be posted when we start putting it together

Room Layouts [Visio Drawing] (revision r120131.01, 31 Jan)

• Visio 2007
• Contains only Springwells, Grand Foyer, and a sheet of 'furniture'

(revision r120131.01, 31 Jan)

• Rounds plus 6'x18” tables for gaming library
• Only banquet rounds or 6'x18” available

(revision r120131.01, 31 Jan)

• 6'x30” tables used in drawing
  • These tables are in limited supply…need to know where they can be eliminated entirely
  • Also, where can they be replace by paired 6'x18” tables
• Current layout allows for:
  • 6'+ aisles
  • 3' between vendors
  • 3-5' between tables and walls
  • Obviously, this all might be wrong/need tweaking

• 4th Floor North Suite
  • 401 & 403
• Open Fri - Sun
  • Open for GoH Dinner/etc Thu
  • Open for Dead Dog Sun
• Cleaning fee $100/day
  • $400 total

Nothing currently planned…perhaps arrange for a private dining area for the GoHs

• ConSuite Storage
  • 8 rn
    • 2 rm * 4 nights
    • Comped
  • Near Consuite (402 & 404)
• Volunteer
  • 6 rn
    • 1 rm * 2 nights
      • Fri - Sun
    • 1 rm * 4 nights
      • Thu - Mon
  • Party block
• Last year's Volunteer Hours winner
  • 2 rn
  • Find out who the winner was?
• ConCom Rooms
  • 32 rn
    • 8 rm * 5 nights
  • Paid back to con by individual members
• GoH Rooms
  • 20 rn
    • 5 rm * 4 nights
  • Quiet area

• Food Track
  • Perhaps in side-suite of ConSuite?
  • Otherwise its own suite
• All others purchased directly through hotel
  • Suite-owners wishing to throw a party must coordinate with Room Parties and Hotel Liaison

This is essentially how the various aspects of the job get done, as best as I can describe it.

Because we generally put ourselves in hotels that we book entirely, I have found it in our best interest to manually assign each and every room prior to the convention. This is, essentially, the hierarchy I use. This same order is used for determining who gets ALL limited quantity hotel items, from roll-offs to fridges to whatever else.

1. Convention-Owned Rooms in the following order
   1. Con function rooms (green rooms, function space, broadcasting booth, etc)
   2. Guest of Honor rooms
   3. Any other rooms the con owns for whatever reason
2. Staff and Nifties
   1. Staff
   2. Nifties
3. Fringe Cases
   1. Anything out of the ordinary I need to accommodate (handicap accessibility, specific room required, etc)
4. Special Requests
   1. All special requests handed in by various departments
   2. All folks that submitted special requests (such as noise preference) to the hotel liaison on the web form on a first-submitted, first served basis
5. ConCom members
6. General Population
   1. Everyone else, on a first-reserved, first served basis. When possible, the requests they made through the hotel are fulfilled (such as single or double, or floor preference) but near the end, those pickings are slim, at best. This means, if you haven't submitted a request on the web form, your room request will be handled LAST.