Lets Open A Can Of Worms.. GWB Events - What Would You Change?

[Lee]

So far it seems that all of the event sponsors and attendees were more than happy about the 6 events that we co-ordinated in Vegas for our sponsors however, we are looking for anything that you folks may want to have changed or addressed about the events overall.

So far the only suggested changes for our Phoenix events are that we should have a room specifically for 'smokers' unfortunately, because of hotel policies we were unable to get a suite that allowed for the windows to be opened otherwise, this would have been the case at these events.

So what, if anything, would you change at the Phoenix events in order to improve them?

Would love to hear from both attendees and sponsors of the events in this thread, it is you flks that make them what they are so we want to work with you in order to provide you with a quality set of networking events at future shows.

Regards,

Lee

[Dzinerbear]

Hey Lee,

Overall, you guys did a fantastic job and we were pleased with the meals and after hours suites. But nothing's perfect, so here's a few things that would have made it better for me:

(1) Give the sponsors coupons for the meals that they can hand out to whomever they want. Oftentimes we don't necessarily know whom we'd like to invite until we get there.

(2) Make sure the hotel switchboard knows about the event so lost guests can find their way.

(3) I wouldn't have a breakfast on any day, it's too poorly attended because everyone's up so late.

(4) Have signage up in the hotel directing guests to the location of the event.

(5) Three major gay parties on the same night is too much. Somebody's going to lose. But then again, not everyone wants to go to a circuit party or hang in an after-hours suite, so that's a tough call.

Cheers,
Dzinerbear

[Lee]

(1) Give the sponsors coupons for the meals that they can hand out to whomever they want. Oftentimes we don't necessarily know whom we'd like to invite until we get there.

Noted.

This was actually going to be our original intention in respect of the meals however, we were not made aware of the actual location of the three meals until a few days prior to the show so unfortunately, we couldnt print the location of the events on invites which in turn, meant they didnt get utilized.

We will however be using an 'invite' format for the next meal events we will be holding.

Make sure the hotel switchboard knows about the event so lost guests can find their way.

Very good point.

I know a few people called the Luxor about the after hour suite events and were unable to get directions to where the suite was being held, unfortunately, there seemed to have been a mixup with names that were registered on the hotels computers for the suites which made this task even more difficult.

As for the meals, i beleive there was adequate signage throughout the Mandalay Bays convention level (billboards as well as neon signs) which had full details of the location and name of the events however, due to there being several other conferences happening at the same time, you had to wait for the screen to change 3 times before our events information was displayed. This has already been addressed with the event planners at Mandalay and we have been promised that next time we hold our events there, this will be rectified.

I wouldn't have a breakfast on any day, it's too poorly attended because everyone's up so late.

Absolutely and looking back I perhaps shouldnt have included breakfast but made that meal more of a brunch type setting. no excuses that was totally on me and we wont be doing 'breakfast' again rather as mentioned, a later brunch meal on the last day.

Have signage up in the hotel directing guests to the location of the event.

We did actually request that signage was placed in the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor however, on both counts we were not allowed to do so. I beleive one other party event also had issues with their signage being removed to. At the next events in Phoenix however, we will ensure that we have the locations of everything pre-arranged and are able to put the information on invites and the GWB site itself.

Three major gay parties on the same night is too much. Somebody's going to lose. But then again, not everyone wants to go to a circuit party or hang in an after-hours suite, so that's a tough call.

Agreed. Unfortunately at the time of us planning our events there was only one other party on the Internext website that we were able to plan our events around and, despite our best efforts, even the times of that one were changed after we had publicised our time frames.

Despite the other parties happening though im sure you will agree that attendance at both the meals and the after hour suites was exceptionally high and, with people knowing the actual location of our Phoenix events in advance, attendance rates can only improve :thumbsup:

Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback Michael i appreciate it, only by hearing from our sponsors and the event attendees can we ensure that future events surpass everyons expectations :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee

[DrewG]

I thought the GWB events went great! Thanks to Lee and GA and Juan and everybody else who made them happen.

So lunches are great - everybody needs a good meal in the middle of the day, and its a great place to have more in depth conversations.

dinner on the first day was great too since alot of people didn't have dinner meetings until the 2nd or 3rd nights.

i didn't make it to the breakfast - hope it was nice! maybe replace it with a lunch?

one thought about the meals - would it really make that much of a difference to make it open invitation? I say the more the merrier, and I talked to people that heard about GWB events but didn't show because they didn't have an invite. Making it open invitation would allow anyone who had an interest in gay webmasters to come and only increase business opportunities for everyone. To make sure sponsors get their money's worth, put up more banners and maybe put sponsor cards and handouts on the tables. Also have more sponsor materials at the late night bashes.

The late night bashes were great. Oh how I wish the windows could open... actually, windows at the Paris did open. The most importnat thing about the late nights is to have the location fixed and distributed in advance, so people can find it when they're drunk and stumbling.

Can't wait to go to the Phoenix forum, i've so many good things.

Here's an idea - how about having Internext somewhere other than LasVegas? Tahoe? Whistler?

[Mamakity]

I have to say I thought the whole thing was great too. I do agree with Michael on every point. But I assume the reason for the invite only meals was to keep out people who were just wanting the meal and not so much the networking and also to insure enough food was available.

To me that seems reasonable. But maybe instead of making it a free for all give the sponsors an allotment of tickets to each meal like Michael suggested. The sponsors can distribute them to those serious about making legit contacts. This way you can also know approximately how many people will need to be fed.

With as crouded as the parties were I'm not sure that 3 on the same night was so bad. hehe We were packed into the Krave but it was fun. Maybe a solution for that would be to hold them in a bigger venue. The after hours suite was great, it was comfortably crouded.

Then my only idea separate from that would be to see if someone could sponsor some writing tablets and pens for the after hours parties. Nothing fancy, but I found that many people either ran out of or forgot business cards. I find myself now in a little dilema as I want to contact a few people but do not have there info. I was going to write down this one person's info but then in the croud lost him. We had to go so I didnt see him again. Anyway, just a thought.

[Lee]

Originally posted by Mamakity
But I assume the reason for the invite only meals was to keep out people who were just wanting the meal and not so much the networking and also to insure enough food was available.

They were exactly the reasons that the meals were invite only

The sponsors did have an allotment of guest invites for the meals prior to the events themselves and many of the actually used above and beyond their guest limits but we were ready for that occurence :thumbsup:

Invites will definately be given to sponsors at the Phoenix Forum so they may physically hand them to guest too.

Regards,

Lee

[JustBryce]

I think everything has already been mentioned that I was thinking of. In the interest of constructive criticism only...

- I don't think anyone actually knew we were sponsoring the afterhours party. We looked for our banner or other merchandise with our logo in the hotel room and didn't see it. Perhaps something like qfest did with the logo on napkins, breath mints, banners, bed sheets, etc. would be nice. You wouldn't have to do all those things, but one or two eye-catching pieces would be nice.

- Arrange the tables differently at the meals. Everyone was confined to their table and there wasn't a lot of mingling. I think more interaction would have been nice. It also would have been a great time to mention the sponsors and allow them to take a few moments to welcome the guests and pitch their program.

Thanks for requesting the feedback.

[Lee]

I don't think anyone actually knew we were sponsoring the afterhours party. We looked for our banner or other merchandise with our logo in the hotel room and didn't see it. Perhaps something like qfest did with the logo on napkins, breath mints, banners, bed sheets, etc. would be nice. You wouldn't have to do all those things, but one or two eye-catching pieces would be nice.

Noted again and thanks for the feedback.

We actually did get some handouts from the folks at Mesmerotic as i recall for the meals but not for the after hour suites themselves, with hindisght we should have made sure that we took some of the meal handouts with us back to the suites also, you have my apologies for the oversight on my part.

Arrange the tables differently at the meals. Everyone was confined to their table and there wasn't a lot of mingling. I think more interaction would have been nice. It also would have been a great time to mention the sponsors and allow them to take a few moments to welcome the guests and pitch their program.

Again that has been noted and will be acted upon at the next set of events.

The problem we had, specifically with the dinner on the first night was that it was a 'sit down meal' which kind of made it hard for people to move about the dining room effectively. The luncheon and breakfast, from what i saw, did have more people moving around and acually chatting with each other which was part of the reason we had a buffet style setting for those two meals.

As for the comments about allowing sponsors to pitch their programs, that is a very good suggestion and in all honesty, one i never even thought about, it will happen at the Phoenix events now it has been mentioned though :thumbsup:

Again thank you for your feedback i appreciate it

Regards,

Lee

[mikexod]

Hello Lee,

First let me thank you and all the sponsors for giving us the opportunity to meet and party together. It was great to hang out with you guys.

Chris,

Special thanks for perfect coordination in our short bartending career.

Gay parties ROCK!

Thanks,

Mike

[RainGurl]

hey guys, i thought you did a great job with the events! I know the late night suite was a perfect way for many to cap off the night. My only wish would have been to have it in the main hotel as I'm just too damn old to walk that far after midnight!
I enjoyed the breakfast as well. It was one of the few times at the show when I actually got to sit down and have some conversations with people.
Looking forward to the phoenix events, guys!

[desslock]

I printed out the page of GWW events from the board and finally got a chance to look at it on the plane. I saw that all the day events were invite only, and the night events were after midnight suites.

Was there supposed to be a GWW booth?

So I just went to the Cybersocket evening parties, and I bought a ticket to the Hustlaball, which took in my Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I never noticed the GWW information running on the television monitors... all I recall seeing were pages of the lecture schedule. Perhaps if there was one major GWW event, it would have been easier for me to make it a point to go to that specific one, while dividing my time with other competing events.

Steve

[Harlan]

Hey guys!

I really enjoyed the luncheon and the after-hours! There have been some great suggestions made here that will help you tweak things here and there to go from already great to downright awesome!

[chadknowslaw]

I liked the breakfast!! But maybe not on the last day--I think we were all wearing down a bit by then. That would be better for teh first day when we are all still bright-eyed.

I really liked the afterhours--especially the last night. Those were a great opportunity to get to know each other without having to shout over the din.

The Phoenix Forum will be in Tempe this year, and Tempe has an indoor smoking ban that applies to all bars and restaurants [but not to private hotel suites]. In order to please both smokers and non-smokers, a room with a patio or deck will be in order. The facilities in Miami were nice because of the smoking veranda; I don't know what the Royal Palms has to offer but it may be a good idea to ask when you are setting things up.

If you need any help or a local point of view for your Forum parties, give me a shout!

[Lee]

Originally posted by mikexod
First let me thank you and all the sponsors for giving us the opportunity to meet and party together. It was great to hang out with you guys.

The pleasure was all ours Mike :thumbsup:

Thank you so much for tag-teaming Chris behind the bar too

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

Originally posted by RainGurl
hey guys, i thought you did a great job with the events! I know the late night suite was a perfect way for many to cap off the night. My only wish would have been to have it in the main hotel as I'm just too damn old to walk that far after midnight!
I enjoyed the breakfast as well. It was one of the few times at the show when I actually got to sit down and have some conversations with people.
Looking forward to the phoenix events, guys!

Thanks Rainey i think between Pride Bucks' QFest and the 6 Gay Webmaster Bash events everyone had a blast.

I hear you on the location issue to, unfortunately the costs were restrictive when it came to what the Mandalay Bay wanted otherwise we would have had all our events over there

Regards,

Lee