Sorry to hear that phil…but there’s always next year. 
Luckily, someone in my club shared that other link, so I got my full conference pass. After years of wanting to go, but having circumstances dictate otherwise, I’m finally going to attend my first NHC. Can’t wait!
I’m just curious, was this the only way the AHA reported the direct link?
The link was eventually hooked up the the conference website. I think it was also on Twitter. I didn’t know what the link was until I got my confirmation email after booking on the phone.
They probably couldn’t email it out since the same servers bogged down by registration requests would be running their email system. For a while ALL AHA websites were non-responsive.
Pretty disappointing. I was on the site at the appoint hour, only to see it crash (again and again and again). I tried for more then an hour to get wait listed. I found out about the other route to register later in the day after it was all over. Not sure why the other method was not terribly public information as this was the middle of a working day.
Wow…they just sold out.
Yeah, I logged on at 1:00 Mountain exactly and it took me 1/2 hour of constant frenzied effort. I learned my lesson from last year (shut out of both NHC and GABF)…whole AHA site was out…
This still was poorly done…perhaps we need to go to a lottery system as not everyone has the ability to spend a couple hours in the middle of the day to mess with this.
Conference hotel is buggered up. The conference hotel was already sold out by the time I contacted them at 1:45 Mountain. The back up site (courtyard) was identified in the Marriot’s system but wouldn’t let me book. I booked a regular room rate and was told to call back today. That was sold out before this morning. I guess I will try my luck with a nearby room.
Does anyone know if this part of Philly is safe to walk at night? I am looking at the hotels that are north of the big convention center (a few blocks north of our convention) or about an equal distance south. I figure I won’t be the only AHA conventioneer making these treks.
Yes, this part is safe. However, I would not go more than 1-2 blocks North. South, East and West are all good for several blocks. And there are cabs everywhere.
Dave
I’m not a fan of the lottery system. I’ve been playing megabucks for years and I’m still not a millionaire. ;D
There probably is no real way to make everyone happy. In my day job, I attned national confrences fairly often. Generally they are $1,000 or more. And membership in some of my professional associations is hundreds of dollars per year. Now, of course that’s paid by the employer, but it still gives lots of cash to the conference organization. AHA rates are dirt cheap really. But it comes out of our own pocket, not that of our employer.
I’d say we are very lucky lucky to have the folks in the AHA office doing this work for us. It won’t always be perfect and pretty.
So you wouldn’t recommend the hotels that are north of the big convention center? or do you mean it gets sketchy a few blocks north of that?
+1 North of Vine gets dicy, but you really don’t need to go there anyway. Unless you are going to the Electric Factory for a show.
Should be ‘Congrats to the lucky 3400’ – That’s a lot of homebrewers to wrangle.
And 2200 at the banquet. I hope the room is bigger than last year. It was almost impossible to move around.
In that case, I would just contact the AHA and switch to the Full-almost package. It saves you $10 and there is likely someone on the waitlist for the full package who will be thrilled. If you want to give it to someone specifically (like someone you know) I’m not sure.
Sorry to hear the Phil. Next year then!
Glad I got in. While trying to register I accidently hit refresh and from that point the site crashed. At that same time my daughter reached into her diaper and pulled out a lovely backdoor surprise. I was positive I was out until I found the direct link.
We are excited to have 3400 members participate in this year’s AHA National Homebrewers Conference! We certainly were not thinking we would have that many attendees when we booked the space in 2010. Thankfully we were able to work with the host hotel and the attached convention center to give us the room we needed to nearly double our attendee capacity from the 2012 conference.
Part of the solution to allowing more attendees was the Full Conference…Almost registration option which includes everything, including all of the Thursday social functions, but does not include the Thursday seminars (we have half the space for seminars on Thursday that we do for Friday and Saturday). This also give judges a less expensive option, knowing that they won’t be able to participate in the Thursday seminars, all of which will be repeated later in the week.
We have also added additional overflow hotels that are in the immediate vicinity of the host hotel at or below the original group room rate, and have lined up additional hotels that can be added as needed. See http://www.ahaconference.org/hotel-travel/hotel/ for booking info.
You likely can imagine our dismay (we knew those trying to register were dismayed!) when the AHA websites went down almost instantly upon launch of conference registration. The site locked up due to an error on our host provider’s part. We were able to disseminate the direct link to the registration system via social media while working with the server host to get the website back up.
I am looking forward to seeing so many of you at what will be by far the largest National Homebrewers Conference ever—1500 more attendees than the previous attendance record.
Gary
Wow, blast from the past! I haven’t been to the Electric Factory in probably 15 years!