After being out of pocket for last 6 days (and truthfully, not paying attention), I went to sign up for (my first ever) NHC this morning…The first time I had both the time and the means to attend and…DOH! Epic Fail.
As a result, I have a number of questions:
How many people are on the wait list, and really, what is the turnover rate, and what are my chances (where am I on the list)?
Are there any plans to increase capacity to the event (thus due to or affecting question #1)?
Is there any opportunity to volunteer for the event (similar to GABF)?
Thanks Drew. My brother and I are on the waitlist as of noon today.
Unfortunately, it is what it is, and I have learned my lesson, but it is my guess that in the future this event will either sell out in 20 minutes next year, or the capacity will expand to make it not as pleasant of an experience.
From here on out, it is my guess that there will be the fight between capacity and intimacy (or lack thereof). I hope it not to ever be like GABF. Maybe it becomes a regional model.
At any rate, I am looking forward to volunteering to help at the first round competition.
Thank you Gentlemen for the quick weigh in. I know you are working on the issue, and perhaps you weren’t super surprised about the quick sell out (not as surprised as I was). I truly did not believe that I was risking missing out by waiting almost a full week to register.
I didn’t expect it to sell out so quickly, no way, no how. It was crazy.
I want to add though, that while there is no way to increase the capacity for this year’s event, we hope it will be less of a problem going forward. This location was chosen and the contract was signed before the MN conference in 2010, and this venue is able to hold ~20% more than that one. It’s a fine line between having enough room to grow and having too much room so that actual attendance doesn’t come close to what is needed to break even.
I think one thing we need to look at is the ability of any chosen venue to grow to accommodate the number of people who want to attend. That really limits where the conference can go though.
I figured a month for a sell out, maybe 6 weeks, not two.
two days, NO WAY
And yes, this will be looked at in some detail.
My wife will be with me in the hotel, but I don’t have a ticket for her and I’m not going to ask for one and I don’t expect anyone to give me one either.
There are a lot of folks picking their jaws up from the floor. I was amazed at the five day sellout as well. I think this is commonly referred to as “growing pains”. I am confident that the AHA will be addressing this issue and hopefully this can be less of a problem in the years to come.
There are many veteran AHA members that didn’t get tickets and are very disappointed. I can certainly understand their disappointment. I also understand that this was a complete surprise to the AHA. I also think that the AHA Governing Committee will be discussing this in detail going forward.
Hopefully the AHA can satisfy many of those on the waiting list.
I’m curious if we will see the Philly conference sell out as fast. It’s always been my impression ( maybe not so ) that the biggest concentration of AHA members are in the West Coast/Mountain regions. So it would figure those conferences would see out quicker. I just don’t know if we would get the same West Coast contingent if they have to fly all the way across the country. That has been a factor for the last few years for me being on the East coast but I made sure to make it work this year.
Regardless, I will be on the PC 15 minutes before the conference goes online next year ( booked my hotel room 10 minutes before published time this year ), as will many others I’m sure so make sure those servers upgrades are in place.
I don’t know the hotel size for next year, but there is huge “pent up demand” on the East Coast. That and 1/4 of the US population lives within a 6 hour drive, more than half in a 10 hour drive (looked that up). I will probably drive from Michigan next year - if I don’t get shut out.
I know they didn’t show up for the conference in Orlando. I’m not sure why, whether it was distance or the fact that nobody wanted to go to Florida in June, but it was a very low turn-out.
yeah, orlando was a shame. it still had a very respectable 600+ attendee rate, but baltimore the year prior had over 800.
the hotel was very nice, but there was the odd strain or two like the rule of no beer in the hallways!
I think a lot people look at the conference as a chance to do the whole beer trip thing, but most don’t realize that once you enter the hotel, you can checkout anytime you want, but you can never leave
