CommVEx v13 – July 29-30, 2017… and a new hotel!

[rbernardo]

The contract is signed. The deposit has been made. The Commodore Vegas Expo v13 is coming July 29-30, 2017… and we have a new hotel –

The California Hotel & Casino
12 E. Ogden Ave.
Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada

For those who have attended CommVEx, the California Hotel is where we have our Sunday night after-show dinner. It is located to the northeast of the Plaza Hotel, our venue for many years.

Now, a bit of back story... At the end of this year’s CommVEx, I was prepared to sign a contract with the Plaza Hotel. However, the manager of the group sales’ department had gone on vacation, and no one else in the department would write up a contract for me. And so, I waited.

When she returned in early August, I asked for the contract. No response for a month. When I returned from my New Zealand/Australian trip in mid-September, I immediately telephoned her, and she told me that the hotel was rebuilding the ballrooms, but she didn’t see a problem in giving me a contract with the same terms as this year’s CommVEx had had. She told me to wait a few days while she prepared the papers. And so, I waited.

No documents came in the e-mail. I called and left a message. For the next few days, we played phone tag, always missing each other. Why wouldn’t she respond by e-mail? Finally, I reached her and was given the bad news. Because the ballrooms were still being rebuilt, she was not permitted to offer me a contract until April, 2017!

That would be cutting it too close to our CommVEx date and with no assurance that the room would be available to us when contracts were being accepted again. She suggested we return to the Boulder Rooms in the Plaza Hotel, those 850 to 900 square foot rooms. I nixed that idea, because the air-conditioning was not good in those rooms and because we had outgrown the rooms. She suggested other downtown hotels (which I had scouted a few years ago).

I contacted Miranda, the catering manager who oversees the Boyd Gaming properties of the California Hotel, Main Street Station Hotel, and Fremont Hotel. Of those 3 hotels, California and Main Street had the better rooms for our type of show. In talking to her over the phone, I decided that the California had the room for us.

The California’s second floor Maile Room has 1,428 square feet of space. The Maile Room is rented by-the-hour. Because of that per-hour rental, CommVEx hours have been adjusted to fit the funds we have available. Here are the CommVEx v13 2017 hours –

No Friday set-up

Saturday –
Set-up: 9 to 11 a.m.
Show: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
After-show hours: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday –
Set-up: 10 to 11 p.m.
Show: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Take-down: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

We have to stay within the above hours; if not, there will be an additional charge per hour.

Chairs and rectangular tables will be provided. There will be 4 electrical outlets. At two plug-ins per outlet, that means our extension cords and power strips will have to extend from those. Wi-fi will be available. The usual hotel restrictions are in place, perhaps even stricter than those at the Plaza. No outside food to be brought into the room. No signage attached to the walls. Any extra hotel equipment – projector, projection screen, microphones, loudspeakers, etc. – are available for extra fees.

With credits to the Boyd Gaming and the California Hotel, I have placed a photo and floor plan of the Maile Room at

http://blog.retro-link.com/2016/10/phot ... x-v13.html

Sincerely,
Robert Bernardo
organizer – Commodore Vegas Expo v13 2017

P.S. The manager of group sales at the Plaza Hotel would welcome CommVEx to return in 2018.

[rbernardo]

Though Miranda of the California Hotel told me twice that the Maile Room is 1,428 square feet, by looking at the published floor plan I just realized that 52 feet x 30 feet equals 1,560 square feet!

Sincerely,
Robert Bernardo
organizer - Commodore Vegas Expo v13 2017

[rbernardo]

A question from another forum - "What happens to the stuff left Saturday overnight?"

The California Hotel is stricter than our older venue. This is what Miranda of Catering had to say, "The equipment cannot be left in the room. It must be taken out and reinstalled the next day." I believe that they are doing this so that they are not liable for anything left overnight (this same policy was in effect when we tried to have CommVEx v2 at Nevada Power; though we had used NP for CommVEx v1, they would not allow anything to be left overnight for CommVEx v2, due to liability concerns. That's when CommVEx was then moved to the Plaza.)

I know that it is a pain for exhibitors to haul equipment in and out each day. If you wish to exhibit, make sure you have your equipment ready for portability with quick set-up and tear down. I will be staying at the California, and any exhibitor can use my room for overnight storage of hardware/software.

Making do with what we have,
Robert Bernardo
organizer - Commodore Vegas Expo v13 2017

[rbernardo]

There will be 4 electrical outlets. At two plug-ins per outlet, that means our extension cords and power strips will have to extend from those.

To clarify, we still have the 12-outlet power strips used at CommVEx in 2016. And so, 4 outlets x 2 plug-ins per outlet x 12 outlet power strips = 96 plug-ins. http://www.harborfreight.com/12-outlet- ... 96737.html

Thanks, Harbor Freight Tools,