CommVEx v5, July 25-26, 2009

[rbernardo]

We just about broke even for the 2008 CommVEx, and so, it is my great pleasure to announce CommVEx v5 for July 25-26, 2009. Same place, same time, same bat channel! Plaza Hotel & Casino, Jockey Room 1, 1 Main St., Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The contract has been signed (they wanted a higher price but gave us a discount), and the deposit has been made (ooo, a higher deposit this year).

More details will come later, like pricing on accomodations, etc..

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[rbernardo]

Jockey Room 1, our usual Plaza Hotel conference room, is going through reburfishment. The original entry is being sealed up, and a new entry farther down the side hallway is being made. Unfortunately, the new entry makes it hard to see where the conference room is, i.e., people will have a harder time finding the CommVEx room.

Truly,

[rbernardo]

Chris B. has donated $15 to CommVEx v5. Thanks!

Now we need sponsors,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[rbernardo]

Today I sent in another payment to the Plaza Hotel for the CommVEx room. To my chagrin, they have another new manager of catering, the former one having moved on. It wasn't too bad... I just had to explain our show just a bit to him and not give the full story again.

Truly,

[rbernardo]

I met with Rob O'Hara, author of the book, "Commodork", here at the Notacon 6/Blockparty 3, and I told him that at CommVEx I would promote that book and his new book, "Invading Spaces: A Beginner's Guide to Collecting Arcade Games". Rob and I talked much about Commodore, and he even helped me film a scene for my amateur video production which was entered into the wild competition for Blockparty. In a way, I was trying to convince him to come to CommVEx.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
Notacon 6 / Blockparty 3 happening now!
http://www.notacon.org , http://www.demoparty.us

[rbernardo]

The final payment to the Plaza Hotel has been made for the expo room. No turning back now! I was a bit thrown off when I was told I had to pay an extra $38.xx for "gratuity". When I asked what that was, Ken of Catering told me that 5% was paid to the hotel union workers and that 5% had been formerly included in the total bill. Well, the hotel was not going to cover that gratuity anymore and that clients would have to pay the extra per cent. I reminded him that the contract I signed last July was for a set amount; I did not sign for any extra not mentioned in the contract. He said that there are new contracts with this new fee, but I told him I signed this older contract and expected the hotel to fulfill its part of the contract. He finally relented and removed the new fee.

Satisfied, I did tell him that when I visit the hotel in June to check up on things, I would be ordering a high-speed Ethernet connection and a regular, hard telephone line into the room (for extra money).

Truly,

[rbernardo]

I'm back in Las Vegas for a few days. Tomorrow I'll talk to the Plaza Hotel catering people for upgrades to the meeting room. Then it's time to contact Al Jackson of the 5Cs and possibly member Yul Haasmann.

Now that the meeting room (Jockey Room 1) has been rebuilt, its entrance is farther down the corridor in the corner (really hard to see). New carpeting on the third floor leading up to the meeting room and new paint in the men's restroom close by.

Truly,

[rbernardo]

While I was in Las Vegas last week, the Plaza Hotel could not assure me of a fast enough high-speed Internet for the Peddle/Herd video conference (it would be there first time to do such a video conference). I'll have to consult Jeri Ellsworth who is engineering the conference. Also I asked about a telephone line to serve as an alternate means to have a conference (phone conference); because of the Jockey Room remodel, I could not be assured of a phone line! No word back from the Plaza about that phone line. I''ll meet with Jeri this Saturday to discuss her video requirements and other CommVEx matters.

In a lighter vein, I was able to post CommVEx flyers at the Student Union and at the Student Commons of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. I'm looking into possibly advertising CommVEx in the campus newspaper (if it doesn't cost too much).

Truly,

[rbernardo]

I'll have to consult Jeri Ellsworth who is engineering the conference.

Jeri has done a test run of the video conferencing with Bil Herd. She has a plan which will cut the bandwidth of the video conference by 5 times. I hope that will be within the limitations of the hotel. I've left the phone number of the Plaza Hotel IT engineer with her.

Also, Larry Anderson, an IT person in his own right, will investigate the hotel's set-up when we arrive there on July 21.

Truly,

[rbernardo]

It was a successful CommVEx this year! More attendees with visitors from England, Denmark, and Italy. More presentations... so much so that for the second year in a row we ran out of time to get to them all (better to have too many than to have too few!). We had an anonymous donor make up for the red ink of renting the conference room, and with that and with the monies from admissions and raffle prizes, we have money to carry over for next year's CommVEx.

Yes, there will be a CommVEx next year! As our anonymous donor told me, CommVEx is too important to let it end. This Friday I return to Las Vegas and will meet with the Plaza Hotel people in order to go over the contract for CommVEx v6 2010!

Truly,