90p Admin

Here is an updated invitation. I don't have the link for the hotel yet. I added the Thursday night meet and greet to the events - is that confirmed? I have asked Harold if we can use his quote. He hasn't replied yet but I will make sure he agrees before using it. Any other thoughts? https://www.eventbrite.com/e/90-minds-meeting-of-the-minds-2014-registration-9302501031

I expect link Monday

do we have the ability (and room) for last year's group pic?

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/90-minds-meeting-of-the-minds-2014-registration-9302501031

The hotel link is added and I added the group picture.

@WayneSchulz @JeffSchwenk @ThereseLogeais @PeterWolf @RobertWood Please review above link . Note this is an invite only event at this time but we may need to make it a public event but with a password to register. Comments?

Did we decide on the fee for the dinner cruise for non-conference attendees, e.g. significant others? I also added number attending to the registration page.

Either 50 or 75 (My wife may be going so I think $50 ;-) )

Will we have a day after the conference for assessments? I know Sage probably have not yet announced when/if the tests will be ready (or even if there is one) however I think completing certification in one sitting is potentially a big draw for people. I don't think we should put the certification study on the invite but people may ask and we should let them know privately. Also I'm fine with $50 for member guests to go on the event. I wonder will we have any ""loopholes"" for vendors to bring extra people at a reduced rate -- and do we care? If Scanco is the primary sponsor do we want a local vendor bringing 4 or 5 people ? I think we should be clear to vendors/exhibitors exactly what they get with their fee (which I think we have). Perhaps with exhibitors/vendors what we do is limit the tickets to 1 add'l per paid attendee. We can always make exceptions. I don't want our primary sponsor for the event to feel upstaged. We also want to be sure to have some acknowledgement/photo opportunity around our primary vendor/sponsor for each event.

I think we should designate Sunday morning as the certification day. We can then head for the afternoon events (or go home). Deb Thomas has been asking about this and I agree with Wayne that it is another reason for attending. Jim Woodhead and I have not had a chance to finalize the budget. I think this should be done before opening the registration. As @WayneSchulz said during Wednesday's marathon conference call, we don't what any unpleasant surprised. Regarding local vendors, I thought it was agreed that only Scanco was the only vendor attending the dinner cruise. Thursday nights meet and greet is only open to vendor's. Do we need to put a limit per level (1 silver,2 gold,3 platinum and 4 diamond)

I have been thinking that at summit I have never seen restrictions on events. Scanco and map-a-doc are getting the pub for each. I do think we should limit guests to 1 per paid attendee. That should do the trick.

One is a good number...

I think we can plan certification morning by ear. I think we can plan on meeting at 11am at USS MIdway If we need a certification morning we will have around 2 hours to do it. I agree that it should only be on a invite basis and fellows only. We don't want to get in trouble. Frankly any cert's will be mindless anyways.

sorry I'm not going to keep managing this from a reply chain that's 15 levels deep. I'm a little sorry that I've assigned my name to this conference since I'm not seeing how we're going to keep stuff from falling through the cracks. Where you need a vote just assign mine to ""stay the same"" and that should make it 100%. I'll try to check through these threads once or twice a week. When someone starts to worry about the agenda give me a shout.

The invite looks good.

Budget is ready for viewing. The more participants we have, the more 90Minds subsidizes it. Jim and I are in agreement with the line items. Big unknown is the head count...... https://docs.google.com/a/community.90minds.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoB99YPgnHqMdGJmRWVNdmlnNTBzblVMaWdOS2M3Y0E&usp=sharing#gid=0

The big unknown is participation. Another thing to think about is what to charge. If we charge $250 a person, the 90Minds subsidy increases as more people enroll. We do have money in the bank so subsidizing an extra $5K won't be an issue. Another twist would be if we charge $50 more, how many people would NOT attend because it was too high. I don't think anyone will NOT come because of the extra $50. Just my .02 cents.

The evite looks great. I am having a hard time analyzing the budget sheet but I will trust the CPAs in the crowd to work it out. Regarding the fee to charge ... I think $250 is dirt cheap for the value offered. I agree with @JeffSchwenk that $300 is not going to drive away too many people.

Is everyone okay with $300? And $50 for others attending the cruise? If so, I will correct the price and include the $50 charge and then post this to the group. Hopefully, everyone will give their Yay or Nay. @WayneSchulz @RobertWood @JimWoodhead @JeffSchwenk @PeterWolf ???

My concern with $300 is it's double last year and there are sponsors. Yes we are making it an event and it's becoming a ""real"" conference. It's just that when I hear, ""we have sponsors"" the last thought that pops into mind is that the price is going to double.

True, but the content and social activities are also going way up also. Plus we are having two tracks this year. I think people will understand once they see the content and activities. Plus, over half the people we hope to show up are first times so it is a cheap $300. Just a thought to protect us from the upside of success.

I'm perfectly happy leaving it at $250. As @RobertWood says, it's already more than last year and we have sponsors. We have the funds to cover it and I would rather have a larger group in attendance as it's more dynamic that way. I'll leave it to you all to hash out. If we are voting - I say stay with $250. Yes, it is dirt cheap but that means the attendees will go away with a positive feeling about value received for investment paid.

I am OK with it being $250 but I am concerned that a wildly successful conference (attendance wise) will dip deeper into the well. Do some scenarios with the budget spreadsheet and you see what I mean. I will be amazed if we hit the 55 projection, but you never know until you do it.

Well, then we cap attendance at 55-60. We can do that. We do say it's limited.

Good idea. I think 55 is a good number. It over twice last year's attendance and it will be a good test of our planning skills. And don't overlook the fact that this number doesn't include the sponsors......

Regarding cost management ... I am ok with good old fashioned stickers for name tags to keep costs down. $550 for throw away tags seems a waste. I suppose some people *might* keep them but it's unlikely. Also it's likely that vendors will buy a round or two of drinks at the bars. Just a guess.

So are we ready to roll at $250 per person with a cap of 55 attendees?

I second $250 per person with a cap of 55 attendees.

I'm also good with paper/sticker name tags.

Im good the 250 and 55 although let me research the nametags a little more. I may be able to get the cost down.

Jim - what's the point though? Every conference I go to with those lanyards I think to myself ... ""what a waste."" Two days worth of stickers - $50?

I am thinking name tags for the fellows. The others can have paper tags

They may be magnetic with a paper inserts. I am thinking I will print them up.

Hand written tag are usually worthless

My point is that the nicer tags are actually less than worthless. :) You pay more for them and they go in the garbage after the conference. Most people don't care as long as they can read your name from 20 feet away.

My idea is to format like ""JIM Woodhead - San Diego, Ca"". With the Jim in a large font.

Sounds splendid.

Sorry I hijacked he thread. Back to the original question. Is $250 price and a total of 55 attendee. @WayneSchulz . @ThereseLogeais

Good with me.

So what is the password for the event - MOTM2014?

Yes we will change the event to public bit with a password for registration. At least we will test it today.

If it works as we think it should we can release the hounds and post the links . Note we probably need to modify the invite to say that there are limited tickets at the $250 piece. Another ideas Is that we could them make the tickets $400 a piece once the $250 run out.

Then the question becomes, do we really want to manage that many people? I am more than happy with the cap. If everyone is comfortable with more, then I am happy with the $400.

We just added a person to the Associate roster because she wanted to attend MOTM 14. Another employee of the firm is a member. I told her currently that it was limited to members. It may open up later depending on signup and the easiest thing for her to do is to become a member. So she did.

BTW, I asked Harold if he would mind if we used his quote and he said, ""Not at all - go ahead, it was sincere."" Which I knew it was.

Has this been announced?