Editing C14 Postmortem (section)

== Venues ==
'''Hotel - Hyatt Regency Downtown Tampa'''

The Hyatt was the main storage facility for all the freaks for the weekend, as well as the venue for Saturday night's events.  Their staff was '''outstanding''' (this point simply cannot be emphasized enough from a planning and execution standpoint); guest relations issues, primarily due to elevator maintenance and occasional room-key demagnetization being met with less-than-perfect customer service were present, but seem to be of the &quot;very minor&quot; sort.  Despite sharing space with a very large professional body-building competition, there were no real issues from the organizational side of things that I could see.

Whether I needed to clear up a misunderstanding about our space needs or just had to have an extra extension cord, the staff at the Hyatt, after going out of their way to give me their business cards, contact info, and locations where I could find them if need be, their answer to pretty much every request made of them was invariably, &quot;Sure, give me about five minutes.&quot;  ''This, more than anything else, is something future committees should strive for - an excellent working relationship with the hotel and venue, especially when that staff is competent and professional throughout.''  Anecdotal evidence suggests that even potential trouble spots were met with good-natured equanimity on the part of the Hyatt's staff - a bottle of absinthe was taken out to the pool area, and rather than insist it be gotten rid of, the security agent came back with a handful of plastic cups, so that Cx-style shenanigans could continue while still complying with the hotel's policy.

'''Venue - The Cuban Club'''
Friday night: fashion show / Voltaire concert / Skarey-oke / DJs

Had undergone extensive renovations in the year leading up to C14, and wasn't completely finished.  Easygoing to work with, but not on a par with the Hyatt or Convention Center in terms of professionalism or execution.  Some details were lost in translation or difficult to get answered, or left until the last moment.  When dealing with a smaller, private venue as opposed to a large, corporate entity, organizers need to be more pro-active and may need to verge on &quot;nagging&quot; to make sure everything that is supposed to happen does so.

'''Venue - Tampa Convention Center'''
Saturday Night: Bands &amp; DJs

This was a relatively late venue selection due to persistent turmoil and unresponsiveness from other, more freak-friendly options that ultimately didn't pan out, and as a consequence, somewhat expensive and inflexible.  Employed a rather weird ticketing system for bar service (I wasn't drinking, so someone who was will have to speak to how this worked in execution), as well as had an eleventh-hour (but laughably low - $500 per bar) sales guarantee that they had to present to us.

Professional to deal with, though obviously accustomed to much larger and more organized/structured events than Cx.  Didn't go out of the way to make us feel like amateurs, but I sure did merely by comparison.  This differs from the &quot;handshake deal&quot; feel of working with the Hyatt and Cuban Club, but is understandable, as they are a large municipal facility.

In retrospect, having both Saturday and Sunday at the Hyatt might not have been a bad idea, contractual obligations notwithstanding, but that carried too strong a whiff of '''Goth*Con''''s ''modus operandi'' for us to pursue, even without the Convention Center's binding contract.
--[[User:Rafe|Rafe]] 18:08, 21 August 2008 (UTC)