Her hotel - place of employment - [ she's the assistant GM ] has conventions all the time...sci fi conventions, craft conventions, small group events, etc. etc. The roomrates are dependant on the weekend, the number of rooms reserved, and any guest services negotiated. She said if we were to have booked this weekend, for example, [ which is historically quiet at this location ] roomrates would have been $99 or less if it were a very large group.
Anyway....it's not like AK Fest will end up in Minneapolis since it's the Grumpy's show but if the MN tri-state folks ever wanted to put something together locally in a more formal setting, it's feasible.
And for the record, there would be no financial benefit or gain on my wife's part for referring a group of any size to the property. Just offering some inside help if we ever needed to coordinate something locally.
Well, to be honest, I believe the location in South Minneapolis satisfies ALL of Fisherdude's 3 criteria points he mentions:
"1. It must be essentially in the same town as the person in charge. This job takes daily/weekly follow up.
2. It must be in a city with a major airport hub. If not, airfare will skyrocket.
3. It must be within driving distance of enough members who will provide equipment for and set up the members' listening rooms. No member is going to ship his equipment. If this isn't made a top priority, members' listening rooms will evaporate."
The Minneapolis/St.Paul airport is just a few miles away right on interstate 494, along with such places as Valley Fair (huge amusement park), The Mall of America, and the Minnesota Zoo. All within 20 minutes of the hotel.
I'll just bet the Minneapolis/St.Paul area (50 mile radius) has just as many active AK members as the Detroit area, and I know we would have a large contingent of filled listening rooms from the area, myself being one of them.
The Hotel room rates appear to look the same and they have 500+ rooms available.
As far as someone being in charge, there are probably several of us in the area that would be willing to step up and help do what it would take to make this happen.
I believe EVERYONE would agree that it would still be "Grumpy's Show" and we would just be here to lighten his burden if called upon.
We may be able to add some local new vendors to the Fest such as Magnepan, The Needle Doctor, etc., and I know there are a bunch more audio manufacturers in the Minneapolis area as well. We'd also be darn near as close to Chicago as Detroit is for the vendors coming out of that city.
Well, this is just something else to think about????
Retro