No More Rooms? How Did That Happen?

As many of you have already learned, there is limited room availability at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center, initially on the nights of June 9 and 13, and now for all nights. Fortunately there are two overflow hotels nearby, with similar -- or in some cases even better -- rates. [You can view overflow choices here: http://www.acenetc.org/en/venue/] But having been program chair for the Albuquerque meeting when many of us had to shuttle between two hotels, I understand everyone's frustration with this arrangement. For those of you wondering whether this is due to poor planning, I thought I would offer an explanation of what led to this situation.

First, when we requested hotel proposals over a year ago, we were following the model of the St. Louis meeting -- keeping the meeting short so people could get in and out in a few days. The restricted travel budgets for attendees played a primary role in planning for both a shorter meeting and for lower-than-normal attendance. By ending the meeting at noon the last day, participants would avoid an additional hotel night. Since then we have had proposals to add workshops and sessions, in part to meet the more diverse interests of a combined ACE/NETC audience, and also to again incorporate SIG and other meetings, based on feedback after last year's conference. In addition, people just seem interested in spending extra time in Denver.

Combined with that we have the Boycott Arizona factor. We had originally settled on a facility in Arizona where we would have run of the place, very reasonable networking and food rates, and large rooms for everyone. Shortly after we officially chose that hotel -- releasing the holds we had at other locations -- the Board began to hear complaints from a number of members. Consequently they voted to support the Arizona boycott in reaction to the governor's signing of the immigration bill SB 1070. An online poll of ACE members, combined with an informal poll of NETC attendees in Auburn, then determined Denver as our 2011 conference site. We had to negotiate with the Inverness to get us rooms at rates comparable to what they had originally offered. All they had available was over a weekend, since they are heavily used on weeknights.

Apart from the irritation factor, though, we expect everyone will be very pleased with this facility. Many of us have visited there over the past year and found everything to be excellent. It is in large part because of their high demand as a well run conference center that rooms have been in short supply.

Robert Casler
ACE President