Leaguefest 2012!
Viva!
At the sub-blogs, we’ve had some discussion of the idea of a meetup for the League. The current idea being floated around is to arrange a meet-up in Las Vegas some time in May. Presumably accompanied by our spouses or significant others, we’d all meet somewhere for dinner and drinks, and decide what next move we’d make from there. I, for one, would love to see this actually happen. I’ve met up with two other greater municipal Los Angeles area sub-bloggers in real life during 2011, and had a great time both times, so I’ve every reason to believe if we pull this off, it would be super fun for all involved.
Why Las Vegas? We’re all scattered in our locations, mostly throughout the United States. But pretty much every major U.S. city has easy and frequent flights to Las Vegas. There are hotels offering a wide range of prices to accomodate pretty much anyone’s budget. Whatever you like to eat, or drink, or do with your free time, there’s sure to be something enjoyable on offer.
Why May? Hopefully, this is far enough in advance that everyone can make arrangements to take a day off or two in order to travel. Those of us with children will need time to make child care arrangements for a weekend out of town, for instance with doting grandparents and those of us with day jobs will need to arrange time off. So I suggest the weekend of May 25 to May 28, to take advantage of the Memorial Day holiday: those of us with regular day jobs would only need to take one day off work to enjoy a four-day weekend in Sin City and those of us with non-standard jobs should have some flexibility to conform their schedules to that.
If we decide to do this, I’ll take the lead on contacting a hotel to see if a group rate can be negotiated, and a restaraunt made available. I believe we will need at least ten rooms to get a group rate at most of the major Strip hotels, so please only say that you will do this is you’re serious about committing to it — I don’t want to be left holding the financial bag on ten rooms. Please use the comments to this post to indicate if you’d be able and willing to do this, and if so what range of hotel you’d like and what sort of restaraunt for the kickoff dinner sounds good to you.
Plus, if you show up, you’ll get to learn my real name — at least six bloggers and sub-bloggers here already do. I know the rest of you are all on the edge of your seats with anticipation. So with a bonus like that, you really can’t afford not to come to Leaguefest 2012 — we hope to see you there!
I’ll be asking the Wife and CFO about this; we’ve got a lengthy trip planned in March/April, so there will be some budgetary concerns to overcome.
It sounds like a blast, and I’ve enjoyed my several meetings with folks from this site. Those meetings, in each case, have been far more natural and less awkward than I’d ever have expected. If it is in any way affordable, you can rest assured I’ll be there.Report
It’s the flight which would be the significant expense; the hotel should be dirt cheap if you book this far in advance.Report
Yeah, that’s the biggie. Usually Southwest has some pretty good deals to Vegas, so I’m hanging my hat on that.Report
I have to make similar inquiries with The Better Half, who has dominion over both the household budget and scheduling. If I can make it, I will.Report
Oh… I’m in, baby. I am definitely in.Report
Does this extend to commenters or only bloggers??? I probably can’t make it but enjoy pretending I can and going along with the planning.Report
I would assume that it goes without saying that commenters are very much invited. Heck, as far as I’ve always been concerned, this place has always been more about the comments than about the main posts.Report
I’m not opposed to the idea of frequent commenters from the community joining in the fun. But I would like to focus on those who are serious about committing to doing this thing. It sounds like you like the idea but couldn’t make it anyway — which is cool, no time or place is going to work for everyone. But if you’re not likely to really make it, please don’t be upset if Burt Likko Your Cruise Director doesn’t take your schedule or budget into consideration.Report
Oh, of course. I’m more likely to kibbitz on the planning, getting excited about activites and recommending dishes at restaurants. I don’t actually expectto be a factor since May is a near impossibilty for those in my field.Report
However, I would be down to meet up with anyone in the grater NYC area…Report
Well, there’s the chance I might have a long layover at JFK sometime in May…Report
I don’t think I’d be able to go much less have had the time to comment enough lately to warrant it, but I’ll make a standing offer for any LoOG regulars visiting Atlanta to have a beer or bourbon on me should they need to spend time down here.Report
I would do my best to make it. We have some Southwest points I believe.Report
May is an ugly month, scheduling-wise. Mother’s Day and a number of birthdays. Also, there’s a reunion in there.
Of course, I’m close enough that I can drive and do a turnaround if need be. I’ll check out the calendar over the next couple of days. It would be awesome to be there.Report
Sounds fun! I’ll certainly try to make it.Report
Great idea. Like so many others this boils down to checking with the better half. But it sounds fun!Report
Bring the better half!Report
My Holidays should have started. Let me see if I can tie it in with a summer program at Arizona.Report
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it. Vegas is a long way for me (12 hours just to LA), and given the expense I would have to plan a holiday like that more than a year in advance.
Still I like the idea fo a get-together and hope you guys have a great time.Report
We’ll Skype you!Report
That would be great.Report
Skype me as well if I can’t make it.Report
Put me down as a “maybe.”Report
No. An acceptable answer for most, but not Trumwill. We need you there, my friend.Report
Timing isn’t good, unfortunately. And I have to figure out the finances. But Vegas is driveable if I can find a good stopover in Utah, and that helps a lot.Report
Well, I’m so excited about this, I already booked my room; we had some Vegas.com gift cards and I used them up. So I will be there that weekend no matter what.Report
So are we set on the date?Report
Memorial Day weekend. I think that with a group as large and diverse as ours, we’ve got to just throw the date out there and whoever can make it, does. The ones who can’t, we try to catch the next time around. I figure we meet up for dinner that Saturday evening somewhere — that gives people all day Friday and at least the first half of Saturday to travel and get there. I should be checked in and situated by Friday night.
Although I’ve already got my room reserved, I will still inquire about a group rate if there are sufficient numbers of people interested. I’m staying off the Strip to get a nicer room, at the hotel most famous for Elvis and Star Trek, for reasons relating to my enrollment in particular travel programs, so that’s where I’d start looking for the group rate. But, people need to check in with their spouses and do a forecast for their checkbooks, so it’ll take a few days before they can check back in here and say yea or nay.
Meanwhile, you’re definitely in, Tod? I’m looking forward to this! Gotta buy me a bowler hat.Report
I am in! You’ll need to be more specific with me re: the actual hotel. And if we have a date, it might be worth sending out a notice to everyone. I could see the post slipping down and people missing it at this point.Report
I’ll be checking in rather late-ish on May 25, and checking out at a reasonable time of the late morning on May 28. My reservation is at the LVH, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton. Sorry if I was too oblique earlier. And I dislike being a dictator about it, but someone’s got to make the executive decision and the more I thought about it, the more I figured the date just has to be something where someone pulls the trigger so I did.
I haven’t given much thought yet to much more than the dates and sporting a bowler hat to identify myself as a Leaguester. It would be fun if we all wore bowlers, wouldn’t it?
Next will come finding a spot to meet at. There will inevitably be some stragglers and I may get there late myself Friday night, so I’d suggest we meet Saturday. I’ve not yet considered a place for that and I’m open to suggestions. It need not be at the Hilton and I suspect some people will prefer to stay elsewhere. I know I’m terribly unfashionable picking an off-Strip hotel. But the monorail takes you right from the Hilton to near enough to anywhere you might want to be.
And yes, I’m going to republish a reminder Thursday because I see the usual flow of new posts is bumping this bad boy far enough down the page that it will get set aside. That’s only to be expected, the results from Iowa tonight being what they are.Report
Indeed. Without a trigger-puller, these things don’t actually end up happening.
The only concern I have with Memorial Day Weekend is that it’s a weekend where people are particularly likely to have other plans and when airfare is expensive. I actually don’t have any plans that weekend, but I may for the next weekend (which used to be a Memorial Day thing, but was changed for the aforementioned reasons). I’ll keep you posted.
I was actually planning a trip to SoCal wherein I was going to see if I could meet up with you, Patrick, TVD, and Sheila. This may be a cool substitute.
I can’t do the bowler hat, though. My head is too big. My hat options are more-or-less limited to these.Report
I, too, can’t really pull of a hat. Which is a shame, because thanks to genetics I can’t really pull off hair, either.Report
Lovely idea. Logistics will surely keep me at home, though. (Too much other traveling already planned this year.)
But as important as it is to get firm early commitments to make it a reality and to secure group discounts, the marginal cost of each additional person falls almost entirely on them, so having someone jump in late shouldn’t be a problem.Report
No, I don’t think so. Logistically, an advance head count is really only needed for two purposes: one, if I do go ahead and negotiate a group rate (is everyone good with the Hilton, off the Strip?) and two, to make a dinner-and-drinks reservation. If we had two-thirds of the people from the masthead show up, and one or two very with their spouses, that’s between thirty to forty people — so that will require calling ahead and getting them to set aside a room, on a busy weekend because I don’t think simply crashing a place is going to work out smoothly.Report
FWIW on Expedia last night I noted that tickets from East Coast locals such as Newark, DC, Philly, Portland Maine, and NY had round trip fares as low as $149-159.
Hint hint, East Coast contributors.Report
I resemble that remark!
Discussing with the woman who will, by then, be My Wife.Report
Boegiboe and I are tentatively interested.Report
Tentative talks have resulted in me being able to go but not the both of us being able to go.
I think I’m in.Report
Any interest in being a cheap bastard and splitting a room with another guy whose spouse is likely not going?Report
Warning: I snore. Loudly. I mean, like, Maribou can vouch for this.
Warning: It’s worse when I’m drunk.
Note: I will likely have had a couple when I go to bed.
If you don’t care, I don’t care. I assure you: I won’t care. I’ll be asleep.
Snoring.Report
He snores SO LOUD IT’S AMAZING AAAAAAAA. Like, seriously, we have had people we know in neighboring rooms state their concerns for me after hearing him (through a wall).
However, it may just be possible that I can come anyway…. Memorial Day is really late this year.Report