Transworld... March Madness... Ugh...?

[Jordan24]

When TW decided to move the show to a second tier city like St. Louis, they mentioned it was to lower costs for both the vendor and buyer. Which I'm all for, makes total sense, and I agree with it %100...

But what the hell? For that one week during March Madness, St. Louis is no longer a second tier city... tens of thousands of people are booking flights and hotel rooms to St. Louis during this 3 day time period, making costs much much more expensive for vendors and buyers than if the show would be in, say Chicago, where there is no NCAA Basketball tournement going on! What was Transworld thinking when they scheduled the show!?


Here's the main additional costs this year compared to last:
$340 airfare, $130 more than last year
$100 more a night at the Ren, three nights were looking at an additional $300

That comes to an additional $430 for myself alone. I wanted to bring a member of our production team with us as well, but couldn't justify spending $420 for a room and $340 for a flight...

Regardless, I'm still looking forward to the show, and I'm sure I'll have as great and as beneficial of a time as always. But does this just piss anyone else off?

Does anyone know of any single reason TW selected these dates?

[Gore Galore]

I completely understand your frustration.
Luckily we are close enough we don't have to fly, and also lucky we know someone the works for ren that we were able to not get beaten up too bad with hotel rooms. Granted we will still be spending $2000 just for hotel rooms, but that is still $1000 less than if we didn't know someone at the hote.

What would be great is if they knew about this.
But let me tell you that I am in contact enough with Transworld that they did not know about this until they started planning the details of the show. And this was NOT happy news.
At that time it was WAYYYYYYYYYYY toooo late to change the venue.
They know it sucks but just can't do anything about it now. remember they booked the hall close to 2 years ago.
That is one reason why they are trying to work on discounts with restaurants and bars to help with the unexpected expenses.
This has forced them to look more closely at the dates for next year, so hopefully we won't have a similiar problem.
But I am happy to say it doesn't seem to be affecting either vendor or buyer registration. I was told both are up close to 15% over last year at this time.

Again sorry, but we can still have a great show regardless. I think everyone is ready to have a blast. Why should we let something like this get in the way of having the best show of the year.

[graystone]

Jordan

Hotels always raise their rates in cities where there is something going on WHICH I THINK SHOULD BE AGINST THE LAW ITS PRICE GOUGING! You pay more and do not get any additional service for the increase! Shane and its hey I have a kicking party you can come to and make you forget about the bull! Shane this time.

[MDKing]

As a huge basketball fan, this makes the trip even more exciting for me St. Louis is going to be fun all around that weekend!

Allan

[Jordan24]

Kevin,
I know these shows are booked over a year in advance, but the NCAA Tournament commitee also books their venues several years in advance. I guess what I'm getting at is I just think it was overall negligent planning on TW's part.
I mean, the Dome is connected to America's Center. For TW to not check what other events were to be going on in the building is just irresponsible. And, now as a result you, me, and everyone else attending has to pay for their mistake.

Anyways, sorry for being Debbie Downer. Hopefully the show will be better than ever. I'm looking forward to checking out what new stuff Gore-Galore's got going this year...


Shane, would of loved to make it to the party, but can't get outta Jax until Thursday night. Hopefully next year I'll get out there in time. I'm sure everyone'll have a blast...