II. NAME of COMMITTEE: Convention Managers

08.b.

I.  REPORT DATE: September 16, 2017

II.  NAME OF COMMITTEE: Convention Managers

III.  MEMBERS: Diane Steinhaus and Wendy Sistrunk

IV.  BOARD ACTION REQUIRED: 1) Open ACM search with interviews to be conducted at Portland meeting; 2) Set streaming registration prices for Portland meeting.

V.  BRIEF SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

·  At the request of the Board, in Spring 2017 we initiated negotiations with V-Cube for a multi-year contract to provide live streaming and video capture for our 2019-2023 annual meetings. MLA Board followed up after an initial contract was drafted.

·  Planning for Portland 2018

o  CMs have been working with Katie Buehner, Jim Zychowicz and Program Chair Leslie Andersen to provide registration and other specifics of the meeting for the conference website. Conference website and registration will open Oct. 15 with an early registration deadline of December 15, 2017 because of the earlier than normal conference dates (January 31- February 4, 2018).

o  CMs and Program Chair traveled to Portland Downtown Hilton Sept 10-11 to finalized room assignments and A/V set-ups and meet staff. The hotel has undergone a complete remodel since the initial site visit in 2015.

o  As reported in April (it bears repeating!), this meeting will have a different program and exhibit set up than previous meetings. Our largest space (Grand Ballroom I) will be used for exhibits Wed evening through Fri afternoon, with smaller presentation space next door (Grand Ballroom II with 350 theater seating, very similar in size to to the largest presentation room in Denver) on Th and Fr. On Sat the two rooms will tbe combined for plenary sessions and MLA business meeting. Vendors had expressed interest in this truncation of exhibit days, allowing them to leave a day early and to maximize their exposure to the membership on Th and Fri mornings with an opening time of 9am. Having all plenary sessions on Sat with no other programming and only some business meetings offered that day should maximize program attendance The closing reception on Sat will be held in Pavillion, a lovely octagonally shaped ballroom with windows!

o  MOUG is adding a banquet on Tues evening to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

o  There will be a “That Camp-like” pre-conference all day Wed and, other than the traditional Organ Crawl, individuals must register for any tours on their own. The conference site will have links to several options provided by Travel Portland (CVB).

o  We will continue to use Guidebook for the conference mobile platform, with continued programming assistance of Jim Z and increased coordination among the Ad Manager, Development Officer and CMs.

o  We will once again be streaming the main program presentation room (Grand Ballroom II) on Th & Fr and the plenaries on Sat, again using VCube as our vendor.

ACTION ITEMS: 1) Open ACM search with interviews to be conducted at Portland meeting. We strongly recommend the inclusion of current ACM on the search committee as was the case in the last round.

2) Set streaming registration prices in time for people to consider when they register for the conference. Conference registration opens Oct 15 and early registration closes Dec 15. Prices weren’t set for Orlando streaming until very close to registration deadline, likely depressing streaming registration numbers.

Respectfully submitted,

Diane Steinhaus and Wendy Sistrunk