Checking with the Hilton, it seems people aren't in hotel booking mode yet. As Nancy and Steve have mentioned, it is crucial to the financial success of the conference that people stay at the Hilton. The AOIR Toronto working committee was down at the hotel last week for a walkabout and it really is a great space with the meeting rooms off the central foyer, where we will hold the opening reception and other events. We had lunch in one of the restaurants and the food was excellent (and I'm fussy about my food). It's going to be non stop activity, with 9 concurrent sessions from 8:30 to 5, great keynotes, Thursday reception, Saturday gala (ticket required), Sunday brunch (ticket required), book exhibit and some form of cybercafe/sandbox. But no, it's not cheap, and understandably, those with little or no funding will be looking for alternatives. Rather than save a few bucks by staying 20 minutes away and having to rush to early morning sessions, share a room instead! I've done it before as a grad student at several conferences and always had a great experience, meeting new, interesting people. I also liked the flexibility of being able to come back to the room for a little break during the day. Mark cannot be the only male out there who needs to share a room! Rhiannon Mark D. Johns wrote:

At 07:21 PM 7/22/2003 -0400, you wrote:

...

For those of you who wish to keep costs down and yet still be at the heart of the conference action, we now have our roommate finder forum up and running:

http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/p/list.php?f=2

Sure not much activity on the roommate finder. Everyone else must have a more flush travel budget than I!!!

Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Asst. Professor of Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa http://faculty.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain

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Alex and others, There have been extensive negotiations trying to reduce the hotel room rates. The hotel room rate subsidizes the meeting room space, so you are paying both for a place to sleep and a place to sit while you listen to the papers or to stand when you present your own. If we book enough hotel rooms, the Hilton gives us the meeting rooms. If we do not, we will have to pay the meeting room space. The post-Toronto alternative, if the conference is to continue to be large enough that meeting at universities is unrealistic, is to fold the cost of meeting rooms into registration rather than sleeping rooms, which would be considerably more expensive for all than the current arrangement. We are aware that we appeal particularly to younger (and less affluent) participants, that is why we offer the roomate board and discounted registration and membership. However, we do believe the conference offers a considerable benefit to those who attend, and, unfortunately, providing the space for 500 people to gather is expensive. Nancy

Given the importance of filling the hotel, I hate to be the one to bring up the unspoken, but I'm guessing it's too spendy for many, especially given the other options available. We have a lot of graduate student members, and many coming without support from their institutions, and the difference in cost over several days is significant.

Moreover, the Hilton has rooms listed on their website (linked from the conference page) for as low as CDN$189 a night for double occupancy, advance purchase. Even their "no restrictions" rate is $5 less than the negotiated conference rate. I wonder if it might not be possible to request the conference rate be reduced?

Alex

(Who will most likely be making the commute rather than staying.)

Quoting Rhiannon Bury <welshwitch75@rogers.com>:

...

Checking with the Hilton, it seems people aren't in hotel booking mode yet. As Nancy and Steve have mentioned, it is crucial to the financial success of the conference that people stay at the Hilton. <...snip...>

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-- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas 102 Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org

Just as an FYI, I used the 'online system' whereby I emailed an excel file with my room request information. I received an 'out of office' reply from the person whose email address we are to use to send the excel file. So, I don't know if I'm booked or not . . . . Have any others used this approach and had the same response? Best, ~JSG

-----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of Rhiannon Bury Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 1:54 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] hotel information for AOIR Toronto: Broadening the Band

Checking with the Hilton, it seems people aren't in hotel booking mode yet. As Nancy and Steve have mentioned, it is crucial to the financial success of the conference that people stay at the Hilton.