Questions from CNU and Menu

Dr. Kidd emailed me the other day with some questions that we need to answer:

1) Does the Friday evening reception involve a cash bar or just lightsnacks, or what? I think I asked you that earlier but couldn't remember the answer.

My suggested answer: Both

2) Saturday morning continental breakfast with coffee and juice. This is a cold breakfast, right?

My suggested answer: Just coffee, juice, donuts/pastries and fruit. See menu.

3) What kind of lunch? Will the lunch be working, which means something like sandwiches, or a buffet. I'm sure there is a cost difference.

My suggested answer: 45-minute break. But with a "working" menu. Again, see menu to see what you might like.

4) Any possibility of you all doing dinner at the campus and having a couple hours break to visit the museum? They asked me to ask you about the museum dinner because they think they could do it for less than the museum could do it because the museum doesn't have on-site dining facilities.

My suggested answer: Yes to on campus. See menu for what we should have.

5) Speakers. Do you have any idea when speakers will speak? Will they speak over lunch, over dinner, or just during the sessions?

My suggested answer: Sessions. Keynote at dinner.


6) Participants and visitors. Do you have any sense of how many people will be registered participants (i.e. eating and participating in the whole conference) and how many visitors there will be?

My suggested answer: For the whole conference about 50. For the dinner only (including attendees), about 100.

Vote here if you will attend:

Status report

Quick update on the latest with the Blogs United conference.

I have reserved 10 rooms at the Marriott in Newport News' City Center. Because of our conference, we have had about $40 knocked off the price and it's a paltry $99 a night.

I have to sign the contract with the Marriott, but I hope at least 10 people plan on staying at the hotel. Otherwise, your's truly is on the hook.

We have decided to not use the Mariner's Museum for our little swanky party on Saturday night.

1) It's expensive
2) They don't return my calls
3) CNU has a killer menu and bar. I'll post the menu here this weekend and we can look over what we want to eat.

Just to recap --

Friday is a check-in at the Marriott and a cocktail party at CNU. If someone wants to have hospitality suites at the Marriott, it's their dime/responsibility.

Saturday: Everying at CNU. Coffee and Donuts. The conference...including a lunch. And a swanky dinner. Hospitality suites, again, for those who want to.

Sunday: On your own. Recommend staying overnight on Saturday and going to Mariner's Museum (to see the Monitor)/and Jamestown on Sunday.

CNU has really gone out of their way in providing the facilities we need to make this conference work. Working with Dr. Quentin Kidd has been a breeze.

So, what's next? Here's a mini-plan of action:

• Establish the menu so that we can finalize costs (Jim, with input from all)
• Complete the contract with Marriott, so that you can begin to make your reservations (Jim)
• Establish a bank account and get the money items all worked out (Vivian Paige -- our accountant)
• Invite our keynote speaker (Jim, with input from all)
• Establish a program (All)
• Determine and acquire conference items (Unassigned, with input from all)
• Determine levels of sponsorship and solicit sponsors (All)
• Develop communications plan (The Squeaky Wheel, with input from Jim)
• Determine, nominate and select Blog Awardees (Badrose, with input from all)