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mikwuyma: 2013-02-17 03:16:44 pm
mikwuyma: 2013-02-16 11:37:44 pm
My feelings on The Demon Rush
It's probably going to look funny that I took this long to make an SGDQ topic, but let me explain why it took so long.

Essentia is having her third child and would be too occupied to host the marathon. In addition, SGDQ is getting larger, and her house might not be able to fit enough attendees. We (me and other SDA staff) agreed Essentia has already been gracious enough to host the event twice already, and we should find a new location that would work out on a larger scale.

After a couple of weeks of searching, UraniumAnchor found a good potential spot for SGDQ.

Location

The Sheraton Denver Tech Center Hotel. As the name states, the hotel is near Denver, so it's still in a location that is closer to the West Coast, and possibly close enough for the Utah crew to take a road trip.

Also, here's the hotel on Google Maps.

Access

You can either take a Super Shuttle from the Denver airport that costs 33 dollars (or cheaper if you group up with other people), or you can take light rail and the free hotel shuttle will pick you up from the rail station as long as you arrive in the 7am-10pm time range. I don't think we'll be able to arrange regular pickups like we do for AGDQ.

Dates

I'm thinking either July 24-28 (Wed-Sun) or July 25-29 (Thurs-Mon) for the marathon proper. If we choose the former date range, then setup day would be the 23rd (Tues), and the 31st (Wednesday) would likely be the day we leave. If we choose the latter date range, then setup would be the 24th, and the day we leave would likely be August 1st (Thursday).

In other words, the date range for the entire event, including setup day and bonus stream will either be:

July 23-31
July 24-August 1st

EDIT: If ESA is really the week before us, we might want to consider pushing our dates back a week.

Cost

If we agree to the hotel's sliding scale, then it's $119 a night per room. The rooms have double beds and can fit up to four people. I think a fifth person is possible if we ask for a cot, but we need to ask about cots and how much they cost.

Anyway, some of you might be wondering what I meant when I said sliding scale. Click on the hidden button below to see Matt, the sales manager told us.

59 room nights and below- Total rental of space- $500 per day for two small spaces($3500 total for 7 days)

60-79 room nights- rental of space drops to $250 per day for two small spaces($1750 total for 7 days)

80 room nights and over- rental of the space drops to $0 for two small spaces, complimentary.

100 room nights and over- rental of the space drops to $0, complimentary, smaller room, AND a larger room (1000 sq ft).

Room nights booked at the hotel on Wednesday-Tuesday nights will ALL contribute toward this total.


Basically, If we have around 40 people who stayed for a week, and they all wanted to stay in 4-person rooms, then that would be 70 room nights total (10 rooms per night).

To be honest, I think this is a good deal because I'm pretty confident we can hit 80 rooms a night. And better yet, there's no attrition.

Also, if we declare we are staying at the hotel by the 27th, then the internet is free (normally $150/night).

Questions and Possible Concerns

How is the internet?

All that I know is that the hotel has 50 mbps down. UA is going to check out the hotel's internet on Monday.

Why can't we have SGDQ at someone's house again?

Yes, I know we all love the intimacy of a house, and Denton one awesome cook, but SGDQ is getting more attendees and even if we somehow could host it at Essentia's house, we'd need an off-site hotel for all of the extra attendees.

Also, since trust issues aren't as big of a concern now that we're staying at a hotel, we can admit anyone who is willing to sign up and pay just like we do for AGDQ.

How do the conference room sizes compare to AGDQ?

The 500 sq ft. conference rooms are both bigger than the New York room at the 4-H Center. That room was around 400 sq ft.

For reference, the main marathon room (the Oklahoma) was 884 sq. ft.

Will our dates conflict with ESA?

No. Although we will be cutting it close with ESA, I have talked to Edenal and AFAIK, the current plan for ESA is after August 5th.
Thread title:  
Edit history:
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-17 12:10:24 am
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-16 11:53:36 pm
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-16 11:46:21 pm
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-16 11:45:04 pm
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-16 11:44:10 pm
mikwuyma: 2013-02-16 11:38:50 pm
Not a walrus
How do we get to the hotel from the airport?

The light rail doesn't run all the way to the airport, but there's a bus route that goes right from the terminal to a bus stop about a mile from the hotel. You can call the hotel and they'll come pick you up from the bus stop for free, so it's pretty good if you don't have a lot of big luggage. If you don't want to take the bus, I suggest the Super Shuttle, we might be able to get a group discount code, I'll have to contact them about that.

What's the food situation?

Food policy for the hotel is no outside food in the conference rooms, at least not en masse. They said they wouldn't complain if a couple people brought in a bag of McDonald's, but no pizza deliveries to the conference rooms. You can get food delivered to your sleeping room, or you can hop on the free hotel shuttle and go to a nearby restaurant. They'll take up to 7 people up to 5 miles to and from the hotel. There's an IHOP literally across the street, and in the five minutes it took me to drive to the hotel off the Interstate, I saw at least 15 places to eat, so we won't be hurting for sources of food at all.

Plus it's way easier to drive around in Denver than it is in the DC area. Tongue
My feelings on The Demon Rush
Quote from UraniumAnchor:
Plus it's way easier to drive around in Denver than it is in the DC area. Tongue


If I can legally turn left out of the hotel it's already 10x easier. Tongue
Edit history:
kwinse: 2013-02-17 12:04:42 am
A Denver marathon? Maybe I'll be able to bug you guys, depending on if I can get a ride up.

Don't have anything constructive to add unfortunately. Family's never been to the Sheraton and I don't get out much, not even down here.

EDIT: Curious, are you going to be sticking with the Organization for Autism Research?
Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.
Is the internet cost referring to the conference room internet or our rooms? I'm assuming the former.

If my assumption is right, then keep in mind everyone, internet here is NOT free, both wifi and wired internet is $10/night. For those of you with the ability to do mobile hotspots, you'll probably want to use that instead, it'd be cheaper.
Edit history:
UraniumAnchor: 2013-02-17 12:08:35 am
Not a walrus
I seem to recall something coming up during the phone call about the cost of internet to the rooms, but I forget the details now. I'll ask next time I talk to him, going go to down there Monday night to verify in person that the internet will be suitable before we commit to anything. He said they could section off the conference room bandwidth so that we'd be 'guaranteed' a certain minimum bandwidth. He seemed to understand that the internet being too slow would be an absolute deal breaker.
Edit history:
mikwuyma: 2013-02-17 12:08:24 am
My feelings on The Demon Rush
Cool Matty: Yes, the former.

Kwinse: Maybe. I was actually going to make a topic about the charity once we have a location settled.
Edit history:
Cool Matty: 2013-02-17 12:09:51 am
Crawlathon WR, get down on my level.
Okay. I assume that this time we'll basically be responsible for booking ourselves, unlike the 4-H center where we directly paid you?


Okay, cool. I was mostly asking for everyone else Wink
\/\/\/
Not a walrus
For the rooms themselves? Yes. There will probably still be an event fee of some kind just to cover incidental/equipment costs, outside of the hotel fee.
Not a walrus
Also, here are some room pictures. The first three are the smaller (500 sq ft) room, and the second three are the larger (1000 sq ft) room.

I was there on Tuesday night, but I got there late and the internet wasn't activated in the rooms so I couldn't test the bandwidth. Monday night I'll get down there earlier and meet Matt in person.











Edit history:
xfullmetal17: 2013-02-17 12:49:29 am
xfullmetal17: 2013-02-17 12:41:52 am
wibbly wobbly timey wimey
Wow, Denver, CO?  And to think I live an hour away, maybe I'll come say hi! (Don't think I'll be able to run anything this year, maybe next year I'll have something though)

edit: Glad I clicked that link in the OP, I had the wrong Sheraton in mind... (there's a second one ~10 miles northwest from there)
I might be able to help with pickups, setup, etc. but I'll know for sure once dates get nailed down and I put in for time off from work.
Highly Evolved
Is the plan to make SGDQ as much like AGDQ as possible?
My feelings on The Demon Rush
DW: In what way? If you mean grow it out so we can support more people than yeah. I mean it's no secret that even if we had SGDQ at Essentia's this year, we'd have to find a hotel where people could stay off-site.

If you mean game selection, then probably not. Game selection for SGDQ has never been as strict as AGDQ. We'll see how that works with increasing attendees though.

If you meant something else, well then be more specific.
新世紀進歩的羽扇子 音楽
oh snap.

100% guaranteed I'm gonna be at this one hahahahaha
Hockey enthusiast
Now seems like a good time to share some information about ESA. Like Mike said, it's not going to collide with SGDQ.

July 15th - 21st seems to be the new dates for ESA. If anything major changes, the backup date is August 5th - 11th.

I'm not going high-jack this thread further. More information is going to be posted next week in the proper forum section.

Edit history:
Sir VG: 2013-02-17 05:08:40 am
Fucking Weeaboo
Having it in Denver around July 20th would be awesome, as I'll already be in the area (I'm attending a wedding in Colorado Springs), who that would save me some money on airfare. And make my vacation even longer. Hell yes. Smiley

The sooner we can solidify dates, the better. I missed AGDQ but I'm NOT missing SGDQ and want to put in my vacation request in at work as soon as possible.

Edit: Huh. I thought it was the Sheraton I've been to before for anime conventions, but apparently it was the Sheraton 5 minutes down the road.
Edit history:
megakidicarus: 2013-02-17 06:58:18 am
megakidicarus: 2013-02-17 06:57:37 am
ᕦ(° Д°)ᕤ
I can't come otherwise I'd be totally willing to run megaman 6 for this SGDQ, but I will HYPE!!!! this so much. Next year though I probably will come to SGDQ 2014 assuming it's well after the school year is over (like july)
Edit history:
kirbymastah: 2013-02-17 06:57:13 am
<(^_^)>
July 25-29 would probably work best for me. I'll be in the middle of an internship in Austin, Texas, but missing one or two days shouldn't be a big deal as long as I work off the extra hours before/after the marathon, and having the marathon work over more of the weekend would work very conveniently for me.

I didn't get to run anything in AGDQ, but I would love to run something for SGDQ, and get to meet up with more people in the community as well Tongue Time to raise some money to go, haha

The venue looks really nice from the pictures that UA posted
1-Up!
SGDQ is actually in the Summer this year!!!! Hype!!!

Also that's def. driveable from North Texas so I can save money on airfare AND have a car. Also both date ranges work for me!
Claimh Happy
Neither range is better for me. No idea if I can go, in part because I don't think I have anything to run...I'll figure that out early this week I guess.
No pain, no gain
This looks like a great location and hotel.  It's right near a bowling alley, a Starbucks, an IHOP, and several food places I've never heard of but will definitely be trying.  If there are enough people from Utah heading down, I'd be willing to drive for a carpool or ride with someone else.  I've already got a list of "games" that I could play, as well.

As long as the internet works, I'm 100% behind this choice.  If you did need regular pickups for the airport, I'd be willing to drive. 
Looks like a great location. I was planning to attend and donate a bunch of perlers, so long as it stayed in Utah. However, since it's a little further away than I can really manage, I won't be able to attend. The perlers were more of a concern than running any games, and if it's possible/doable, hopefully I can get perlers there somehow w/o having to pay for shipping (perhaps drop the perlers with some carpool? not sure how that'll work).
Moo! Flap! Hug!
Mike: I think, by the very nature of the universe, if the event grows considerably, then game selection will have to become as strict as AGDQ. I think that's part of what DW may have been referring to. More people = more people wanting to play games = the same massive cuts of runners seen at AGDQ. While there are very obvious arguments to be made in favour of expanding things, I also think there's a risk of forgetting where we come from, and a risk of cutting out the large part of the SDA community who run less-popular games who in the past got a chance to contribute at SGDQ.
Thinker & Dreamer
Another solution could be just adding an extra day or so to the marathon proper (either by adding an extra day stay or cutting a bit of bonus stream) depending how many people will attend. Since the marathon is moving away from Essentiamansion and going to a neutral location, it's going to feel more professional and bigger in scope; possible even to the point where SGDQ isn't just the little sibling of AGDQ anymore.
Not a walrus
Quote from Poxnor:
Mike: I think, by the very nature of the universe, if the event grows considerably, then game selection will have to become as strict as AGDQ. I think that's part of what DW may have been referring to. More people = more people wanting to play games = the same massive cuts of runners seen at AGDQ. While there are very obvious arguments to be made in favour of expanding things, I also think there's a risk of forgetting where we come from, and a risk of cutting out the large part of the SDA community who run less-popular games who in the past got a chance to contribute at SGDQ.


While I get where you're coming from, there's going to have to be a degree of exclusivity no matter which approach you take. Half the attendees at AGDQ didn't run anything for the main stream and I don't expect that to get any "better", since more and more people are going to want to show up to these things, and we have no idea where the plateau is. And nobody wants to run one of these things for two weeks straight just so everybody gets a game in.