SGDQ 2015 dates and venue: July 26 - Aug 1 in Minneapolis MN

Chappified

2015-01-28 02:32:39 pm

Chappy

Glad this is in Minneapolis. I'll actually be able to attend. Only an hour and a half drive due north.

Cronikeys

Edit history:

Cronikeys: 2015-01-28 02:34:44 pm

2015-01-28 02:33:53 pm

Sumi - yeah I looked on their facebook too and it looks like they just have faux-wood tiles they put over the carpeting:

so yeah, +1 for Ramada

slayerkid13

2015-01-28 02:39:34 pm

so is it 100% happening in MN? need to book time off work and start looking at flights.

Flimsyfishy

2015-01-28 02:53:48 pm

As far as hotel options, the Crowne Plaza St. Paul is very beautiful and will hold a lot of people, but a lot of food places are closed during the weekend because it's near the middle of downtown. The Ramada Bloomington doesn't have that issue, but the issue with the Ramada is that the capacity of the building is 3000, due to fire code. If you are expecting less than 3k, go for it, the Ramada is pretty well suited for an event like this.

Komrade

2015-01-28 03:29:58 pm

This location isn't bad actually. People from the far east and west sides of the USA can get there, and its a bit farther north for our Canadian neighbors. Obviously you can't please everyone though.

Radman

Edit history:

Radman: 2015-01-28 03:55:41 pm

2015-01-28 03:55:26 pm

For Fun! For GLORY!!

That ballroom looks perfect for a GDQ event! You actually get a stage like area to put the couch and games. Tongue

Also, based mods deleting the troll post before I even posted. :3

Alventenie

2015-01-28 03:57:26 pm

Only thing I really see that I would recommend looking at is that some sections have low ceilings compared to previous years. I know the projector screens at AGDQ were quite tall and if there is only a 10' ceiling it might not be able to fit comfortably.

Otherwise so far I like the information I have seen =). I just hope I get time off for the event.

EggmaniMN

2015-01-28 04:41:21 pm

So this is all coming from someone who not only lives in the area but specifically works around the area for the first hotel (the Crowne Plaza).

Crowne Plaza:
+Beautiful view - you are situated right near downtown overlooking the river and near the highbridge.
+Beautiful hotel - I've been in there a few times and it's quite nice from what I remember
+Lots of stuff around it - the Xcel Energy Center is practically next door (straight up Kellogg), the Science Museum is right there, the Ordway Theatre is right there, Roy Wilkins Auditorium is right there, St. Paul Cathedral, the Capitol Building
+Certain types of food - Subway, Chipotle, Erbert & Gerbert's, Pazzaluna, Sakura, Kincaid's, multiple breweries, and all of the stuff going down West 7th are all either within walking distance or a pretty short drive
-It's not the best neighborhood
-Lots of stuff closes on weekends due to being downtown
-Traffic and parking are extremely awkward in that area

Ramada
+MoA is literally a 5-10 minute walk away and contains all sorts of food and whatnot. The top floor movie theater is open much later than the rest of the mall as well, also contains Best Buy and many other stores that might be needed
+Light rail - it's cheap, doesn't take too long, super easy access to all sorts of places. Taking the Blue Line gets you to Target Field, Fort Snelling golf course and athletic fields, Minnehaha Regional Park, and with lots and lots of food places and bars situated all along it
+IKEA - it's sitting right next to the hotel just in case someone needs to go buy some furniture type stuff
+Easy access to buses and bus routes to all over the place
+The hotel used to house Anime Detour (actually so did the Crowne Plaza so add this to that one too)
+Right next to the airport
+Right next to a major road through the Cities and within 10 minutes of a ton of food - driving even slightly in either direction east/west on 494 leads to a Sam's Club, Walmart, Menards, a Denny's, a couple Asian places, at least one Indian restaurant, Arby's, Khan's Mongolian BBQ, there's a water park across the street basically, the IHOP on the other side of MoA from the hotel is 24 hours, etc, etc, etc
-I'm actually not really sure on negatives, I'm pretty sure I would pull for the Ramada unless it has drastically worse internet speeds

So this is all coming from someone who not only lives in the area but specifically works around the area for the first hotel (the Crowne Plaza).

Crowne Plaza:
+Beautiful view - you are situated right near downtown overlooking the river and near the highbridge. 
+Beautiful hotel - I've been in there a few times and it's quite nice from what I remember
+Lots of stuff around it - the Xcel Energy Center is practically next door (straight up Kellogg), the Science Museum is right there, the Ordway Theatre is right there, Roy Wilkins Auditorium is right there, St. Paul Cathedral, the Capitol Building
+Certain types of food - Subway, Chipotle, Erbert & Gerbert's, Pazzaluna, Sakura, Kincaid's, multiple breweries, and all of the stuff going down West 7th are all either within walking distance or a pretty short drive
-It's not the best neighborhood
-Lots of stuff closes on weekends due to being downtown
-Traffic and parking are extremely awkward in that area

Ramada 
+MoA is literally a 5-10 minute walk away and contains all sorts of food and whatnot. The top floor movie theater is open much later than the rest of the mall as well, also contains Best Buy and many other stores that might be needed
+Light rail - it's cheap, doesn't take too long, super easy access to all sorts of places. Taking the Blue Line gets you to Target Field, Fort Snelling golf course and athletic fields, Minnehaha Regional Park, and with lots and lots of food places and bars situated all along it
+IKEA - it's sitting right next to the hotel just in case someone needs to go buy some furniture type stuff
+Easy access to buses and bus routes to all over the place
+The hotel used to house Anime Detour (actually so did the Crowne Plaza so add this to that one too)
+Right next to the airport
+Right next to a major road through the Cities and within 10 minutes of a ton of food - driving even slightly in either direction east/west on 494 leads to a Sam's Club, Walmart, Menards, a Denny's, a couple Asian places, at least one Indian restaurant, Arby's, Khan's Mongolian BBQ, there's a water park across the street basically, the IHOP on the other side of MoA from the hotel is 24 hours, etc, etc, etc
-I'm actually not really sure on negatives, I'm pretty sure I would pull for the Ramada unless it has drastically worse internet speeds

TonyOgbot

2015-01-28 04:45:18 pm

Quote from EggmaniMN:

So this is all coming from someone who not only lives in the area but specifically works around the area for the first hotel (the Crowne Plaza).

Crowne Plaza:
+Beautiful view - you are situated right near downtown overlooking the river and near the highbridge.
+Beautiful hotel - I've been in there a few times and it's quite nice from what I remember
+Lots of stuff around it - the Xcel Energy Center is practically next door (straight up Kellogg), the Science Museum is right there, the Ordway Theatre is right there, Roy Wilkins Auditorium is right there, St. Paul Cathedral, the Capitol Building
+Certain types of food - Subway, Chipotle, Erbert & Gerbert's, Pazzaluna, Sakura, Kincaid's, multiple breweries, and all of the stuff going down West 7th are all either within walking distance or a pretty short drive
-It's not the best neighborhood
-Lots of stuff closes on weekends due to being downtown
-Traffic and parking are extremely awkward in that area

Ramada
+MoA is literally a 5-10 minute walk away and contains all sorts of food and whatnot. The top floor movie theater is open much later than the rest of the mall as well, also contains Best Buy and many other stores that might be needed
+Light rail - it's cheap, doesn't take too long, super easy access to all sorts of places. Taking the Blue Line gets you to Target Field, Fort Snelling golf course and athletic fields, Minnehaha Regional Park, and with lots and lots of food places and bars situated all along it
+IKEA - it's sitting right next to the hotel just in case someone needs to go buy some furniture type stuff
+Easy access to buses and bus routes to all over the place
+The hotel used to house Anime Detour (actually so did the Crowne Plaza so add this to that one too)
+Right next to the airport
+Right next to a major road through the Cities and within 10 minutes of a ton of food - driving even slightly in either direction east/west on 494 leads to a Sam's Club, Walmart, Menards, a Denny's, a couple Asian places, at least one Indian restaurant, Arby's, Khan's Mongolian BBQ, there's a water park across the street basically, the IHOP on the other side of MoA from the hotel is 24 hours, etc, etc, etc
-I'm actually not really sure on negatives, I'm pretty sure I would pull for the Ramada unless it has drastically worse internet speeds

Just a quick note, the Ramada Bloomington actually houses Anime Fusion. Detour is ran at the Doubletree, which Golden mentioned earlier in this thread.

In May, I'll have some experience with running a marathon within the Ramada Bloomington, so I'll definitely be able to answer any specific questions for GDQ staff as well as the general community when the time comes.

[quote="EggmaniMN"]So this is all coming from someone who not only lives in the area but specifically works around the area for the first hotel (the Crowne Plaza).

Crowne Plaza:
+Beautiful view - you are situated right near downtown overlooking the river and near the highbridge. 
+Beautiful hotel - I've been in there a few times and it's quite nice from what I remember
+Lots of stuff around it - the Xcel Energy Center is practically next door (straight up Kellogg), the Science Museum is right there, the Ordway Theatre is right there, Roy Wilkins Auditorium is right there, St. Paul Cathedral, the Capitol Building
+Certain types of food - Subway, Chipotle, Erbert & Gerbert's, Pazzaluna, Sakura, Kincaid's, multiple breweries, and all of the stuff going down West 7th are all either within walking distance or a pretty short drive
-It's not the best neighborhood
-Lots of stuff closes on weekends due to being downtown
-Traffic and parking are extremely awkward in that area

Ramada 
+MoA is literally a 5-10 minute walk away and contains all sorts of food and whatnot. The top floor movie theater is open much later than the rest of the mall as well, also contains Best Buy and many other stores that might be needed
+Light rail - it's cheap, doesn't take too long, super easy access to all sorts of places. Taking the Blue Line gets you to Target Field, Fort Snelling golf course and athletic fields, Minnehaha Regional Park, and with lots and lots of food places and bars situated all along it
+IKEA - it's sitting right next to the hotel just in case someone needs to go buy some furniture type stuff
+Easy access to buses and bus routes to all over the place
+The hotel used to house Anime Detour (actually so did the Crowne Plaza so add this to that one too)
+Right next to the airport
+Right next to a major road through the Cities and within 10 minutes of a ton of food - driving even slightly in either direction east/west on 494 leads to a Sam's Club, Walmart, Menards, a Denny's, a couple Asian places, at least one Indian restaurant, Arby's, Khan's Mongolian BBQ, there's a water park across the street basically, the IHOP on the other side of MoA from the hotel is 24 hours, etc, etc, etc
-I'm actually not really sure on negatives, I'm pretty sure I would pull for the Ramada unless it has drastically worse internet speeds[/quote]

Just a quick note, the Ramada Bloomington actually houses Anime Fusion.  Detour is ran at the Doubletree, which Golden mentioned earlier in this thread.

In May, I'll have some experience with running a marathon within the Ramada Bloomington, so I'll definitely be able to answer any specific questions for GDQ staff as well as the general community when the time comes.

phorrest

2015-01-28 04:47:56 pm

As a Minneapolis resident, I can't stress strongly enough how big of a boon having the venue near the light rail would be.
Just being near it would solve the problems with easy access to food and make it simple for anybody flying to get to the venue.

EggmaniMN

Edit history:

EggmaniMN: 2015-01-28 05:11:06 pm

2015-01-28 05:10:33 pm

Oh, there IS one negative for the Ramada, or at least there was one at one point. When it was called the Thunderbird (is it still called the Thunderbird?) it smelled pretty strongly of chlorine. I would hope it wouldn't still be that way after something like 11 years but I guess we'll find out with the visits and other events happening there.

Seckswrecks

2015-01-28 06:13:44 pm

Just Horsing Around

Chiming in to say, as a resident of St. Paul. Go with the ramada

That crown plaza is downtown and everything there is closed after 5pm and on the weekends.

AlecK47

2015-01-28 08:10:47 pm

Well, I'm definitely more likely to make it now, living in MI... Carpool hype? And although it's definitely nice for midwesterners like me, I do understand the reasoning behind having a more western site for one of the main speedrunning marathons, so count me as neutral on that matter going forward. I guess I'll have to make sure I don't get too rusty at Sonic 2 now. Wink

Komrade

2015-01-28 10:16:57 pm

Quote from AlecK47:

Well, I'm definitely more likely to make it now, living in MI... Carpool hype? And although it's definitely nice for midwesterners like me, I do understand the reasoning behind having a more western site for one of the main speedrunning marathons, so count me as neutral on that matter going forward. I guess I'll have to make sure I don't get too rusty at Sonic 2 now. Wink

I might have room, northern indiana myself

also i love opeth

Edobean

2015-01-28 11:01:28 pm

Awwww Fook!

It'll suck because it's not closer to west coast this time, but I know I have to make it to SGDQ one way or another. I just hope it won't be too pricey for me.

ZenicReverie

2015-01-28 11:03:19 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Keep moving the event eastward and you'll have even more attendees from the east coast. Funny how that works.

itsme__

2015-01-29 01:32:52 am

*sigh*

So basically after choosing a bad hotel in Denver last year, you're now certain that, "for the time being, Minneapolis will fit the needs of SGDQ attendees better than Denver ever did," even though you've never held an event there? You all dropped the ball on finding your hotel, and now the event is moving farther east than before (please pull up a map comparing Salt Lake City to Denver to Minneapolis and then say that Minneapolis is more centralized).

I _had_ a group of people who were wanting to attend in Denver this year, and your attendance from the western U.S. _would_ increase, but not if the whole plan is "keep the same people from the same places attending by moving the event towards them." There is a reason why conventions like Supercomputing alternate between a major eastern-US city and western-US city every year, even though they know that their attendance will drop when they do so.

Reiska

2015-01-29 03:37:41 am

To be fair, the ball was dropped, so to speak, because of circumstances beyond anyone's control.

kirbymastah

Edit history:

kirbymastah: 2015-01-29 08:00:20 am

kirbymastah: 2015-01-29 07:59:52 am

kirbymastah: 2015-01-29 07:58:53 am

kirbymastah: 2015-01-29 07:58:03 am

2015-01-29 07:57:48 am

<(^_^)>

Quote from itsme__:

*sigh*

So basically after choosing a bad hotel in Denver last year, you're now certain that, "for the time being, Minneapolis will fit the needs of SGDQ attendees better than Denver ever did," even though you've never held an event there? You all dropped the ball on finding your hotel, and now the event is moving farther east than before (please pull up a map comparing Salt Lake City to Denver to Minneapolis and then say that Minneapolis is more centralized).

I _had_ a group of people who were wanting to attend in Denver this year, and your attendance from the western U.S. _would_ increase, but not if the whole plan is "keep the same people from the same places attending by moving the event towards them." There is a reason why conventions like Supercomputing alternate between a major eastern-US city and western-US city every year, even though they know that their attendance will drop when they do so.

I recommend reading this before jumping on the "romscout hates west coasters speedrunners hate all westcoasters SCREW YOU" bandwagon since you obviously didn't read.

Quote from romscout:

Quote from Cronikeys:

I find it a little hard to believe there was no other city with an affordable venue (Seattle, Portland, LA, Sacramento, San Diego, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno, etc.). How exhaustive was your search before falling back on, "well most runners are Midwest/East coast anyway"?

I perhaps did not explain the search process as well as I should have because I wanted to keep it simple and highlight the main cities we were looking at. I'll give a little more detail on how it works so you have a better idea.

I was working with a very experienced travel agent and asked her to look in particular regions, get a feel for what's open, and also send out our dates/needs/requirements to all of the local hotels in a network so that we could see if there were any places willing to work with us. After some possibilities opened up in an area, I then started talking to the management of hotels and began the negotiation process. In the cases of the cities I mentioned, I actually was able to start conversations and then ask a more local travel agent for further assistance with a search, but there were plenty more cities that had our info sent out and at least were given a quick glance before deciding that it couldn't work out. Admittedly, I stayed out of California due to personal experience with living there for half my life and knowing how expensive it is, as well as knowing someone who runs anime conventions there who has shared what kind of costs go into the conference space.

While a quick Google search might show several places that are technically open, there is a factor that can't be accounted for with that: who is already talking with these hotels. We are a pretty unique event in that we have uncertainty of our growth pattern; for the last three marathons, we have given hotels an initial estimate for the number of rooms we would need to book and then raised it by widely varying amounts. Therefore, when I am reaching out to the staff of possible venues, I need to present them with what I believe is a bare minimum for the number of rooms we will book as well as remind them that we could be using up to a certain amount and might need to add as we go (in this case, the high end that I could possibly expect would be the same number of rooms we used for AGDQ 2015). While this is usually a great thing for talking to a lot of smaller or less popular places, many of the established places we would want to use do not like the uncertainty and feel it would be safer to talk to more established conferences/conventions that know exactly what kind of attendance they will have. In addition, we're still pretty small compared to a lot of conferences that are looking to book spaces in the summer.

Because of these factors, it is almost impossible to go in and snipe hotels from other groups that are already in negotiations. However, for the same reasons, it is easier for someone else to snatch a place that we are talking to. Combine this with the fact that July is an extremely popular time to hold events, and we are looking at a pretty tight time limit to secure any kind of space. It is even possible for the places we're looking at to be booked before we even go there next week; this is something I've discussed with their management so that we can try to prevent such a thing from happening.

The bottom line is that we needed to act quickly, but definitely did as thorough of a search as we could given our restrictions. It actually pains me that we had to move SGDQ further east, and it even makes it more inconvenient for me as a resident of California. However, it was a necessary action in order to make sure the marathon could happen at all. I feel it would have been a poor choice to move the dates and overlap with Evo, which was our only option for talking to a lot of places where we wanted to be. I know this is a big blow to many people on the west coast who wanted to attend, and I am truly sorry we had to do this.

Quote from thadarkman78:

As for the location itself, I'm not really the biggest fan of the move if it is a more permanent move (even if the flights are cheaper for me), but it's understandable if it really is more accommodating to the needs of expansion. I still think a more western venue needs to be considered for future SGDQs, and we shouldn't just permanently rest on Minneapolis because it works.

I have seen this comment a few times in the thread, and I will agree that I should not have stated that this is a permanent move (in fact, I have edited the first post now). That is not a decision that should be made hastily, especially when we seem to have increasing sponsorship opportunities that make moving locations a possibility again. Also, as someone else stated, no such decision should be made in Uyama's absence. So for now, we'll focus just on this year, and possibly go back to prioritizing the original SGDQ goal of catering to the western U.S. after that. Nothing is certain, but I'll visit other places in MN just in case we return.

EDIT: "Registered: 2015-01-29 02:16:51 am"
Well crap, I fell for the dumb troll who made another account solely to complain and rant and bandwagon. Sorry.

[quote="itsme__"]*sigh*

So basically after choosing a bad hotel in Denver last year, you're now certain that, "for the time being, Minneapolis will fit the needs of SGDQ attendees better than Denver ever did," even though you've never held an event there?  You all dropped the ball on finding your hotel, and now the event is moving farther east than before (please pull up a map comparing Salt Lake City to Denver to Minneapolis and then say that Minneapolis is more centralized).

I _had_ a group of people who were wanting to attend in Denver this year, and your attendance from the western U.S. _would_ increase, but not if the whole plan is "keep the same people from the same places attending by moving the event towards them."  There is a reason why conventions like Supercomputing alternate between a major eastern-US city and western-US city every year, even though they know that their attendance will drop when they do so.[/quote]

I recommend reading this before jumping on the "romscout hates west coasters speedrunners hate all westcoasters SCREW YOU" bandwagon since you obviously didn't read.

[spoiler]
[quote="romscout"][quote="Cronikeys"]I find it a little hard to believe there was no other city with an affordable venue (Seattle, Portland, LA, Sacramento, San Diego, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno, etc.). How exhaustive was your search before falling back on, "well most runners are Midwest/East coast anyway"?[/quote]

I perhaps did not explain the search process as well as I should have because I wanted to keep it simple and highlight the main cities we were looking at. I'll give a little more detail on how it works so you have a better idea.

I was working with a very experienced travel agent and asked her to look in particular regions, get a feel for what's open, and also send out our dates/needs/requirements to all of the local hotels in a network so that we could see if there were any places willing to work with us. After some possibilities opened up in an area, I then started talking to the management of hotels and began the negotiation process. In the cases of the cities I mentioned, I actually was able to start conversations and then ask a more local travel agent for further assistance with a search, but there were plenty more cities that had our info sent out and at least were given a quick glance before deciding that it couldn't work out. Admittedly, I stayed out of California due to personal experience with living there for half my life and knowing how expensive it is, as well as knowing someone who runs anime conventions there who has shared what kind of costs go into the conference space.

While a quick Google search might show several places that are technically open, there is a factor that can't be accounted for with that: who is already talking with these hotels. We are a pretty unique event in that we have uncertainty of our growth pattern; for the last three marathons, we have given hotels an initial estimate for the number of rooms we would need to book and then raised it by widely varying amounts. Therefore, when I am reaching out to the staff of possible venues, I need to present them with what I believe is a bare minimum for the number of rooms we will book as well as remind them that we could be using up to a certain amount and might need to add as we go (in this case, the high end that I could possibly expect would be the same number of rooms we used for AGDQ 2015). While this is usually a great thing for talking to a lot of smaller or less popular places, many of the established places we would want to use do not like the uncertainty and feel it would be safer to talk to more established conferences/conventions that know exactly what kind of attendance they will have. In addition, we're still pretty small compared to a lot of conferences that are looking to book spaces in the summer.

Because of these factors, it is almost impossible to go in and snipe hotels from other groups that are already in negotiations. However, for the same reasons, it is easier for someone else to snatch a place that we are talking to. Combine this with the fact that July is an extremely popular time to hold events, and we are looking at a pretty tight time limit to secure any kind of space. It is even possible for the places we're looking at to be booked before we even go there next week; this is something I've discussed with their management so that we can try to prevent such a thing from happening.

The bottom line is that we needed to act quickly, but definitely did as thorough of a search as we could given our restrictions.[b] It actually pains me that we had to move SGDQ further east, and it even makes it more inconvenient for me as a resident of California. However, it was a necessary action in order to make sure the marathon could happen at all.[/b] I feel it would have been a poor choice to move the dates and overlap with Evo, which was our only option for talking to a lot of places where we wanted to be. I know this is a big blow to many people on the west coast who wanted to attend, and I am truly sorry we had to do this.

[quote="thadarkman78"]As for the location itself, I'm not really the biggest fan of the move if it is a more permanent move (even if the flights are cheaper for me), but it's understandable if it really is more accommodating to the needs of expansion. I still think a more western venue needs to be considered for future SGDQs, and we shouldn't just permanently rest on Minneapolis because it works. [/quote]
I have seen this comment a few times in the thread, and I will agree that I should not have stated that this is a permanent move (in fact, I have edited the first post now). That is not a decision that should be made hastily, especially when we seem to have increasing sponsorship opportunities that make moving locations a possibility again. Also, as someone else stated, no such decision should be made in Uyama's absence. [b]So for now, we'll focus just on this year, and possibly go back to prioritizing the original SGDQ goal of catering to the western U.S. after that.[/b] Nothing is certain, but I'll visit other places in MN just in case we return.[/quote]

[/spoiler]

EDIT: "Registered: 2015-01-29 02:16:51 am"
Well crap, I fell for the dumb troll who made another account solely to complain and rant and bandwagon. Sorry.

Mr. Kelly R. Flewin

2015-01-29 08:18:57 am

Learning to Stream

Damnit... for once a GDQ is close enough that it'd be fairly easy to travel to... but this year I can't afford to go anywhere due to being beyond broke due to renos... [And having to lift a basement that has sunk badly]

But I think this is damn awesome! It's a great location with tons of options to arrive so it will cut down big time for people and so much to see and do.

I wish this SGDQ all the best and hope it will return next year so I can hopefully attempt to show up.

superman890

2015-01-29 08:40:45 am

Quote from mugutu:

Already can't wait. I've been meaning to swing through Minneapolis anyway, now I have more reason.

Dang i live only an hour from there! i hope i can go

Antilles58

2015-01-29 11:41:17 am

#FailFish

About how long after this announcement do game submissions typically open up/close?

I'm interested in submitting a run this year, so I'd like to make plans for the sort of work I'll need to do to get it ready.

philosoraptor42

2015-01-29 11:42:27 am

Dapper as fuck.

I'd heard game submissions will be in March.

JTBeezy

2015-01-29 12:24:25 pm

words on words on words

Yeah, game submissions will be in March

https://twitter.com/romscoutSDA/status/555066846878392320

Antilles58

2015-01-29 12:31:11 pm

#FailFish

Excellent, thank you raptor & beezy!