The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
The Good
Overall, we had a great event! Lots of new faces, lots of familiar faces and I'm sure everyone had a great time. It was really good seeing you guys!

Considering how fast the tickets sold out, we need some official event space and have enough attendees to entertain putting out an RFP for next October with potentially a room block if the numbers work. The RFP process works a lot like it did when we worked with the Palms Casino Resort. We'll bounce back and forth with how much space, catering, perks if we need rooms, etc, sign some papers and we're 'all in'.

Generally, if you book enough rooms, they'll give you the event space and you pay for catering and such. If you don't have a room block, generally, you'll pay for the even space plus the catering and it's actually a higher price. So the challenge is blocking enough rooms at a rate to satisfy cheap-assed airline pilots and pricing the event to determine if it's going to be avantageous or not.

Or, scale down the event somewhat and continue forth business as usual.

More details as they develop.

The Bad
Ok, about what happened about 0130 (-ish)

We have noise complaints most years and generally speaking, it's pretty easy to take care of.

After talking to a number of people, including hotel security, this year was a little different for a number of reasons. When security came by, according to security they represented themselves as I, which is a heeeyoooooooj no no. Additionally, when queried, security was told that we had 90 in the room, which, of course, wasn't true. At this point we maybe had about 40 — the room has a 60-person capacity, but there are people flowing in and out so we historically average about 60 to 70% of the total sales being in the room at any one time.

The noise problem, unbeknownst to me that security had even made contact wasn't resolved and on a subsequent visit, of course unreported to me or @Kristie (the hosts) and he was effectively told to buzz off.

Not good.

The Ugly
By the time we were made aware there was a problem, security said that they had already spoken with a person claiming to be me and after the second visit to the room it was clear that he was being misled and made the decision to clear the room, and, since he felt that he was being misled on a number of points when trying to reach the host, additionally since he was told to buzz off, we got the boot from the hotel.

What would have been a completely normal "Ok, we'll tone it down and keep the door closed, thanks for letting us know" escalated into an eviction from the hotel because:

  • If someone shows up at the door in an official capacity, get the hosts and do not claim to be registered to the room if you are not.
  • Do not try to speak for the event. I've done these events for a little over a decade and I can take care of the situation if you let us know immediately.
  • Don't ever. EVER EVER EVER tell an employee of a hotel to get lost. EVER.
  • Shut your mouth, go get the host. Repeat after me: "Shut your mouth, go get the host"
So by the time I was even told there was a problem, at all, was when the hotel had become impatient with inebriated people claiming to be the host, making specious claims about our agreement with the hotel and, of course, the coupe de grace of telling security to beat it.

Ungh.

I can take care of 99.999% of all situations if you communicate with me. But once people do what was reported to me from a number of sources, you're tying the hotels hands and provoking a situation which will swiftly spin out of control.

When in doubt, hell, even when you aren't in doubt, shut up and find the host.

Names aren't important so don't bother asking me and please do not assume. I want this to be a learning experience for all of us rather than a witch hunt.

Again, I think it was alcohol-driven and not intentionally malicious. And again, come get a brother (or sister) next time.

See ya in 2014! I'll bring the tiger.
 
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I had an absolutely awesome time.

Today Amber and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. If I hadn't met @NotCoolEnufToFly through this website, I probably would have never met her. Also considering that more than half the people I consider friends are from JC, my life would be very different had I not stumbled across this place years ago. It was really nice seeing a lot of familiar faces as well as meeting a bunch of people that I've known for some time, but never met. This trip to Vegas was exactly what I needed.

It is a shame about how the event ended, but I think it speaks a lot about how much fun everybody had, even with the surprise ending. I would like to cast a vote for the "keep doing what we're doing" side of the house. I think its important to find a venue that will let us do that. The hotel suite was perfect I think. Intimate enough that you could be talking to somebody, yet still recognize someone else as they walked behind them. Generally the craziness seemed to happen inside the suite, whereas the balcony was a bit more subdued and good for conversation. Other than the fallout from the noise complaint, it was friggin perfect. I agree there's no need to point fingers or go on a witch hunt.

All that said, whatever we end up doing next year. We'll be there!
 
I had an absolutely awesome time.

Today Amber and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. If I hadn't met @NotCoolEnufToFly through this website, I probably would have never met her. Also considering that more than half the people I consider friends are from JC, my life would be very different had I not stumbled across this place years ago. It was really nice seeing a lot of familiar faces as well as meeting a bunch of people that I've known for some time, but never met. This trip to Vegas was exactly what I needed.

It is a shame about how the event ended, but I think it speaks a lot about how much fun everybody had, even with the surprise ending. I would like to cast a vote for the "keep doing what we're doing" side of the house. I think its important to find a venue that will let us do that. The hotel suite was perfect I think. Intimate enough that you could be talking to somebody, yet still recognize someone else as they walked behind them. Generally the craziness seemed to happen inside the suite, whereas the balcony was a bit more subdued and good for conversation. Other than the fallout from the noise complaint, it was friggin perfect. I agree there's no need to point fingers or go on a witch hunt.

All that said, whatever we end up doing next year. We'll be there!
+ A million. On top of that I can safely say I wouldn't have gotten my current job without the help of other members on this site.
 
BL: Don't be stupid. Worse, don't be drunk and stupid.

If you can't manage the latter, then don't drink. If you can't manage the former, then you're beyond help and probably in the wrong place.

Hate to be a buzzkill, but I've gotta agree with Mike on this one. Look at this from a networking perspective. If you were the guy with the job that everyone wants, and you've got a limited number of recommendations to make, are you going to recommend a guy who was stupid-ass drunk and spitting over the balcony, or a guy who knew when it was time to have a water instead of a shot?

If you want to get stupid-ass drunk, you should probably do it at one of the copious number of bars on the strip, not in the main event suite. Or just not get stupid-ass drunk at all.
 
The debrief makes it sound like a pretty good time, and @ATN_Pilot shacked it in terms of looking like a clown in front of people you may not want to appear to be a clown in front of.

Once Uncle Sam stops having such tight control over my schedule, I'm gonna have to make it out one of these years. The last two years I've fully intended to go, only to have work intervene. Anyone wanna bet that once I switch over to civilian work, nothing will change? heh

@Derg, any thoughts on making the event a job fair (erm, "Aviation Career Expo" I mean) again in the future?
 
Hate to be a buzzkill, but I've gotta agree with Mike on this one. Look at this from a networking perspective. If you were the guy with the job that everyone wants, and you've got a limited number of recommendations to make, are you going to recommend a guy who was stupid-ass drunk and spitting over the balcony, or a guy who knew when it was time to have a water instead of a shot?

If you want to get stupid-ass drunk, you should probably do it at one of the copious number of bars on the strip, not in the main event suite. Or just not get stupid-ass drunk at all.



Wha??? People were spitting off the balcony?
 
@Derg, any thoughts on making the event a job fair (erm, "Aviation Career Expo" I mean) again in the future?
We discussed this on the way home and the ONLY way we can make that happen is through a sponsorship or several sponsorships. If you know of a company that would like to be a prime sponsor (without changing the overall mission of ACE or NJC) so that we can add on a career fair for 2014. Let us know!
 
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