just how tiny is the hall in Norfolk's convention center?

[golf_lover44]

Talking with several people at the show on Spoetzl Brewery's property last Saturday, they pointed out that the registration page for CANvention in the latest BCCA magazine says you are limited to ONE 6 foot table. Considering how many people I saw at CANvention in St. Louis that had 2 or 3 tables, and the hall had at least 60-70 feet unused at the back, it makes me wonder about Norfolk.

[halfquart]

CANvention 51 will not be utilizing a civic convention center. All activities will be in the host hotel. There are certainly pros & cons when using a hotel ballroom as the trade floor. Limited tables are one of those cons. Also, the table vendor did not have an adequate supply of 8 ft tables, so we had to settle for 6ft tables. This CANvention will be similar to Portland, Denver and Dallas. The 4th floor ballroom at the Hilton is a little over 18,000 sf. Our floor plan has to have fire Marshall approval.
Hope this explains the 1 table limit.
Mark C

[golf_lover44]

What about the people who want more space and thus will want more than 1 table? Will they be out of luck?

[MI-Cans]

CANvention 51 will not be utilizing a civic convention center. All activities will be in the host hotel. There are certainly pros & cons when using a hotel ballroom as the trade floor. Limited tables are one of those cons. Also, the table vendor did not have an adequate supply of 8 ft tables, so we had to settle for 6ft tables. This CANvention will be similar to Portland, Denver and Dallas. The 4th floor ballroom at the Hilton is a little over 18,000 sf. Our floor plan has to have fire Marshall approval.
Hope this explains the 1 table limit.
Mark C

@halfquart
Your explanation makes sense and thank you for it.

This is just a curiosity on my part. I really don't care one way or the other, but, does the one table limit apply to everyone, including the advertisers?

(MI-Cans)

[halfquart]

If we have unsold tables they will be available at the registration desk, but that creates a table administration problem. If you preregistered and have table H-4 and want more tables, then we have to move you to K1&2 and then try to resell your single table. Doable, but it becomes confusing with all of the other activities that go on at the registration desk.

Randy- unfortunately we cannot let our magazine/website advertisers preregistered for more than one table, this year. Our magazine, full page advertisers spend around $1,800.00/ year for their ads and one perk for their on going support has been to allow them to reserve more than one table. Due to limited space we cannot offer that option this year. Some “dealers” are recruiting attendees who don’t want a table to reserve one anyway and then let them use it and that is fine.
With limited trade floor space, room-to-room should be very active this year. There are many pros and cons for both a convention center trade floor vs. a hotel ballroom setting.
Mark

[josh]

"With limited trade floor space, room-to-room should be very active this year."

I see this as a great benefit, and incentive.

[Dixie Dave]

"With limited trade floor space, room-to-room should be very active this year."

I see this as a great benefit, and incentive.

The more I think about this, the more I agree. It makes time during the show more flexible. And I love room-to-room dealing, so this really should work out great. I do hope our Host Chapters are helping with the room-to-room by having hydration stations at various points in the hotel so we don't have to keep running back to the room for a beer.

Looking forward to seeing y'all in Norfolk!

[idigrust]

I'd like to see,
Tues/Wed/Thur - Room to room all day
Thursday - General Business Meeting IN THE AFTERNOON SOMETIME, craft beer night
Friday - Trade floor & display room, chapter meetings and Hospitality parties
Saturday - Trade floor & Display Room - banquet

[halfquart]

Danny “sunglasses” Bora,
The planning committee has considered changing the format of CANvention for a number of years. The last show of hands at a general business meeting was to keep the 3 day trade floor. We are open to any suggestions, but it would be a change that has to be acceptable by the usual attendees.
Renting a convention hall for 3 days is a serious 5 figure expense and then to see 60-70% of the tables empty by 1 pm on Saturday is disheartening.
Changing the format of CANvention needs to be expressed in a BOD meeting and then discussed (ugh).

[rusteditor]

I thought Portland was really good and had a better than usual mix of room to room along with the trade floor. Looking forward to it!

Phil

[golf_lover44]

With limited trade floor space, room-to-room should be very active this year.

And how is that going to work at the overflow hotel? My guess is that 1% - 2% of the attendees will make the 1 block walk to check out what is being displayed in the rooms at the Marriott. Which means that folks staying at the Marriott will have to carry totes and boxes of breweriana over to the Hilton, and I'm guessing a large number of folks won't want to do that. At the least, people staying at the Marriott will have to carry items to the Hilton to bring to the trading floor in hopes of making deals. And will management at both the Hilton and Marriott allow signage at the elevators for people to advertise they're available for room-to-room trading? Maybe, and maybe not.

[Sea Monkey]

When is the BCCA going to release all the unused/unsold table? I hear around half are not spoken for as of yet. We are around a month out..