The Extravaganza planning crew has been busily going through the evaluation forms. Over 120 of you (a 33% return rate!) turned in evaluations. Thanks! It's giving us lots of great data.
We take
evaluations seriously. As we read them
we try and discover what we can learn and then we integrate that information
into our future planning process.
Sometimes we see or hear strong themes that we want to pay attention, be
proactive about, and even to respond to publically if that is helpful.
Several of the evals asked questions or comments like these:
- The expense of the hotel
- Local food options
- The venue selection process
We want folks to know that we take these concerns very seriously. We know that the Extravaganza is not inexpensive. We know that congregations and individuals invest a lot in being at the event, and the E-Team works extremely hard to keep costs low and to make sure that being at the "E" has as much value as possible.
The cost of food:
Yes, we know that the Westin had very expensive hotel food. My jaw dropped a bit too when I ate in the restaurant for the first time. There actually were a lot of other local food options available: The food court at the Epicenter 3 blocks away with a bunch of restaurants, the pizza place kitty-corner from the hotel... a map we got from the hotel indicated that there were over 40 restaurants ranging from a deli ($6) to a Rock Bottom Brewery ($12-15) within a 6 block walk. So there were local food options available. We erred by not having this information readily available for our constituents. Participants needed to rely on their own research methods to discover the local optionsIn hindsight (always 20/20) we should have put a list and a map in the program book. We will make that change for future events.
The Westin Hotel:
Yes, the
Westin was a very "nice" hotel.
Just to be clear, it is not a 5-star hotel. It is a 4-star hotel. We know, that isn't the point, and it is
still very nice...but I think it's probably important that we at least are
accurate in our language.
We work extremely hard with the hotel to provide the best possible value for the participants. The price our participants pay to stay at the hotels we choose is probably 25%-33% of the hotel's normal "rack rate." Sometimes they run discounts and you can go cheaper, but for us to book rooms 12-36 months out, we get the cheapest deal we possibly can at the time. We know that your resources are scarce and we hope that you trust that we do our best to make the event affordable.
Why we do hotels at all? Why not a retreat center?
This is a
great question. The Extravaganza is a
unique event, because of the goals (Renew, Educate and Connect) and the
size. There are only a half-dozen
retreat centers around the country that could host an Extravaganza. (None of them are Lutheran, but that's not
one of the factors.)
Many factors come into play when talking about cost:
- Housing
- Food
- Transportation into
airports...being near major airport hubs for the cheapest possible flights
- Transportation to and from the
airport
- The sleeping accommodations
- The factor of having our
constituency feel cared for and as much as possible "pampered."
- Lots of "hang out"
space (couches, lounges, etc...) for people to network and talk.
Here's what we know:
We
contacted a few of these half-dozen retreat centers so we would have a point of
comparison. When we calculated things
out we found that the real costs would be:
- Housing and food for 4 days and
3 nights: $210. The housing would be quad occupancy in
bunks. Bathrooms down the hallway.
- Our program costs (these don't
go away, though they might be slightly reduced): $200
- Transportation to and from the airport. The nearest one of these to an airport
is an hour away. Some of the six
were 2-3 hours away. At least 2 of
them were in the snow belt, making transportation a little iffy depending
on the weather. So you'd have to
rent cars (but the retreat center doesn't have enough parking for that
many cars) or we'd have to run shuttle buses. Because people come and go at different
times, we'd have to have shuttles run over multiple days, multiple
times. We'd have to cover all of
these costs. This means that the
airport to retreat center transportation could be between $100 and $150
per person (or more) depending on which retreat center we're talking
about.
- Airfare (only one of these
retreat centers is near a major hub.
So you can expect to pay around 30% more to fly into one of the
smaller, regional airports...i.e.
- The event program would have
higher costs because we'd also need to transport the speakers/resource
people/musicians/equipment/sound/lights to this spot. This is a hard number to calculate.
So conservatively, we're talking about a $510 event plus air travel (at a higher rate because you'd be flying into a smaller, regional airport) plus whatever we need to add in to cover the program costs of being in a more remote location.
When we start piecing these things together, we realize that the cost of being in a retreat center is not that much cheaper than being in a hotel. Plus, one of the things we have heard on evals and in the regional caucuses when we asked the question was that a significant number of people like to be in a hotel...to sleep on a nice bed...to feel well-taken care of. One person said “we sleep at camps and on the floors all the time…once a year, I get to do this.”
Why then not a cheaper hotel? We explore all options available, and if we could find a Hampton Inn with 15,000 square feet of ballroom space, 7,000 square feet of exhibit space, the capacity to do meals and up to 12 breakout rooms for workshops, prayer chapels, etc, we'd book it. Less expensive hotels that meet our needs don’t exist. Our mission, values, goals and care of the constituents steer us to look for particular locations. These are typically convention style hotels.
Why not smaller, regional events? We're exploring this option. Keep in mind that there are still costs in terms of doing this too. It might be cheaper, but it would not necessarily be the same level of program as we can do in a single national event. Evaluations indicate that people like the level of the program.
We are also looking at some new ways of keeping the costs affordable for you.
- By signing a multi-year deal
with a single chain/brand, we can get lower costs/rates.
- By booking in smaller hub
cities, we can get lower room rates.
We value your
feedback and we are grateful for your asking these questions. Please know that we take them very, very
seriously. We will continue to work hard
to be good stewards of your membership and registration dollars and to ensure
an affordable event. If you have
questions or comments, please either post them in the "comment"
section below, or e-mail them to me at
Blessings,
Todd.
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