RE: COMMON - the week's over...

["Shannon ODonnell" <sodonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Your company won't pay for your training/air/hotel fees Scott?

That's how most of us afford to go in the first place...our companies pay
for it.



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 12:59 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: COMMON - the week's over...

Hello,

> Room rates and fees are getting harder to negotiate - hopefully one
> of the positive effect of the downturn will be resorts more willing
> to negotiate.  I did notice that in Vegas the $12.99 Internet fee was
> also in effect - perhaps a deterrent to sitting on the room instead
> of at the tables!

This has been pretty standard across the hospitality industry for years. 
  Expensive hotels charge for internet access. Cheap hotels (Holiday 
Inn, Hampton Inn, Super-8, etc) give it to you for free.

> I am very hopeful the brand new Hilton Orlando will meet all the
> attendees' needs.  See you there!

I hope so...  sigh.   But, at the moment that looks unlikely.  COMMON's 
new policy of not reimbursing speaker's expenses has put the conference 
out of my price range.

The only speakers who will be able to afford to participate will be 
those who have something to sell.  (Consultants, authors selling books, 
vendors, etc)

I wouldn't quibble over trivial costs like $13/night internet.  But 
having to pay airfare, hotel, etc (somewhere in the neighborhood of 
$2000 out of pocket) on top of spending 300+ hours of volunteer work for 
COMMON... it just doesn't add up.

So unless something changes, I guess I can't go to COMMON anymore.  I 
hope it changes.