US Nationals 2012 (Las Vegas)

[Tyson]

I'd say west of Ohio is a good pick. Colorado and Southern California seem nice.

Competition website: http://www.cubingusa.com/usnationals2012/

[Bryan]

As with the 2011 planning thread, try to keep the noise down. "I think the rule is you're allowed to suggest something only if you have the capability of holding a competition there by yourself. That means, you have the ability to secure the venue. Or at least, you would be able to begin the process. None of this, "oh, let's just rent out a broadway theater" stuff."

We're not hosting the World Cup. We don't need room for 10,000. Almost any decent size city is going to have a venue. The organizers aren't interested in doing the legwork for you taking a few seconds to type a venue ("Hey, what about the convention center in Fooville? They're big and there's a Chuck E Cheese nearby"). Instead, try, "Hey, would you be interested in my contacting the convention center in Fooville?" And if we suggest that you do, then actually follow up and see if you can get some quote on price and availability.

[Tyson]

Well, Lucas is filled with noise. "Your hotel is near the venue" type noise. Anyway, San Diego is in my thoughts. Here are my thoughts so far:

San Diego, but I would be depending on Adam Zamora to come up with a suitable venue
Colorado, but I would be depending on Patrick Kelly/Daniel Hayes to come up with a suitable venue
Las Vegas, how much will it cost?
San Francisco, exploratorium may be moving to a new building
Los Angeles, could probably find something here... perhaps UCLA, but I have no connections there

[DavidWoner]

As with the 2011 planning thread, try to keep the noise down. "I think the rule is you're allowed to suggest something only if you have the capability of holding a competition there by yourself. That means, you have the ability to secure the venue. Or at least, you would be able to begin the process. None of this, "oh, let's just rent out a broadway theater" stuff."

Yes. I'd be more than happy to hand out bans to people who do not comply with this.

[Weston]

I have connections at USC.
My uncle works there. I can try to get a hall.

[Tyson]

I have connections at USC.
My uncle works there. I can try to get a hall.

I thought about this. A hall at USC would probably be very nice. My main worry about USC though, is the surrounding area is not very good. And I'm not about to have cubers walking around the streets on their own in that area. Unless it's cleaned up, but as far as I remember, it's not the best area.

UCLA, on the other hand, is a nicer area. Westwood has restaurants, and it would be a lot more comfortable in my opinion. Last thing I want is another 2008 incident.

[~Phoenix Death~]

I thought about this. A hall at USC would probably be very nice. My main worry about USC though, is the surrounding area is not very good. And I'm not about to have cubers walking around the streets on their own in that area. Unless it's cleaned up, but as far as I remember, it's not the best area.

UCLA, on the other hand, is a nicer area. Westwood has restaurants, and it would be a lot more comfortable in my opinion. Last thing I want is another 2008 incident.

What happened in 2008?!

[blade740]

I've thought about looking into disneyland as a venue. There's a very good transportation network from the two major airports in the area, lots to do for families who don't want to cube all day, and a variety of hotels ranging from cheap to luxurious. Plus it's in my backyard

A few things I'd like to know while I'm asking around:

How many rooms did we end up booking for nationals 2010? (after our block was extended)
How many people would a prospective venue need to hold?
As far as dates, are we thinking similar to previous years? Early-mid august?

One other thing: is anyone actively going out and seeking corporate sponsorship for events like this? How much has this been explored in the past? I'm not sure exactly what it would entail but it's worth considering. This year at the hotel every vending machine ran out of Mountain Dew by the end of the weekend: we should try to get PepsiCo on this.

[Tyson]

I've thought about looking into disneyland as a venue. There's a very good transportation network from the two major airports in the area, lots to do for families who don't want to cube all day, and a variety of hotels ranging from cheap to luxurious. Plus it's in my backyard

A few things I'd like to know while I'm asking around:

How many rooms did we end up booking for nationals 2010? (after our block was extended)
How many people would a prospective venue need to hold?
As far as dates, are we thinking similar to previous years? Early-mid august?

One other thing: is anyone actively going out and seeking corporate sponsorship for events like this? How much has this been explored in the past? I'm not sure exactly what it would entail but it's worth considering. This year at the hotel every vending machine ran out of Mountain Dew by the end of the weekend: we should try to get PepsiCo on this.

I think we had 30 rooms at first for US Nationals 2010. We extended it to 40 and then maybe 50. The problem was that people simply didn't book their rooms until the last minute, so I had no idea how many rooms were needed. (As a side note, for 2011, there is limited hotel space.) I would imagine for a competition in Southern California, we would want about 75 to 100 hotel rooms.

A prospective venue would need to be able to handle about 300 competitors. That's looking for a place that can hold 600+ total people. Actually, maybe more. But you also have to consider the ratio of the space. The competition is stage-space dependent.

The dates are flexible, but I would start out by looking at early-mid August. If you find some amazing deal, we could do the competition whenever.

With corporate sponsorship, we just haven't had the man-power to do this. It would entail writing a letter, and then blasting it out to potential corporate sponsors. If someone can step up to the plate and get this done, I would support it. But I don't have the time to do this for now.

[Lucas Garron]

The competition is stage-space dependent.

One thing that's also easy to forget is that the audience space should be open; a traditional auditorium should have many aisles as possible. I've seen some beautiful auditoria that seem great at first glance, but where the entire central range of seating would be practically useless if we want the competitors to come up on stage and mingle a lot. WC09 completely turned that around with tables in an open space, but in practice, more needs to be looked at than the stage.

(Not that I don't think Tyson and the others know that, but I think many people don't think about it.)