US Nationals 2012 (Las Vegas)

**Tyson** · 12-09-2010

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · 12-09-2010

Originally Posted by Tyson

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.)

**shelley** · 12-09-2010

Originally Posted by Lucas Garron

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.

Agreed. During the course of the competition, people aren't actually sitting in the auditorium seating watching the stage for hours on end. They're practicing, walking around, socializing with other cubers, playing with puzzles and other games. I liked the arrangement at WC09 (as well as at some smaller competitions like Missouri Open and one of the Utah competitions) with the tables for people to sit at. It felt more open and it was easier to move around.

I didn't spend much time in the audience at Nationals last year, but I think an open audience area is a good direction to move towards.

**Bob** · 12-19-2010

I know it was just held this way, but I'll throw the option on the table anyway.

I may be able to get Liberty Science Center.

Pros:
- Accessible via public transportation
- Several spaces (400 seat theater, 300 seat theater, 100 seat theater, several lobbies and halls)
- I can probably secure this venue at low cost to us
- Several airports nearby (EWR, JFK, LGA)
- Ferry ride across from NYC (lot to do in surrounding area)
- No shortage of nearby hotels

Cons:
- Nationals was only about 200 miles away in 2010
- It is not west of Ohio
- Not walking distance to nearest hotel (I don't think)

**Tyson** · 12-20-2010

It's not walking distance, but the PATH train is right there. And we could probably get rooms at the Embassy Suites in the Financial Center (I used to work around there) for not TERRIBLY expensive. It'll be expensive, but if we could get a rate like we did in Boston ($150), I would say it's a success. There would probably be some good cubing opportunities in New York City as well.

In terms of access to the competition, it would probably be PATH train + walking or something like that right? I'd have to go to the science center myself to check it out. Perhaps 2013?

**Tall5001** · 05-20-2011

What has been decided for 2012 has it been planned already or is it still open for discussion?

**Tyson** · 05-22-2011

It's still open for discussion. There are a number of leads being pursued now but no contract has been signed.

As for dates, 8/3 to 8/5 in 2012 look okay? Is that better than 8/10 to 8/12? The main concern with 8/3 to 8/5 is summer school or something like that.

**Tall5001** · 05-22-2011

What about middle of the summer. and as i was saying for 2013 what about DEN? would that be possible? I find that in the Southwest school starts later and ends sooner then the rest of the USA. We start early august and end late may. rather then late august or even september like everyone else

**Vincents** · 05-24-2011

I would argue that rotating locations is better than central location. Rotating locations distributes the cost of travel roughly equally among cubers across the country across a 3-4 year period, whereas a "central" location (e.g. I would consider almost any state in the Mountain and Central Timezones that doesn't border Canada or Mexico a "central" state) unequally distributes higher costs to those living on the coasts, which have a higher population of speedcubers as it is (I think? There are a ton in CA and the Northeast Corridor just by virtue of population density).

More important is for there to be a nice large airport and/or secondary airports (I personally think tOSU doesn't do as well here, but the airport is close to large enough the perks of having an awesome organizing base more than make for it) and nearby attractions (food, lodging, etc.). So a city such as LA, SF, or Orlando, although coastal, can and will have cheaper airfare options by virtue of sheer competition of airlines and hotels than, say, Cheyenne. No disrespect to Cheyenne intended.

**Stefan** · 05-24-2011

Indianapolis!!!

Nah, I don't really care, I just took the 790 cubers from
http://www.cubingusa.com/cubers.php
and plugged them into
http://www.geomidpoint.com/
and it says the center of minimum combined distance is a bit north of Indianapolis.

Locations:

Spoiler:

And the "geographic midpoint" is a bit west of it:

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