Dennis,
I have to agree with your assessment with the hotel. I have to admit I prefer Marriott properties and stay in them for the majority of my business travel.
I am not sure if we have out grown the facilities or if the current management does not understand the requirements of a major outdoor event. What I know is clear is we have received push back the last two years, with this year even more.
The event is always moving so fast it is hard to keep up with all of the comments and I was shocked to hear what the hotel pushed back on us this year. The problem is maybe we are growing in our ability and capacity to plan this event but they still view us as a few people getting together and need a place to stay.
Questions I have for the group. Do we have anyone that plans large events for corporate gathering? Our requirements are a bit different but if we can find some of the key contacts at major destinations this may become an easy solution.
If we do choose to move the location for 2009 I would recommend we develop a specification requirement. This would outline all of the needs and size of the group to ensure we don’t get to a point where they say “you can’t do that” when we are in the middle of doing it.
The Austin group always does a killer job on this event and I don’t want to create extra work for them nor take away the fun of planning the event. We all have real jobs and doing extra stuff always falls to the bottom of the list.
Cammer let us know how we can help. We can create a committee, I can create a private forum on the txcobraclub.com site to keep the planning to the core group (this is brain storming) to create both the specification/requirements for 2009.
Let me know how I can help