You can add me to your "expect to be there" list. I upgraded my supporting membership to attending at Boskone.
I've run similar convention-long party suites at a couple of Worldcons. Your starting estimates sound realistic. In both cases, I stayed in one of the bedrooms and recruited in party-friendly fans to pick up the expense of the other bedroom. The first time, my suite-mate was also a convention-long co-host. That proved very useful. The second time, my suite-mates signed on to help host one of the parties and lent a helping hand at others but also headed out to enjoy the rest of the convention. Both approaches worked, and really helped on the expenses front.
When I did it in Chicago, I also found it exceptionally useful to sublet the suite one night to a compatible group (the UK bid party, in my case). I used the very welcome night off to check out the rest of the Worldcon party scene. Again, it helped on the expenses front, and still left me with the party suite during the daytime, which was useful for smaller, more relaxed gatherings.
It's early on in the process, but I'd also consider carefully just where you want the suite to be. In Orlando, we were in a lower traffic spot. That was good, especially because the suite was one of the smaller ones. In Chicago, we dead center on the party path -- between the huge Boston bid party and the elevators. We went through the bheer I'd bought for the entire weekend on the first night.It was great for outreach, less so for the settle-in-and-visit crowd. I especially remember the rasff party night -- I was expecting to know about 85% of the people there, and to accommodate 15% passers-by. Instead, the percentages flipped themselves. Rasffarians were in the minority and we had lots of party-hoppers who didn't even know what Usenet was, let alone rasff.
The different themes help keep the whole thing fresh and interesting. I'm all over the Snow Monkey party. I'd go to one of those in a minute. It's different, memorable. None of the other MileHiCon themes catch my interest even though any of them could work. Somehow, they all seem more "inflicted" -- like as a party guest I'd be expected/required to do the pirate thing, the political thing, etc. etc.
It's useful to remember that there are lots of other parties at the convention, that you don't have to lay in the full set of basic party supplies you normally would. It took me a while to learn that -- I think it was the ConJose "Thanks a Mint" parties that really drove te point home. We didn't have to serve a full line of soft drinks. We could have one or two party-themed drinks and let people get their sodas from the consuite, or another party. That helped on the budget front, and on the manpower front, too. Other times, I've enjoyed running full-service, better-than-the-consuite style.
On the spills and cleanliness front, my party kit contains a little handheld carpet cleaner vac, a dustbuster, and one of those mechanical (i.e. quiet) carpet sweepers. I'm less certain about how cheap towels over plastic would work. Even if they were taped down, I'd think they would tend to bunch up, look crappy, and feel weird underfoot. Hmmm...have you ever experimented with flannel-backed vinyl table cloths secured on all edges with gaff tape? The heftier ones, not the ultra-cheap flimsy type. Don't know that they'd hold up to heels, but there are some interesting decorative possibilities.
Hmmm...I seem to have exceeded the LJ comment limit. The rest coming separately!
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I've run similar convention-long party suites at a couple of Worldcons. Your starting estimates sound realistic. In both cases, I stayed in one of the bedrooms and recruited in party-friendly fans to pick up the expense of the other bedroom. The first time, my suite-mate was also a convention-long co-host. That proved very useful. The second time, my suite-mates signed on to help host one of the parties and lent a helping hand at others but also headed out to enjoy the rest of the convention. Both approaches worked, and really helped on the expenses front.
When I did it in Chicago, I also found it exceptionally useful to sublet the suite one night to a compatible group (the UK bid party, in my case). I used the very welcome night off to check out the rest of the Worldcon party scene. Again, it helped on the expenses front, and still left me with the party suite during the daytime, which was useful for smaller, more relaxed gatherings.
It's early on in the process, but I'd also consider carefully just where you want the suite to be. In Orlando, we were in a lower traffic spot. That was good, especially because the suite was one of the smaller ones. In Chicago, we dead center on the party path -- between the huge Boston bid party and the elevators. We went through the bheer I'd bought for the entire weekend on the first night.It was great for outreach, less so for the settle-in-and-visit crowd. I especially remember the rasff party night -- I was expecting to know about 85% of the people there, and to accommodate 15% passers-by. Instead, the percentages flipped themselves. Rasffarians were in the minority and we had lots of party-hoppers who didn't even know what Usenet was, let alone rasff.
The different themes help keep the whole thing fresh and interesting. I'm all over the Snow Monkey party. I'd go to one of those in a minute. It's different, memorable. None of the other MileHiCon themes catch my interest even though any of them could work. Somehow, they all seem more "inflicted" -- like as a party guest I'd be expected/required to do the pirate thing, the political thing, etc. etc.
It's useful to remember that there are lots of other parties at the convention, that you don't have to lay in the full set of basic party supplies you normally would. It took me a while to learn that -- I think it was the ConJose "Thanks a Mint" parties that really drove te point home. We didn't have to serve a full line of soft drinks. We could have one or two party-themed drinks and let people get their sodas from the consuite, or another party. That helped on the budget front, and on the manpower front, too. Other times, I've enjoyed running full-service, better-than-the-consuite style.
On the spills and cleanliness front, my party kit contains a little handheld carpet cleaner vac, a dustbuster, and one of those mechanical (i.e. quiet) carpet sweepers. I'm less certain about how cheap towels over plastic would work. Even if they were taped down, I'd think they would tend to bunch up, look crappy, and feel weird underfoot. Hmmm...have you ever experimented with flannel-backed vinyl table cloths secured on all edges with gaff tape? The heftier ones, not the ultra-cheap flimsy type. Don't know that they'd hold up to heels, but there are some interesting decorative possibilities.
Hmmm...I seem to have exceeded the LJ comment limit. The rest coming separately!