Delphic Expanse Meetup, Anyone?

[lfvoy]

Note: I have not run this past Aquarius or Honeybee so when I call this idea a TDE meetup, please understand that I'm doing so unofficially. It's their board, not mine!

But an exchange on Twitter got me wondering if it might be fun to throw a Delphic Expanse meetup? I'm thinking that if we start planning now, we'd have time for everyone to get finances straight, figure out logistics, and so forth.

My suggestion is going to be having it at Creation's Star Trek con in Nashville, TN, on June 29-30, 2013. I'm willing to get the suite if I can find enough roommates, and we'd be able to throw a movie night with some episodes, an Enterprise-themed party, a write-in, whatever.

Why this one? Nashville seems to be about a day's drive from many of the more frequently posting members, though granted that is a subjective perception on my part. Also, while it's large enough to entertain, it won't be as crazy as the Grand Slam or Las Vegas cons. It's also right at a year from now, which will allow for lots of planning (and money saving!) time. It also might give us some time to drop hints about particularly inviting Enterprise actors, if anyone's got any of that sort of pull.

This was a wild hair that found its way up my tail this morning. Any thoughts/feedback?

[Kylah618]

If we do it, I'm in.

That's only about 6ish hours from where we'll be living after the move, which is easily done. I'm also willing to help organize.

[lfvoy]

It's five hours for me, but I think it might be about twelve from some other people. Also, for those who aren't aware, Southwest Airlines has a HUGE presence at the Nashville airport, so domestic flights may not be particularly expensive.

Any other takers? If so I'll see about getting myself onto the mailing list so that I can grab tickets and a hotel suite soon as they come out.

[Aquarius]

I would love to do this, but I can't commit to doing it just yet. I have to see how the budget shapes up. I'm going to New York for a school thing in November, and I've also submitted a proposal to present at a conference in Las Vegas next March. I've also more or less committed to going to Media West in Lansing over Memorial Day Weekend in 2013, which is doable because it's not far. If I don't get accepted to the Las Vegas thing, it might be possible that I can go to Nashville, but I'm not sure. I can get help for Vegas because that's for school, but I'm not so sure about a con in Nashville.

[lfvoy]

The hotel appears to only book rooms about six or seven months out anyway. Does anyone know how soon Creation's likely to put con tickets on sale?

My thought is that we talk about planning now (so that people like me who have to save, can start if we want) but that the date where people actually have to start committing is in December or January at the very earliest. Only reason I'm even thinking that early is so that we can grab a suite instead of a room, before they sell out.

This is the first time I've ever considered something like this so all suggestions are welcome. Keep in mind that my benchmark on hotel suites is also Dragon*Con where they tend to sell out a year in advance. I'm hoping Nashville won't be quite that bad.....

[paulinem]

At first I thought that this would be out of my league, price wise. The airfares I looked up yesterday were from Brisbane to New York in June next year and they were around $4000 return !!! So I kissed the idea goodbye, but...

I did another check this morning for flights from Brisbane to Los Angeles at around the same time and it was $1600 upwards, so...

I might be able to make it after all. I really would love to come over and meet ya'll, and to finally meet my partner in crime Allyson Lee.

In saying that, I would love to commit but I won't for the moment, but I'm glad that we've got until December/January. Plus, I need to talk my lifelong/best friend into coming with me.

[Glory1863]

Pauline, it's another $700 +/- US from LAX to Nashville and back (pretending that we were flying this month rather than a year from now because Orbitz's calendar doesn't go that far ahead). I took a quick look to see if coming into O'Hare (Chicago) or Atlanta rather than LAX would help. It doesn't: $3500-$3800 from Australia to Chicago and about the same to Atlanta plus $350 from Chicago to Nashville or $400 from Atlanta to Nashville. Southwest doesn't appear to use Orbitz so they could be less. I know in Chicago, though, that they don't fly out of O'Hare (the big airport with the international terminal). They fly out of Midway (the old airport).

Why did they have to go and put Australia out in the middle of nowhere?

[EntAllat]

I wave my hand as a "maybe". Like Aquarius, I have a possible conflict - both time and money-wise - that means I won't be able to confirm until much closer to the date. (I may end up out of the country for two or three weeks.) But otherwise, I'm all in.

[EntAllat]

Okay, it's official for me. Even though I can afford to go to this, I won't be able to for a couple of reasons.

First, it looks like the 2013 Nashville con has been moved to September 7-8, and that's a blackout time at my workplace for vacations. It's too busy around here to let folks take off in the month of September. Second, I've burned all of my leave time for my mom's surgery and what little I'll be able to acquire between now and then will likely have to go towards something else I've already committed myself to.

[Honeybee]

I can only travel when I'm not teaching, so September is out, alas! However, I do fully support people organizing meetups and I'd certainly consider attending one in the summer!