Re: Re: Thank you for UKHA2003

["Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>]

> (1) Book the rooms earlier so that people can set up the day before.

Agreed...we will want to have setup on the Friday night next time.

> (2) Start the saturday earlier

Hopefully 2 hours earlier (10am).

> (3) Schedule something on both days around noon to 1pm where there are
no
> presentations.

Things were so tight there was no way of creating a lunch break.  I imagine
things will be even busier next time so not really sure about this one.
People will have to look at the timetable and workout what they really want
to see and what they can afford to miss.

Alternatively maybe people want FEWER formal presentation?  Personally I
enjoyed the ones I saw.

> (4) 75 minutes between presentations might be better than 60 minutes.

Even with two rooms a presentation every 60 mins was tight to get them all
in. See above.

> (5) If the schedule requires it, the Saturday could go on for an hour
later
> than it did. (Though I imagine extending the Sunday would be
unpopular)

Saturday will probably start two hours earlier next time.

> (6) As has been suggested elsewhere, separate presentation rooms from
> non-presentation rooms.

Yes...this is what we plan.

> The biggest potential problem I can see in being able to achieve this
is
> that it requires more money to book rooms for 3 days, and to book more
big
> rooms. Given that Graham only hit break-even in the bookings at the
> beginning of April (!!!!) this might present a problem if the costs go
up
> next year because the risk would be greater.

I don't think we'll have any problems with money...IF...more people
pre-book
next time!  If we have final figures early then we can do so much more.
Maybe we need to make a much bigger difference between pre-booking and
"on
the day" prices to encourage this.

> Perhaps we could persuade some of the HA companies attending UKHA2004
to
underwrite the event.

We are very thankful for the support of the companies in turning up.  That
fact that huge companies like Clipsal sent a representative is very
encouraging.  We are also very grateful for the support of the raffle.  We
must have given away between £1,500 and £2,000 of prizes this year!

More formal sponsorship of the event cannot be ruled out in the future,
however we need to keep control of the event and maintain its independence.

Many thanks for taking the time to make these constructive comments.

Regards

M.