Steam Punk Event Piscataway 2018This page was created by Sunny Chaudhry, General Manager of Radisson Piscataway, to collaborate with the Steampunk Community to plan and run a Steampunk Event at the Radisson Piscataway the weekend of May 4-6, 2018. Zero affiliation with the prior event.
With the implosion of this event over the last couple of weeks/months it originally looked like Silver Phoenix Society was going to step up and run the event. Unfortunately per the post on 3/22 that is not going to happen. I am not personally privy to what has happened or going on I can only talk about what has happened this weekend.
The Radisson Piscataway decided they wanted to do something to make sure some sort of event was held. This lead to some people doing some grass roots efforts over the last 36 hours to get some ideas down on how to move this event forward.
There was a facebook group formed
The purpose is to work out all the details in the next 5 weeks to ensure a event does happen. Currently the hotel has secured all the space for the event.
This will be a free event as it is being planned now.
Hotel rooms will be honored at the previous rate of $149 per night.
Vendors can get a room on the first floor for vending at the $149 per night and the hotel will remove the furniture from those rooms for free.
We are looking at other vending spaces and how to do them. That discussion is on going with the hotel and those working out the planning for the event. This is a community event so please we need to hear from vendors.
At this point the event will go off. How big or small depends on the community. Please join the conversation.
So one of the topics that has come up is how to set up this event and effectively manage it. Since events like this need some sort of organization or committee and ultimately who is responsible for liability. Let's start the discussion:
How would you like to see this run?
Open community with no leadership running it? In other words the community makes all decisions?
A Not for Profit company to be formed and officers assigned to run the event?
An LLC formed to run the event with corporate officers in place?
Any other suggestions on what could be done to make sure the event goes off and to cover liability.
I have been posting a lot on the Page set up for this event and would like to add a few comments.
Conversations are happening all over the place and I would like to give a Sunday update of what I know.
I have had discussions with Matt Black Nayrellim Miller RelliMilleryan and Radisson Piscataway about the event.
About me: I am the owner of Vile Genius Games out of South Florida. I have set up and helped work at conventions all across the country through various fandoms. I loved the event when I attended and want to see it succeed. I have no connection to JME, SPWF, or SPS other then talking with Jeff about being a vendor/guest last year and this year.
First the needs of the community should be first and foremost. A Facebook group page should be set up. Pages are for a better part a place for just posted information on a community or event, and not conducive for a ton of free thinking posts. Since it will have to take someone clicking a side window for conversations.
Forming a facebook group also gives that transparancy of who is posting where. Pinned posts and about section filled out simplifies who is doing what and so forth.
Hotel information:
The discussions I had with the Radisson has been extremely positive. What the hotel is offering is all the meeting open space rooms are being provided for free to the event. This means that the community does not need to pay that space.
The discussions I had with the Radisson has been extremely positive. What the hotel is offering is all the meeting open space rooms are being provided for free to the event. This means that the community does not need to pay that space.
Vendors would need to pay the cost for the table and chairs set up and that is $10 per table and two chairs set up.
Vendors can also book the rooms on the first floor as their vendor space in the past for the $149, however this time if you need the bed removed it will be done free of charge instead of the standard $150 fee to remove the bed for the event.
The hotel will give $10 per night booked back to the event. This could help in recovering costs for the event and for paying performers.
The hotel is going to give 2 rooms for the event for free at the start. Then if 100 rooms are booked the event will get 4 more rooms. If 200 rooms are booked the event gets a total of 10 free rooms. This helps with comping rooms for performers.
The hotel requires liability insurance for the event in the amount of 2 million in coverage. (see Liability)
Liability:
Per the hotel the event needs to cover 2 million in liability insurance. The good news is that this is not expensive for the expected turnout. Running quotes for insurance it ranged from $350-$650 depending on how many people were coming to the event. (I used a number of 900-2500 people to get quotes).
Someone or some entity is going to need to assume liability for the event. The hotel will not accept the liability for the event itself.
I have been talking with Nayrellim Miller RelliMilleryan (Ryan from here on out) a lot though facebook chat about the event mostly about the liability and how to ensure this event is a go.
The topics we discussed was about how liability is assigned and who/what is going to take the liability. I highly advise against an individual taking on liability for this event. If something goes wrong and insurance does not cover it that person can be sued. I have seen this happen a few times.
Ryan has been adamant that this needs to be a community run event, and having a business or LLC. I agree wholeheartedly agree that this needs to be community run. Since the community has been burned by JME and SPS. Ryan's stance is against forming a LCC or a business entity to do this. My suggestion is a Not For Profit group that, at least at this time, plan on dissolving after this event.
Performers:
My comments were mostly logistical in nature on this topic. Mostly what A/V equipment is currently available and what would need to be rented for the the performers. Mostly to get ideas for costs as to what is needed.
A few performers still are willing to come to the event which is a huge plus.
Funding:
Since the community, vendors, hotels, and performers all got screwed over by JME and then by SPS, the idea for charging for this event has be universally decided to be a dead idea. Thus the free grassroots event.
There will still be costs incurred for this. They should be relatively low in comparison to most events. There will be a cost for insurance, A/V rental, some security needs (IE walkie talkies). The discussion around using crowdfunding has been brought up several times, but that is still in the infant stages.
In looking over the requirements it looks like about $5,000 might cover all needs with some left over that can go to performers.
Facebook Group:
The problem with pages is that it is very unfriendly to community discussions as it requires an admin to post a topic for people to respond to be seen by everyone. A Facebook group gives the transparency of who is admiring the page and who is commenting.
Final comments:
Right now it looks like this event is going to happen. Some logistics need to be worked out but over the past 36 hours this has moved forward with great progression. By hell or high water it looks like there should be some firm announcements soon on this.
All in all I hope the community can save this event.
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