Summer 2005 – July 8th, 9th, and 10th.
ATTENTION: This is NOT a big convention like a Star Wars, or Star Trek Convention.
Chicago
Event: MatrixFans.net Meetup
Movies: The Matrix Trilogy (Ultimate Matrix Collection editions – The movies have never looked better)
Anything else?
No special guest stars to speak of, just us crazy kids from MFN. Maybe some t-shirts or something. Who knows.
From nehs162:
Well guys and gals, something you have all been waiting a nice amount of time for, finalized information on the meetup! *dances about and falls over* Yeah that was stupid, but oh well. Ok, so information! We do now have a set time, date, and location for everything.
The Hotel – Best Western (located in the heart of Chicago)- Now there is a site for the hotel which I will provide but I need to clarify some stuff before you read information and get confused. Towards the situation of rooms, you can have roommates! Its a great way to get to know people better, have fun, and lower the cost of your rooms! Here is how it works and bear with me on this.
Cost per a night of a hotel room – 140 USD (this is with tax included)
You alone in the room – 140 USD a night
You + 1 roommate – 70 USD a night
You + 2 roommates – 46.666 yeah round it to 47 USD a night
You + 3 roommates – 35 USD a night
The duration of the meetup is 2 nights, 3 days. You can do the math. Now this does seem all well and good but there is a catch. If you do a roommate there will only be 2 beds. One bed if your rooming alone. However, think, 3 people, 2 people in a bed and 1 in a bed ; 4 people, 2 people per a bed. So yes this would involve possibly sharing a bed or hey the floor is always a popular and uncomfortable option (trust me on this one). Now towards finances and reserving rooms, we need to know a.s.a.p that all is ok, your still planning to attend, so that we can request rooms to be located next to each other.
The Suite/Meeting Area – Suite inside the Best Western
Research has been conducted (entire thanks to BlackKat for this) and it is simply impossible to afford a convention esque place. It would require people to pitch in a nice amount escelating over 100 USD. It was decided that it is best to simply rent out a suite for the time we are there and split the cost as it is much much less and offers a great convenience. When the math was done (I will triple check myself a few more times) it came out that each person would pay an additional 40 USD. Guys, this is more than understandable and highly fair. This gives a very nice suite to accomidate all of us and to make the best out of our experience.
Travel To Chicago
This is more of an individual issue than a general one as everyone will be traveling from different parts of the world. We have plenty coming from the UK and possibly from Australia, not to mention parts of the USA. So this I cannot help you with, only thing I can give you info on is taxi costs from your respective locations. If you will be traveling from certain airports, the cost could be more than from other locations. I know personally as I will be traveling by train from Philadelphia, PA, the train station is less than a mile from our hotel. So train is a nice option. If you will be driving, the hotel offers free parking, so thats a nice consolation. Rates are obviously different for all modes and like I said this is for you to deal with personally, maybe you can travel together? Carpools are possible, and another example, Rogue and myself will be meeting in her hometown and traveling together to Chicago. It won’t lower the cost but makes it more fun.
Additional Expenses
Again this is another personal option. You have some things to consider depending on certain issues. Some things we can throw out at you to consider is:
– meals – – – the hotel does a what I would consider a continental esque breakfast, for those of you who have never traveled before, this is fruit and some pastries, so if your like me, thats more than I usually have for breakfast. One less meal for you to worry about, but its up to you. You do need to pay for your own lunch and dinner and any other snacks you so wish.
– additional: this is up to you, cameras, souveniers, whatever you think you need to worry about. Some at night may want to sample the local night life (wow that made me sound way to proffesional) or go to a bar. To each is own. But you DO need to account for some additional travel expenses and expendetures. Talks are currently underway for T-shirt design, so if you buy one, there is money to spend. I do not want to make this sound like an overly expensive trip but you need to be understanding of this (I speak from experience, under estimating expenses is bad, leaves for um…bad situations).
Basic Rules
Guys, we are all mature and respectful people, but even we need sometimes to be reminded of basic content. We want this to be a meetup to remember hence no drama and above all no fights. We know the religious and political talks cause alot of tension, hence we will be requesting that these topics stay under wraps. Some people may, however, be going to Mass, Church, or other various religious services. Please be respectful of their decisions to do so. Other basics. If you are asked to do something by someone is running things (Specter etc…) please respect it; its all meant for your benefit. If for some reason you get out of hand or incoherent for any reason, you will deal with the Big F***ing Gun himself Major. Major will be heading security and you are to…respect his authority (I had no idea it would sound like south park till now, hehe). If you cross any lines or act out of order you will be asked to either leave or will not be able to participate with the meetup. These rules are final, they are not open to debate, and again they are impemented to insure a good time.
The Itinerary – Plan for the days
Finally my friends we come to the fun part….events we will be planning and doing! Now this is still the roughest part of all. Technicalities needed to be worked out first, and now we leave the option of what happens open to discussion. Biggest, and I mean biggest note of all! THIS IS NOT A HUGE CONVENTION! This is not like the Star Trek or Star Wars conventions you see, no way! This is just us, the members of MFN, enoying the films that brought us together and enjoying each others company. Ideas that have been discussed so far are:
– watch all the movies and extra material
– when we first meet, everyone goes around introduces themself
I know this seems incredibly rough but we are open to all suggestions. Give us ideas, have fun with it. Get creative! Specter said it himself, this is a fan meetup, it is partially runned by us fans, so your ideas are beyond welcome.
SO THAT IS IT FOR NOW! I will leave some notes down for other things that will be discussed and informed to you all at a later time. Thanks for reading this whole thing, and bearing with my incredibly bad humour.
– Times of arrival and departure
– T-Shirt designs
– A full on itinerary
– Any last additional technical details that must be worked out
As promised the website for the hotel: Best Western
AH ONE LAST THING! *slams head into desk then goes to get ice* ODJ pointed this out to me. We are in fact having some people who are under the age of 18 (these people were exceptions and given specific premission to) and he found an interesting little blurb on the site. According to it, those 17 and under, if you are staying with someone who is over 18, that person (17 and under) can stay in the room for free! Now I thought this was to good to be true…..yea sorry it is lol. I called the hotel and found out how it goes. First off traditionally this option is used for families (yes we are all an mfn family) but still it would apply for our situation. HOWEVER BIG CATCH! Lets take an example to help explain this:
1 person (17 years old) + 1 person (18+ years old) – – In one room
If the 17 year old opts to go for free, the ENTIRE room fee will be left upon the other party. So if you had plans to split costs with people, and you opted for the free option, sure it benefits you, but those other roommates will have to pick up your room tab. I can’t say whether this is good or bad, it honestly depends how your rooming situation goes, but this is something you absolutly need to consider especially if you were banking on roommates to help with the cost.
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