Looking for bids: Fall Ball 2019!

[Vivianna L'antreau]

Do you have the perfect spot for the next Fall Ball location? Tired of having to travel across the continent when there are totally kickin' rad places for us to host the event in your own backyard? Has it been a while, and you're ready for the Tower to throw another party in your neck of the woods? We'll be in Sleepy Hollow in October, so now we're looking for our next party spot!

If you would like to bid on a location for our Fall Ball 2019 event, please fill out THIS form and send a quick e-mail titled "2019 FALL BALL BID - YOUR LOCATION" to naevents@tarvalon.net, events@tarvalon.net, keeper@tarvalon.net and amyrlin@tarvalon.net. (and yes you need to send it to all 4 so we know to look for your bid!)

I've also included a link to a page that lays out all of the questions from the form so that you can see them in advance and know what we're looking for and how to fill out the form itself. BID QUESTIONS

Bids need to be submitted by October 5, 2018.

Things to keep in mind when submitting a bid:

• If your bid is selected, YOU will be an integral part of the planning. By making a bid, you are volunteering to be the Local Liaison. What does that mean? Follow this link! LOCAL LIAISON GUIDELINES
• Fall Ball is generally held in the Fall (September or October) in a hotel over the course of a weekend (Friday-Sunday).
• Preferred site locations are near tourist or other fun activities. We will also be giving preference to areas with an active local event history.
• Normal Fall Ball attendance is about 15-25 people.

Here is a link to the locations of past events including all Fall Balls: https://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Events_and_Conferences


Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions, and we're looking forward to seeing your bids!

 

[Vivianna L'antreau]

You have about 2 more weeks to get these in! I can't wait to see where y'all want to go

 

[Avendaella Tikvah]

Is there any way to just suggest a city? Because I have no idea how to go asking about an event that may or may not be happening to a hotel.

 

[Vivianna L'antreau]

Ways you can have that conversation is to start on say hotels.com or something similar and start looking at price points. As a ballpark, we try to keep the room cost as much under $200 USD as we can. Last year in Grand Rapids, the rooms came to $155.23/room/night and this year they're at $200 (plus tax etc)/per room per night. This gives us a great start on working out budgets n'such.

Once you have a couple of hotels and some good solid ball parks on pricing (I look at similar times of year as well since holidays can make price differences. Fall Ball is typically held in October or sometimes early November) that's when you can call the hotel(s) itself. This is where I ask what their typical room rate is for groups, and we don't need a ton of rooms somewhere between 5-12. I also ask about their group room pricing, what their alcohol policy is in that group room, and what sorts of hours they generally rent it out since the later we can keep ourselves in a more public area vs making noise in guest rooms the better. Most hotels have rules involving private alcohol consumption outside of guest rooms though so this is something it's good for us to be aware of sooner rather than later.

Next I ask them about any recommended caterers (if we were to have catering in the hotel itself) as well as I start looking around at nearby restaurants and their general dinner menu. We try to keep dinner (including tax and tip) around the sub $40/pp mark if at all possible. I look at general entree pricing, as well as what it might cost to add in a salad or even dessert. That helps again to start narrowing down a budget...you can get a pretty good idea by browsing websites.

Now as to speaking to the hotels, I tell them exactly what we are. We are an international book club that meets in person several times per year and that we're looking at this particular city to hold our event. I explain that we have generally between 15-30 attendees, and that I am talking to several different locations to find the best fit for us. I write my questions down ahead of time so that I don't forget anything, and to be sure that I'm comparing apples to apples when reviewing the information later. Big key is to just be upfront with the hotels/caterers/restaurants and tell them right off the bat that we're looking at an event in Oct/Nov and are talking to several different places before making a choice and that we just need some information to help make the decision.


Essentially, I would personally prefer that people not just suggest a city, but have done a bit of the legwork themselves before submitting a bid. As you can imagine, this takes a bit of time and research and if I had to do that myself for 5 different cities that time adds up way more than 5 different people doing it themselves and then me helping to narrow things down once the city has been chosen. I've done this for 5.5 events now and it's actually an easier conversation to have than you might think!

Finally, if you or anyone else has further questions about my process or things I think about etc, please ask! You can also reach me by email events@tarvalon.net