Six LDS Writers and A Frog

Monday, August 04, 2008

Storymakers Conference 2009

Somewhere around this time last year, I got suckered, I mean talked into, running this year’s LDStorymaker’s Conference by last years lovely and talented conference queens, Heather Moore and Annette Lyon. Well, this whole Farworld thing came along and the next thing I knew, I needed to find a place and a date for the conference.

Two of the biggest complaints last year were that the meeting rooms were too small and the meals were too hard to get without missing some of the keynote speaker’s talk. This was not anyone’s fault, but just because we have grown so much every year that we didn’t fit anymore.

Well I have good news. We now have a date and a location. The date is April 24 and 25th. I know that’s about a month later than last year, but the Whitney committee had a very difficult time judging the books by the end of March when many nominations didn’t even come in until the end of the year. So this will help them. This should also avoid the conflict we had with the Childrens Writers Conference at UVSC.

The new location is the Hilton Garden Inn in Layton which is connected to the Davis Conference Center. This is a great location for many reasons. First, the Hilton Garden Inn is a GREAT hotel, and at a rate of only $89 per night it is $5 cheaper than the hotel we used last year. It is 19 miles north of Salt Lake, right off I-15. Near lots of restaurants and shopping. The real coup though is the Convention Center. This is a truly gorgeous state of the art facility that is attached to the hotel. We will have a ball room that seats between 200-250 people meal style, two classrooms that seat 50 each classroom style, a green room for staff and speakers, and one whole lobby of the convention center for the bookstore. In addition, the whole thing will be catered by the hotel, so no one will have to miss anything.

Because the cost of the meals is a little higher, we will have to increase conference prices a little, but I’m hoping to keep the increase as small as possible. We also have some great new speakers, agents, and editors. We are implementing a track system, which was another request, and we are going to leave the lunch open for socializing and move the keynote speaker back to the dinner time slot.

So mark your calendars! It’s going to be a great conference.


13 Comments:

At 8/04/2008 7:54 PM, Blogger Annette Lyon said...

Bwahaaaahaaa! Our evil plan worked.

Seriously, looks like a fantastic location. Sounds like Heather and I picked the right person's arm to twist into chairing the conference. Can't wait!

 
At 8/04/2008 8:15 PM, Blogger Kerry Blair said...

It sounds wonderful! I'm going to run out and buy a 2009 calendar just so I can circle the days three times with red marker. No way am I going to miss it next year!

 
At 8/04/2008 8:42 PM, Blogger Karlene said...

Got my calendar marked. When can we sign up?

 
At 8/04/2008 10:03 PM, Blogger Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I dream of attending such a conference some day. Way to pull it together!

 
At 8/05/2008 12:09 AM, Blogger J Scott Savage said...

Thanks all.

Keep an eye on this link for sign-up dates. I'm going to ttry and get it up early this year.

http://www.ldstorymakers.com/conference.html

 
At 8/05/2008 11:12 AM, Blogger Don said...

WooHoo. I'm so there!

 
At 8/05/2008 1:30 PM, Blogger Tristi Pinkston said...

I'm so excited for next year . . . of course, I start getting excited for next year about thirty seconds after the current year has come to a close.

 
At 8/05/2008 3:59 PM, Blogger Tamra Norton said...

Can't wait! And it's only 5 minutes from my sister's place (where I usually stay when I'm visiting Utah). The conference is truly one of the highlights of my year. I love reconnecting with my Storymaker friends and being in an atmosphere where everyone else "gets" me.

 
At 8/05/2008 10:00 PM, Blogger Nancy Campbell Allen said...

YES! I live in Ogden, so a big woohoo from me! Nicely done!!

 
At 8/06/2008 4:31 PM, Blogger Danyelle Ferguson said...

AWESOME!!! I just emailed Tristi yesterday to ask her if she knew the dates, etc. Of course, she sent me over here. I'm sooooooooooo excited! I can't wait to get signed up. I'm tempted to call and make hotel reservations now. Think it's too early??? :)

 
At 8/06/2008 7:20 PM, Blogger Heather Moore said...

It's on my calendar! I'm excited already! It will be so AWESOME to be one of the attendees, instead of IN CHARGE this time :)

 
At 8/07/2008 1:52 AM, Blogger Keith N Fisher said...

Can we pre-register before the registration opens? I want to make sure I don't get turned away.

 
At 10/14/2008 10:16 AM, Blogger hi, it's me! melissa c said...

I am so excited about this! I have been waiting and waiting to find out info. for the next conference! Count me in!!!

Can we register early?

 

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