Celebration 4 - Planning Thread

Zoom! Are you just blowing steam, or is this th real deal????? I don't really care where the damn thing is, I just want to know!

My wife has family in Iowa. I have seen pictures and it looks like there is literally nothing there!

 

Dang. All that anticipation, and no announcement.

 

Okay.

No announcement - but if it does turn out to be in LA, we'll be facing a decision. Not looking at a specific hotel, but rather looking in relative terms... where do we want to stay? How far away? From everything we've seen so far, it would appear there is a trade-off between distance and quality of the hotel. (Not counting the one that JGoC pointed out, of course.)

Personally, I would vote against anything that would involve us having to commute in by car to the con every day. Can you imagine us trying to get everyone ready to ship out from the hotel at the same time every day, leaving the con at the same time every day, and dealing with parking on top of that? So, I'm thinking we really need something within walking distance.

Now of course, "walking distance" means different things to different people. Could we get a general idea of how far people would consider walking between the hotel and the con?

 

I'm thinking about getting one of those little electric scooters for this one

 

Five days in LA for this one, eh? That's going to be fun but expensive.

(Hello everyone. I haven't been around for awhile, but I am still alive and kicking.)

 

It's official!!!

Star Wars Celebration IV in Los Angeles To Mark 30th Anniversary of Saga

May 26, 2006

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Gen Con LLC will throw the largest party ever for fans of the saga, taking over the entire Los Angeles Convention Center in May 2007 for five days filled with live entertainment, celebrities from all six movies, special film and video presentations, an exhibit of movie props and costumes, exclusive merchandise sold at a 24-hour-a-day store, pop culture tributes, immersive events, costume contests, and scores of additional activities.
Star Wars Celebration IV will fill the L.A. Convention Center from Thursday, May 24 to Monday, May 28, 2007. Admission to the first day of the event will be for worldwide members of the Official Star Wars Fan Club, many of whom will help plan and run special programming themselves. The convention will be open to the general public from Friday through Monday, Memorial Day.

"Generations of fans have loved Star Wars, many passing along the 'Star Wars gene' to their children," said Steve Sansweet, Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm. "This is the first chance to celebrate all six movies in the saga-George Lucas' complete story-as well as the vibrant future of Star Wars. If you've ever been to one of our Celebrations-or if you haven't been before-this is the one not to miss."

Celebration III, a four-day event held in Indianapolis in April 2005, attracted more than 34,000 fans from all over the world. "We started getting questions about a possible Celebration IV even while the last convention was running," Sansweet noted. "So we're determined to far outstrip anything we've done before, both in size and scope, as well as introduce many first-time activities and lots of exclusives."

Lucasfilm is also working on other Star Wars-related events in the Los Angeles area just prior to Celebration IV, "so we're expecting Southern California to become 'Destination: Star Wars' from the weekend before through Memorial Day weekend," Sansweet said.

The convention announcement was made jointly by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Gen Con LLC. Gen Con will once again manage the convention on behalf of Lucasfilm and the Official Star Wars Fan Club. The Celebration IV announcement is being made a year in advance to give fans worldwide a chance to plan for a week-long "Destination: Star Wars" blow-out in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is the ideal site for a 30th Anniversary convention, Sansweet said, since there are many Star Wars roots in the area. It was also the location of the first official Star Wars fan gathering, the 10th Anniversary Convention. Star Wars opened on May 25, 1977, on just 32 theater screens in North America, including Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

One of the highlights for fans at a Star Wars convention is the chance to buy unique merchandise, including an exclusive, limited-edition action figure. Because this has led to bottlenecks and long lines in the past, the Celebration IV store will be bigger than ever, self-service, well-stocked with merchandise, have plenty of check-out lanes...and be open 24 hours a day from the opening of the show on Thursday until the close on Monday!

"Gen Con is thrilled to be working again with Lucasfilm on this very special event," said Peter Adkison, owner of Gen Con LLC, producer of Gen Con Indy and other Gen Con events. "Together I know that we will produce a convention that will not only meet, but exceed, fans' expectations. With Lucasfilm 100% behind this show, it's going to be the biggest party in the history of the franchise. We are particularly focused on dramatically improving the selection and service in the Celebration store."

Stay tuned to starwars.com as your primary source for updates about programming, guests, activities, entertainment and exclusive merchandise at Celebration IV to be released as they are confirmed clo

 

Sweet.

A whole week in L.A., eh? Sounds fun.

I concur with Taeriel about the difficulty in coordinating this herd of cats to get them between a hotel and the convention center...even with shuttles as it sounds like GenCon/Lucasfilm will be helping to make sure happen. Then again, it depends on how much you want to be able to stay together.

I'm sure it will work out somehow.

I'm willing to walk about 1/2 mile...then again, I wouldn't be in costume so I think I'm willing to walk farther than others.

 

is that how far we were last time?

 

Ok so i have been doing a little research as well as T & JoC.

The one that JoC found near the center is probably our best bet. I emailed them to see what their policy was on group reservations.

i personally am not able to put "X" number of rooms on a credit card....however with the lack of close hotels i think we should get on this ASAP.

what do you kids think?

 

The Figueroa Hotel Very popular 12 story 285 room hotel located in the best part of downtown next to Staples and Convention Center. Realistic prices. Exotic Verandah bar, pool and jacuzzi. Eclectic party venues 50 to 2000 guests.

Accommodations Room Rate High $170.00
Accommodations Room Rate Low $98.00
Accommodations Suite Rate High $225.00
Accommodations Suite Rate Low $175.00

 

I'd also like to point out that GenCon will be blocking hotel rooms for C4. I had heard that people who had booked in advance of C3 in the hotels that were blocked ended up losing reservations and having to re-reserve them through the C3 planners...


Is a year going to be enough time to save up?

More importantly, will my wife be game for taking a 7 year old, a 4 year old, AND an 8-month old baby?

 

BUT I ALREADY HAVE HOTEL RESERVATIONS IN IOWA!!!

 

Yo Bro, we booked 18 rooms last year, one year in advance. The rooms that GenCon had set up were not much cheaper & most of the hotels were not even connected to the Con.

I think we are getting really good at orginizing these things even if none of us can ever agree on anything.

So I say we call around, see what the prices are, see how many rooms can be booked on one credit card and how soon do we have to cancel w/o fees. Make a vote on which one we like, have a few people step up, reserve the rooms, and we can work it out from there.

 

Ninjas have been called and notified. Time to start planning, w00t.

 

I agree with SC...so far in the top would be ...

The Figueroa Hotel

The Sheraton

Holiday Inn

 

...now I have to convince the wife that we need to make a trip to LA next year...


It's a good thing that her family lives in LA. I might actually be able to pull this off a bit and go to a Celebration.


ED: on a plus side, final exams end on May 12th, so this won't conflict with school!!!

 

Everybody needs to get a moped! LOL

I can reserve rooms if anyone has leads. I like to be as close as possible to the convention. Otherwise it is a major headache - believe me! Especially with an R2 that needs proper maintenance.

 

w00t!



time to start saving!

 

I'm down with the moped idea.

Nearest Ninja from there is 3 hours away. Too far away to crash effectively. Shucks.

 

Just talked with the The Figueroa Hotel. they are emailing me information.

they didnt' know about the convention. So this is a good sign, we are getting in before the rush.

SO seriously how does this look with everyone...i mean if you dont' say then we dont' know. I asked the guy if it was walking distance he said yes. soooooo yeah. they have fun pictures.

i will tell you, he just told me they only like to have a max of three in a room.

i am putting in my vacation time today...HA HA HA HA HA

 

I wanna go. This time around, now that I somewhat know what to expect and how to handle things, I'm actually almost excited.

Once we know what hotel will work best, I'll probably reserve 3-4 rooms on my card right away for the Ninjas. That is, unless we can work out some sort of "Ninjamobile" that could handle transporting a small contingent of Ninjas from San Diego every day. Urgh.

 

SC - Do those post it notes make sense now?

 

They made sense yesterday too, but I did have them in the order of A, L. When I held them up & Gloria asked me what I was doing we both said "LA" I didn't say a word to anyone either, not even Jeff, but he's been working like a dog & I'm as sick as one

 

See... And I thought if you got them, you'd have sent me a snarky email