What to Wear at INANE in Maine

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Leslie

Good morning my friends,

One week from today we will be convening at the Regency Hotel and Spa for the start of INANE 2014. This morning it is foggy and threatening rain–I am hoping that next Monday is sunny and beautiful. Fingers crossed! But this does remind me that I wanted to post a few pointers for dressing for Maine and INANE.

As we are fond of saying here in Maine, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute,” and that is very true. Weather changes from being cool and rainy to sunny and warm in the space of a few hours. Knowing that, I would suggest bringing a light rain jacket or umbrella. Smart Maine dressers know how to layer, with sweaters or fleeces that can go on and off as the temperature varies.

As for the conference, INANE tends to be casual and this year is no exception. Leave your suits and heels at home and bring your comfortable clothes for the event. I am in charge and I can tell you, I won’t be dressing up! At the Academy of Nursing meeting in October they are having “comfortable shoe Friday.” I hereby dub this “comfortable clothes INANE” for all three days!

One last reminder–the conference officially opens at 1:30 pm on Monday, August 4th when the first trolley ride will depart from the front of the Regency, although many folks will have been busy already at Publisher and Editor Meetings scheduled for the morning. The trolley rides will be lots of fun so please plan your day, especially if you arriving on Monday, to hop on the trolley sometime during the afternoon. The Registration and Help Desk will be open on Sunday evening from 5 pm to 7 pm (maybe even a little later) and Monday, all day, starting at 8 am.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone in just one week! Until then, take care and think about INANE!

Leslie

for the Planning Committee: Peggy Chinn, Margaret Freda, Shawn Kennedy. Lisa Marshall, Jean Proehl and honoring the memory of our colleague, Suzanne Smith.

The Regency, Room Blocks, and Reservations

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Leslie

or…Hotel Reservations 101

When I selected the Regency Hotel for INANE 2014, I had to contract for a specific number of sleeping rooms that would be booked from August 3rd to 6th. This is standard for conference planning–it’s how the hotel makes money after all! But it is a balancing act to “guess-timate” the number of rooms. If I contract for too many and then we don’t fill them, I am stuck with paying the bill for the unused rooms. On the other hand, if I don’t contract enough, when someone calls to make a reservation, they may be told that the hotel is “sold out.” Technically, the hotel is not sold out, but our room block is. Certainly I want everyone to be able to stay at the hotel and enjoy the conference room rate for the duration of their stay.

Fortunately, it is not all a big gamble. The Regency is willing to provide some flexibility around the number of rooms in a block, especially when people are making reservations well in advance of the conference. For example, if our contracted estimate turns out to be too low for one of the nights, I can contact the sales staff to add extra rooms. But this flexibility is limited and we’ll get to a point when this is no longer possible. Just as we can sell out our block of rooms, if the hotel is holding a block for us, they have turn down reservations from other potential customers–because those rooms are reserved for us. When summer tourism season gets closer, Regency staff will be less willing to hold rooms and potentially lose customers. That’s why it is important to have reservations for our attendees confirmed early, before we bump up against summer planning. See what I mean about a balancing act?

I have modified our room block three times–the most recent was today. Reservations for Wednesday, August 6th have been running well ahead of my estimate. We originally booked 5 rooms, then 10. Now it’s up to 40. For the other nights:

Sunday Aug 3rd: originally 20; now 35
Monday Aug 4th: originally 70; now 95 (“run of the house”–we are hoping to fill the entire hotel)
Tuesday Aug 5th: originally 70; now 95
Wednesday Aug 6th: originally 5, then 10; now 40

What does this mean for attendees (and why I am going into such excruciating detail)? For purposes of planning and budgeting, it is very helpful to know if we are on target with our room reservations. I also don’t want anyone to be disappointed with their reservation by not being able to book the nights they want at the conference rate.

The good news is, you can make reservations without worrying about a financial penalty if you need to cancel or your plans change. They will ask you for a credit card to guarantee your reservation, but nothing will be charged until you actually set foot in the hotel. You will not be charged for one (or two) nights at the time of your reservation, as is often the case with booking agencies or using services such as Expedia. The cancellation policy is to call and notify them 48 hours prior to your arrival. You can also modify your reservation without penalty. So if you think you might stay three nights, make that reservation. Then if it ends up being two, you can easily cancel one night–as along as you do it more than 48 hours in advance. It helps me enormously in handling the “on-the-ground” details of rooms blocks and so on if you reserve early.

It’s easy to make a reservation: just call the hotel at 1-800-727-3436 or 207-774-4200. The staff at the hotel prefers if you call so you can discuss room types and availability. If calling is impossible (due to time zones or whatever) you can email the reservations manager, Shari Cole at scole@theregency.com.

And–if you have any problems at all please let me know immediately! Use the contact form to send me a message and I will respond as quickly as possible. I became aware of the need for the room block on Aug 6th to be increased because Elaine Miller ran into a spot of trouble but all is well now. I can work to fix things quickly but only if I know there is a problem!

Even if you are not ready to register for the conference, you can reserve your hotel room (many have done this). Like I said, booking early ensures that you will not be disappointed. I look forward to welcoming everyone to Maine next summer!

Leslie

Welcome to the INANE 2014 Blog!

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Leslie

Welcome to the blog for INANE 2014! This will be the place to come for updates and news pertaining to the INANE conference to be held in Portland, Maine, August 4-6, 2014. Our plan is to update the blog twice per month, on the 1st and the 15th, with more frequent updates if needed.

This website went live one month ago, on August 1st. Since then:

Eight people have registered for the conference;
Fourteen people have reserved their hotel rooms;
Two corporate sponsors have pledged support at the Platinum and Silver levels;
Two donations have been received for the Developing Editors Grant Fund;
One nomination has been received for the Developing Editors Grant Award.

At the website, we have had 299 visitors from 13 countries with over 1000 page views!

The Planning Committee from the conference that was held in Cork shared the conference evaluations and I am happy to say that many of the comments from attendees have already been addressed. One person noted that she missed the posters. I know there was a space issue at the hotel in Cork; I am happy to report that the posters will be back for INANE 2014. There were several comments requesting more variety and interactive activities–again, we have scheduled nine breakout sessions and have specifically asked presenters to include audience participation in their sessions. The call for abstracts for both posters and breakout sessions is open now and will continue through December 31, 2013. Information on the call can be found here; the online submission form is here. Please give serious thought to submitting an abstract and sharing your editing innovations with your colleagues.

Chas Summers of the Regency and Lisa Marshall discussing the merits of a deck room on the fourth floor of the hotel.

Lisa Marshall, who is on the planning committee, and I are both local. We’ve had a couple of visits to the hotel to see the accommodations and meeting rooms. All of the rooms at the Regency have been renovated in the past year and I think everyone will find their room to be extremely comfortable. I also think that it is safe to say that no one will be disturbed by inebriated, shouting individuals outside their window!

YUM! A dessert that exceeded my expectations.

In the interest of “research” I had lunch at the Regency earlier this week and it was excellent. I had a fancy salad and my companion had a lobster club sandwich, which she reported was delicious. But the thing that really knocked my socks off was the dessert–called “The Bar” it was a deconstructed Almond Joy, with toasted coconut ice cream, almonds, crispy sizzled orange liqueur rice, and two squares of chocolate nougat. Yum! It was so good I had to take a picture and now I can share it here with all of you. 🙂 All desserts are made in-house by their dedicated pastry chef. Who knows what imaginative ideas she will have by next summer!

One other evaluation comment suggested the idea of virtual attendance. Cost prohibits us from having a live feed or webinar; however, the comment was the spark that gave me the idea to start this blog. In the coming months, I hope to recruit a few “reporters” who will act as live bloggers from the conference. With four or five people posting, we should be able to have coverage of all the sessions complete with pictures. If anyone is interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact me–use the Feedback page which can be found here.

This blog is linked to our Facebook page, so for those who follow us through FB, posts to this blog will automatically appear there. (Posts from our other blog, nursingeditors.com also are linked to FB.) You might want to follow this blog: click the button in the lower right corner of your screen that says “Follow.” This way, every time a new post is added to the blog, you will receive a copy directly in your e-mail–a quick and easy way to stay abreast of INANE 2014 news and developments.

Thanks for reading, everyone. On behalf of the Planning Committee, I am looking forward to the countdown to INANE 2014 and welcoming everyone to Portland, Maine, next summer.

Leslie

Planning Committee: Leslie Nicoll (chair), Peggy Chinn, Margaret Comerford Freda, Shawn Kennedy, Lisa Marshall, Jean Proehl, Suzanne Smith