Just so you know…
So the schedule has been out for well over 24 hours and no major disasters have hit and we are pretty pleased with it. Actually we think it is really pretty. I thought before we headed on to the next step, I would address some of the issues from your questions, since they all boil down to about the same thing for us.
Stephanie and I are the backbone and the ring leaders of this event. We both have some very firm “this is how we live our lives” rules and since this beast is ours, well then, it certainly stands to reason that you would find a lot of who we are here.
First and foremost, it is very important to us that this event is accessible to everyone. In order for this to happen it needs to be affordable. To keep the Sock Summit affordable, we have kept staff low until we need them at the event itself. This means to reach us, you need to use the email addresses we have supplied. There is no sock summit phone number. We do realize this is frustrating to some and for this we are sorry. Please keep in mind that there are thousands of you, so really the best way to handle the (little bit scary) sheer volume of summiteers is by email.
This also means if we are not as timely with things as you think we should be, please keep in mind that we really are keeping within industry standards on most of our deadline goals. Also know that being the type A’s that we both are, we take these goals very seriously. (Okay so we looked up type A personality types and it turns out we are not, we are just really over worked and care a whole bunch.) It causes no small amount of pain for us to get close to a time goal and know we are not going to meet it exactly as we had planned. We are learning a lot. Some of it is painful.
One of the reasons that the schedule is not offered as a downloadable pdf is affordability. A big expense is the development and upkeep of the website. Downloadable pdfs cost more than a screen view. You can still print the screen view. We ask that you try to read it from the web because one of our other goals here is to keep this event as earth friendly as possible. In this vein, we are trying to use as little paper as possible. We appreciate your help with this.
This is also one of the reasons we chose The Oregon Convention Center. If you visit their website, you can read about all their sustainable practices. The convention center is also really accessible. The Max light rail goes directly from the PDX airport to the front door of the convention center and from there to downtown Portland. Most of the hotels are right there, along with restaurant choices. And again downtown Portland is about a 10 minute light rail ride, with a station right at the convention center entrance.
Along with being a really lovely place on the planet, Portland is a pretty affordable place and easy to navigate. It is also very green in both sustainability practices and that whole growing things arena.
When we booked this event, we got as many hotel rooms in close proximity of the convention center as were available. Because of the economy this changes and we check on this every two weeks. We will do so again this week to see if any have been made available for us to add to our blocks. Mostly though they are just filled to the very rafters with sock knitters. There are a lot of us. In three months Portland is going to be over run with knitters…sock knitters. We are trying to prepare them for this. We do not think they are getting it.
One of the most challenging parts of organizing an event of this magnitude is making decisions and choices, always keeping in mind and heart pleasing the most amount of people while keeping it affordable and functional. This is our goal and we both know that is not possible to make everyone happy. We are doing our best to stay true to you and to us.
We consider Sock Summit a holistic event. Where there is something for everyone sock knitting-wise. This includes the summiteers, the teachers,the vendors and sponsors and yes, even us. Our hope is that there are moments to be made and shared that we will cherish for years, as in the book signing part of this. We see this as not just a chance to get your books signed, but an opportunity to meet and have a one on one moment with extraordinary knitters,designers, teachers, and people. We have tried to arrange this so there is as much access to as many as possible. Oh, and so we have some crazy sock knitting fun too.
P.S. Vendors. we are running your charges today and tomorrow.
