Plancentric : The Hotshot Planner's Blog : Tia Ross

Dual Writers’ Event – Fort Lauderdale Bound

tia — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:40:27 +0000

A few years ago I visited Miami in search of a host hotel for an upcoming writers’ conference. Instead, the seed of a vision of a writers’ retreat at a beachfront resort was planted. I quickly realized, however, that holding such an event in Miami would not be financially feasible. Rates at the nicer beach [...]

Planner Headache: Resort Errs, No Contract

tia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:29:19 +0000

After waiting a week and a half for the sales manager at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa near Phoenix, Arizona, to send me the contract for the 2012 writers conference and retreat, I learned after pressing him for it Wednesday that he “forgot” he’d booked a group with a multi-year contract some time [...]

Paying for Overnight Accommodations During Site Inspections

tia — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:27:44 +0000

Since I decided to postpone the beachfront conference until I had more time to travel to find the right spot, I went back to the drawing board and contacted New Orleans and Phoenix. My conference manager, Monica, lives in New Orleans and would save me a trip by doing the site inspections there on my [...]

Planner’s Log–Hilton Head to Ponte Vedra

tia — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:34:52 +0000

On the third leg of my BWRC 2012 site search tour, I traveled from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, through Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Georgia, to Jacksonville, Florida. I left Myrtle Beach confident that the Westin in Hilton Head would be a better fit for my program than anything I’d seen so far, and I [...]

Locating a Conference or Meeting Site

tia — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:05:43 +0000

Sometimes finding the right place to hold a conference can be as challenging as finding a yellow bead in a bushel of corn, but it’s a critical step in planning a conference — and one that should not be taken lightly or handled any way other than efficiently. One of my favorites among the many [...]

Planner’s Log–Myrtle Beach

tia — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:39:38 +0000

It’s 6:24 a.m. and I was just awakened by a loud noise coming from the toilet in my room at a Marriott in Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida. If I needed a wake-up call, that would have done the trick, but I still had over an hour left before my alarm would have awakened [...]

Irene: Too Close for Comfort

tia — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:53:57 +0000

The next leg of my tour in search of a site for BWRC 2012 is taking me to Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head, South Carolina. I’ll also be visiting Savannah, Georgia, and Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida, which were all in the originally projected path of Hurricane Irene when I began closely watching this [...]

What IS this “BWRC” conference about?

tia — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:18:48 +0000

My friend Troy Nalls recently reminded me that not everyone in my ever-expanding circles knows what conference I’m continually referring to, so I thought I’d take a moment to rectify that. Black Writers Reunion & Conference is a multi-day event with 25-35 workshops and sessions designed to teach aspiring and emerging authors to write fiction [...]

How to Prevent Site Tour Stupor

tia — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:27:33 +0000

When touring more than three hotels or convention venues in one day or more than six in a week, the likelihood of your developing what I’ve come to refer to as “Site Tour Stupor” increases significantly. Symptoms can include: A glazed look about the eyes, also known as “The Blank Stare” Blurred vision Keen sense [...]

BWRC 2012 Tentative Dates

tia — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:23:32 +0000

Since my last post, I’ve received numerous inquiries about the dates of the next writers’ conference and retreat. Dates are tentatively set for August 2-6, 2012. The conference will be August 2, 3 & 4; the retreat, August 5 & 6. The second leg of my tour starts with a trip to my home state [...]