When Jimmy and I travel and meet with fans and discuss JordanCon, the first question we always, always, ALWAYS get is “Why Atlanta? It’s so far away from me!” My husband finds this be a frustrating question, because for him, the answer is obvious. We live in Atlanta, we founded JordanCon, therefore the convention is located for our convience. And while that’s certainly part of the answer, it doesn’t really touch on the myriad of reasons why we’ve chosen to anchor our convention in our home city.
Atlanta is a great city to host conventions in. It’s easy to travel to, with an international airport, and three interstates passing through. We’ve also got Amtrak and Greyhound stops. It’s easy to get to. We’re also within several hours drive of Team Jordan, which means they’ll be able attend frequently and easily. I often joke that it’s so easy to get to Atlanta, that most everyone’s been here once or twice by accident or airport layover.
As far as costs go, if we did decide to move the convention to another city, things get more expensive. We have a large amount of convention materials we’ve accumulated over the years. It fills up an entire closet at home, plus a few more things in the garage. Moving JordanCon to another city means I now have to arrange for shipping of these materials and risk damaging or losing them. I’d also have my own travel expenses to budget for, additional time off from work, and the cost of becoming licensed to do business outside of Georgia.
A pattern I’ve noticed is that the larger conventions tend to be the ones in fixed locations. There’s something about that predictability of location that allows your convention to really grow. Maybe it’s being able to build long term relationships with hotels and vendors. Maybe it’s fans preferring a familiar setting. It’s probably both. But JordanCon needs to have have every advantage right now, and that means a fixed location.
Another aspect of choosing a location is the neighborhood. When we began planning JordanCon last year, we assumed that the majority of attendees would be local and drive in. And then we started processing registrations from Austria, the UK, France, etc. We knew that for 2010, we’d need to be near MARTA for the convenience of our out of town guests. We also knew we’d need to be in a neighborhood that has access to many shops and restaurants. When I go to a convention, I hate leaving it for very long, so I want to grab quick convenient meals, and run any errands fast. Some people use a convention as part of a larger vacation though, so we wanted ease of access to downtown Atlanta and it’s attractions.
We really liked our first location near Northpoint Mall, but it wasn’t close enough to a MARTA station. Also, we filled the ballroom to max capacity. That Embassy Suites could not accommodate our future growth. We began looking in the Buckhead and Perimeter locations, both of which suited our needs. Eventually, we settled on the Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Perimeter. It’s near Perimeter Mall, the Dunwoody MARTA station is right there, and it’s right off the interstate. The hotel itself has plenty of room for our projected growth.
Choosing a location for an event like JordanCon isn’t easy. I do wish we’d found another Embassy Suites for 2010 (Happy hour just won’t be the same now), but I think the Crowne Plaza will suit us just fine for many years.
