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The new head of No Kidding!, Pam, has given my chapter the go-ahead to host the convention next year. Maybe we can combine this with Boardapalooza? I'd love to see you guys come out!

The Houston chapter of No Kidding! is thrilled to announce that we'll be hosting the No Kidding! convention in 2010! We are looking at Spring 2010 (March, April, early May) because it's the best time of year weather-wise: not too hot, not too cold, and no hurricanes yet.

Houston has lots to offer: great museums, restaurants, zoo, theater, Johnson Space Center, nightlife, shopping, sporting events, etc. This is a very affordable city with friendly residents. There are 2 major airports that serve the Houston area.

There are many, many hotels in the Houston area, and they are used to conventions. We will do our utmost to find an affordable yet nice hotel that will accommodate our needs.

More details will follow once we select a date. In the meantime, please pass this info on to your chapters and your childfree and childless friends. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback as to what you'd like to see and do in Houston, please let me know.

Here is an update on the 2010 No Kidding! International Convention in Houston, Texas, USA.
My Houston chapter is hosting the convention!

DATES:
After consulting with the Houston tourism and visitors bureau to determine the best dates for our convention, we have narrowed it down to the following dates:

April 15-18, 2010
or
April 22-25, 2010

If you have a strong preference, please let me know. We are leaning towards April 22-25, because International Fest will be here.

HOTEL:
We are currently in negotiations with the following hotel:
Crowne Plaza Downtown Houston
http://www.cpdowntown.com/

PRICE:
- They would give us a great room rate of only $112/night!
- We would also get a discount valet parking rate of only $10/day, with unlimited in/out. The rate would be for anyone from our group, even if you're not staying in the hotel.

AMENITIES:
Meeting rooms, banquet rooms and catering
A pool!
handicapped rooms available upon request
Tempurpedic mattresses
A "quiet zone" option for hotel rooms - no kids!

TRANSPORTATION:
- two complimentary 12-person passenger vans that can shuttle hotel guests anywhere in the downtown area, based upon availability.
- hotel is just a 2 block walk to the Metro Rail

This just in: Jerry Steinberg will attend as a guest and will do a talk about the history of No Kidding!. This should be interesting.

CFS,

Thanks for the suggestion! Right now I might be in Australia (fingers crossed!) for a course, but I'll keep it in mind.

The 22nd through 25th would be best for me. Fiesta is that weekend, so I'd be off on the Friday. Plus with so many tourists coming here, being elsewhere is always a good idea!

Just an FYI:

The latest convention info will be posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nokidconvention

I will post general updates here, but if you want the nitty-gritty details and want them fast, join the above group.

Heya:

I'll be in school FT and we don't get many breaks other than the usual holidays and only 5 days of sick/other leave for the year so I'm not sure if I can make it.

If I happen to be on Spring Break or can meet you guys for dinner or something one night or on a weekend day I will sure try.

~

kirby Wrote:Heya:

I'll be in school FT and we don't get many breaks other than the usual holidays and only 5 days of sick/other leave for the year so I'm not sure if I can make it.

If I happen to be on Spring Break or can meet you guys for dinner or something one night or on a weekend day I will sure try.

~

It's not like you have far to travel! I hope you can stop by for a day or even a couple hours!

I wish I could commit to something like this it would be a blast.
But, with hubby still out of work and not knowing which end is up?
I have no idea what to say or do.
All I can say is I wish I can go.
But you all know what they say about wishes...
" if wishes were horses, beggers would ride"
So, no horse for me to ride right now, lol
Sorry, I hope you all have a wonderful time.
Thanks for the invite

TW, it's not for another 10 months, so hopefully by then the economic situation will improve. I'm rather surprised at how many people are saying no almost a year in advance.

I'll be there. I've never been to a No Kidding! convention, and this may as well be in my backyard it's so close.

I don't know why people are all being so negative and turning it down so far in advance. 10 months is a long freakin' time, a lot can happen in that amount of time.

I just joined the Yahoo group. It already has almost 150 members. Sweet!

Dune and WW, glad you are planning on attending. We have lots of fun ideas for the agenda and activities. Feel free to suggest stuff too.

I just joined the Yahoo group so I can keep up with it there. I'm excited, my first convention! I've never been to a convention of any kind.

A hotel and a date have been chosen.

Date: April 22-25, 2010
Hotel: Crowne Plaza, downtown Houston

More details to follow.

THE HOTEL ROOMS ARE AVAILABLE NOW!

BOOK YOUR ROOM FOR THE CONVENTION:
Dates: Thursday, April 22 thru Sunday, April 25, 2010

Reservation Methods: Individual Call In

The group code is NOK.

In-House Reservations: In-House Reservations office hours are Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Central time: 713-739-8800 ext 44

Crowne Plaza Worldwide Reservations: Crowne Plaza Reservations Worldwide Reservations can be reached 5:00 pm or weekends. 1-800-227-6963

Online: http://www.cpdowntown.com

The block of rooms will be held until April 8th, 2010, so don't delay!

The room rate is $112 per night, plus sales tax.

Optional: When you book your room, you can ask for "Quiet Zones" under the "Sleep Advantage Program", no maintenance or housekeeping between 9:00pm and 10:00am unless requested, and children and leisure groups are booked elsewhere in the hotel.

Parking is just $10 per day, unlimited in/out.

Amenities:
outdoor pool, garden courtyard, restaurant/bar on premises, handicapped accessible rooms, fitness center, high speed internet access, coffee maker in room, free shuttle bus to downtown locations (subject to availability).

Walking distance to Metro rail, bus transportation center and airport shuttle, restaurants, theaters, bars.

Details will follow with schedule, etc.

Sounds great! I will be booking this as soon as we get more info on the actual schedule.

dune67 Wrote:Sounds great! I will be booking this as soon as we get more info on the actual schedule.

I have a rough idea of the schedule.

We'll be doing some early-bird things on Thursday evening, such as a meet and greet cocktail hour, dinner, and maybe a murder mystery game.

Friday there will be sightseeing during the day, maybe a meet-and-greet cocktail hour by the pool or in the courtyard, dine-around dinners at various restaurants, after-dinner bar-hopping or clubbing for the younger folks, and some type of evening entertainment (like a show or something) for the more mellow people. (We might do the murder mystery tonight instead of Thursday - not sure yet.) MAYBE there will be an after-dinner talk by a guest speaker.

Saturday morning: brunch and talk by No Kidding! founder Jerry Steinberg in the hotel.
Saturday daytime: sightseeing and other group activities.
Saturday evening (7PM til ???) big dinner banquet party in the hotel ballroom. Dinner, drinks, bellydancing, and karaoke/DJ/Dancing.

Sunday:
Farewell breakfast in the hotel.
For those who are staying later, a day trip to Clear Lake (my side of town) for a tour of NASA Johnson Space Center: http://www.spacecenter.org/ I have friends who work at NASA who can get us a special tour that's better than the touristy one.
Afterwards, late lunch and drinks at Kemah Boardwalk, a waterfront resort area with restaurants, bars, rides, live music, etc. http://www.kemahboardwalk.com

International Fest (http://www.ifest.org) will be going on downtown all weekend. There will be concerts on Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. It will probably be self-guided rather than a group activity. There are always lots of big-name acts that perform, as well as local bands.

This just in! We have 2 guest speakers so far:

Laura Scott, author of "Two Is Enough: A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice", will be speaking on Friday night 4/23/10 after dinner at the hotel. There will be cookies and coffee served.

Jerry Steinberg, Founding Non-Father Emeritus of No Kidding! will be the guest speaker at a brunch in the hotel on Saturday 4/24/10.

Revised tentative schedule based on speakers:

This is a tentative schedule and may be subject to change.

Thursday evening 4/22/10:
For the early-birds:
5PM: meet and greet cocktail hour at the hotel (in the bar, in the lobby lounge, at the pool or in the courtyard)
dinner (location to be determined)
After dinner: murder mystery game (location to be determined).

Friday 4/23/10:
Daytime: sightseeing, museums, tours, shopping, etc.
International fest (all day)
5PM: meet-and-greet cocktail hour (in the lobby lounge, by the pool or in the courtyard)
6PM til ???: dine-around dinners: small groups of 4-10 people will leave for various restaurants at 15-minute intervals.
9PM: Talk by Laura Scott, author of "Two is Enough: A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice), with dessert and coffee, at hotel.
9:45PM: Singles bar crawl and clubbing

Saturday 4/24/10:
10AM: brunch and talk by No Kidding! founder Jerry Steinberg in the hotel.
Saturday daytime: sightseeing, museums, tours, shopping, and other group activities.
International Fest all day
7PM til ???: big dinner banquet party in the hotel ballroom. Dinner, drinks, bellydance show, and karaoke/DJ/Dancing.
11:30PM: Clubbing and/or bar-crawl

Sunday 4/25/10:
8AM until ???: Farewell breakfast in the hotel. I will ask the hotel to rope off an area of the restaurant for us.

For those who are staying later, a day trip to Clear Lake for a tour of NASA Johnson Space Center: http://www.spacecenter.org/ I have friends who work at NASA who can get us a special tour that's better than the touristy one.
Afterwards, late lunch and drinks at Kemah Boardwalk, a waterfront resort area with restaurants, bars, rides, live music, etc. http://www.kemahboardwalk.com

International Fest (http://www.ifest.org) will be going on downtown all weekend. There will be concerts on Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. It will probably be self-guided rather than a group activity. There are always lots of big-name acts that perform, as well as local bands.

The discounted room rate is available for Sunday evening too!