The registration for dinners is up now, yay. Is there any way to register additional family members for dinners without paying for the drivers or passengers seat registration for each family member? The way it's set up now, you have to pay for a passenger seat registration for each person who is ordering even one dinner. I assumed that the registration was per CAR, not per family member. Am I wrong?

 

Talk about stalking the site

I'll have the following information up shorting describing the registration options and how they are tied to dinner tickets.

The net is that each person needs to have at least a "passenger" registration to get their dinner tickets. Since this option is only $5.00 even kids will be able to receive the swag we will be including with the passenger registation. At a minimum this will include a lanyard, custom badge, event guide, and a vendor scavenger hunt worksheet...when finished will provide an entry into the 5-10 large $$$ value givewaways we'll be doing at the Dragon Banquet on Saturday night (think prizes like a new set of tires, a wheel set, etc. )

This method follows allows us to accurately count everyone, give everyone something for the event, and insures that we can manage the headcount and costs of the dinners. As for the "Dragon Wheels" registration, that is just to register your MINI/Mini for the event so we can get an accurate count this year of the number of cars present (one of the feedback items from last year we're trying to fix).

Hope that helps explain the changes we've put in place this year.

Mark

 

Um... so if we want our kids to attend even a single dinner with us, we have to pay an additional $5 per child. That's not bad if you plan to have a child attend all of the dinners, but it adds a considerable ammount for a single meal. I'm not sure how many people plan to bring their kids to any of the dinners, but it seems a bit silly to add a registration with additional MINI swag (which a 5 year old will not use and my 15 year old does not care about) just so I can order a meal ticket. Since I have two kids coming in-tow, that's an additional $10, before the actual cost of the food. That... doesn't seem right to me, sorry. The arguement can be made that every $5 basically purchases a "raffle ticket" as you describe, but usually raffles are OPTIONAL things.

I dunno... Am I just looking at this the wrong way?

 

It's a $5 registration fee for each "Passenger" and it only has to be paid once per passenger. So...you're not really paying $5 per passenger PLUS the cost of each meal.

I'm bringing my two daughters (13 & 14) and because of their ages, they are considered adults. I personally would've preferred to see the age cutoff for a child set at 15. Why 15? Because this is a DRIVING event and 15-year-olds can't drive solo in most states.

It only cost me $233 and some change to register (1) Driver and (2) Passengers for all the meals. Not too damned bad considering we won't have to do any prep, cooking, clean-up or dishes!

Besides, it's all for charity...

 

Imagox, I see your point, but I also see Mark's point. I believe the dinners for the youngsters is cheaper, but I am not 100% sure and I don't know by how much. So lets assume that the dinners are $5 cheaper, than there goes the $5. MCDs doesn't give you a child discount, so you could think of it that way.

EDIT: Thursday for child 4-12 is $8.95, Friday is $8.00, and Saturday is $13.00

You are actually saving ALOT of Mod Money

 

I suppose...

We're looking at other options for the kids - my daughter is old enough, obviously to look after the young 'un and neither of them is interested in the table conversation that we'll be partaking in. Heck - we might just bring a microwave with us in the truck (we're towing the MINI behind our Suburban) and let the kids watch DVDs while we geek out with the car folks...

 

I just registered for the welcome dinner, could I go back later and register for the banquet (if I choose to attend?)

 

I'll provide a means to do this in a few days. It will effectively be a contact us type of feature and we'll have to verify your registration. If possible try to make your plans as early as you can so we don't have to manage multiple orders from everyone. With 600 or more registrations there will be more than enough for me to juggle

Mark

 

I can't believe there are only 5 spots left for the Welcome Dinner as of this post

 

Buggers!!!! I go away for a day or 2 and all the dinner reservs are gone!!! Now what??? I go hungry - bow bow bow.

 

Only the Welcome Dinner is sold out, Friday and Saturday dinners are still available. CLICK HERE if you need a list of outside restauarants. ClLICK HERE to view a thread of people getting together for a impromtu dinner on Thursday.

 

I know about the impromtu dinner but why have a 300 person limit? Why can't there be an overflow room somewhere else, so that we latecomers (people who registered only 5 days after the registration open) are not shut out, even with a remote audio we could at least share in the festivities. Not very MINI of you I must say!

 

There has always been a limit because of the size so no one can be blamed for that. It just sold out very quickly this year. Good job to Sunshine MINIs for having a very tasty looking menu.

I didn't have any intentions of going to the dinner on Thursday, taking it easy this year but I should have registered for the Dragon Banquet when I registered for MOTD. It's selling very quickly as well. I wasn't sure if I needed 1 or two tickets so I put it off. Bad move. I've used the "contact us" button in the events section to ask to be added but haven't heard anything.

I can deal with not using a ticket as long at it means I can make the event. Is that the only method available at this time to go back and be added the Dragon Banquet event? I see it's at 297, up from about 270 when I asked, and I'm not sure but I would think there would be a limit as well due to the size of the room.

 

What I want to know is that the Welcome Dinner states 300 on the Event Calendar, but when you go to the event, it states 346? Are the people on the list that is on the right the attendees? If so, why is there confusion in the numbers?

 

No one is blaming anybody for anything. It's just that Official start and end banquets should be able accomodate all attendees if they wish to go. I assume the dinner is in the Fontana Restaurant but why not have it upstairs in the main ballroom? Or open up another room and pipe the audio in there. We late comers would at least be part of the festivities. Sorry but it's hard for me to feel like I'm a latecomer when it is March 10 and a main event is sold out.

 

Fontana in no way could handle all of the attendees and vendors. The place is just to small and there is no space for them to expand. That is just the way it is for MOTD, that is why most attendees make reservations on the day they leave for next year.

 

Not true! The upstairs room where one of the dinners was held last year (buffet style) had plenty of room for way more that 300 people! And I made my reservations when we left last year too! Next year, I'll have to be on this board continually to get one of the 1st 300 slots. The Porsche conventions have better planning...

 

There are 300 registered for the dinner. I'm working out some bugs in the event planner and its thrown the numbers out of wack (a technical software term )

Mark

 

If you need to add/change dinner tickets for Friday or Saturday just PM me. Dave handles the Contact Us messaging and I know he's been away from the computer this weekend.

As soon as I get the numbers and checkmarks working correctly on the event planner page I'll put something in place so we can streamline the need to add tickets to existing registrations.

Thanks

Mark

 

I don't recall going upstairs for any of the dinners and I attended both of them? I was #3 and #4.

 

Mark,

The following was in your previous reply:

At a minimum this will include a lanyard, custom badge, event guide, and a vendor scavenger hunt worksheet...when finished will provide an entry into the 5-10 large $$$ value givewaways we'll be doing at the Dragon Banquet on Saturday night (think prizes like a new set of tires, a wheel set, etc. )

My question, must you be present at the Saturday Dragon Banquet to be eligable for these 5-10 large $$$ givaways?

 

Yes...during check-in for dinner we'll be checking the vendor scavenger hunt cards to see that all spots were checked. Once that has been verified you'll receive a entry into the drawings.

Thanks

Mark

 

Last year I was a brand new MINI owner (less than a week) and I registered late and got into all of the events!

So I am not sure of the names but the openining registration was held next to a large ballroom. We were served Burgers and Hot dogs and salads, there was a cash bar. This room was also were the Ice Cream Social went on. The next night was the BBQ at Topocino and the last night's dinner was in a small long hall next to the restaurant. The ballroom could easily accomodate 500 people. The hall next to the restaurant is probably maxed at 300, but why not open another room and pipe in the speaches, raffels etc?

I mean there is 50 days until this event, there's no way to accomodate excess crowds?

 

Ok, I remember that room now. I believe there were like 250 people there. I am not sure how SSM is having the room situated, but I don't bellieve you could fit more than 350 in it with a cash bar, stage, and other things in it. Another 50-100 people take up alot of space. There is also the fire code to consider. Perhaps Fontana has a limit of 300 in that room.

 

Well, we were late last year and missed out on all of it and we survived and still felt welcome. We understood, last year, that we had better plan better if we were going to participate this year. Since we wanted to participate this year, we watched the boards every day until registration was open.

There are other places to eat in Robbinsville, a pretty good BBQ place and a couple of diners, plus some fast food. You won't starve, you will just have to enjoy traveling the road back and forth from the Fontana to Robbinsville a little more than you might have hoped. Its good road, so that should add a little more fun to your weekend.