04.08.05 - 04.10.05: Notacon - Exploring Community through Technology

Exploring Community through Technology - Notacon [1] is the second iteration of a yearly technology, arts and music event held in Cleveland, Ohio.
This year's focus is on how technology and community intermingle. The event itself hosts
speakers [2], events, games [3], live music [4] and a whole lot more.

Notacon will take place from Friday April 8th through Sunday April 10th 2005 at the
Holiday Inn Select Cleveland - City Center Lakeshore located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

Notacon will present two tracks of talks as well as Friday morning/day
professional sessions geared toward professionals. However, anyone who
attends will have access to both the professional sessions and the
usual talk tracks and events.

Other activities available throughout the conference will
likely include live music, contests and games, new and unique
conference, games and trivia, as well as full use of the hotel's
wireless network. We will also offer a "lounge" in which attendees can
hang out, use our local wired network and generally have a place to
congregate that isn't their hotel rooms.

Those who attended last year might find the Changelog [5] for the event helpful, as it will give in detail some of the things we are going to do a little different this year.

Registration

Pre-registration for this years Notacon is now closed.

The door price for Notacon is $70. This year, in addition to accepting cash, we will
also accept Visa and Mastercard. If you choose to pay via credit card, be aware that we may
ask for additional identification to verify that the card is, in fact, yours.

We will NOT accept personal checks.

Speakers and Schedules

• Schedule [6]
• Speaker list [2]
• Game and Events [3]
• Musicians [4]

Logistics and Travel

Go here for directions and travel information [7]

This page gives some basic directions to the hotel as well as other stuff travelers
might need to actually attend Notacon. Information about RTA schedules and suggestions
is also listed for locals so that they can avoid the hassle of parking downtown or
at the hotel.

The Hotel

The Holiday Inn, again, has been kind enough to provide us with an extraordinarily competitive rate of
$75 per night for our block of rooms as well as reduced parking at a rate of $5 per day.
Contrary to whatever their webpage may say, our contract states (and I have confirmed with the hotel)
a rate of $5 per vehicle.
The conference price extends from the three days before to three days after the event.

The initial blocking for Notacon is 60 rooms and is good through the middle of March or so.
After that, rooms in the block may be issued to others on an as-needed basis. Please book your room soon
to make sure you can take advantage of this low rate! Booking outside of the block will result in
a much higher cost, so please plan accordingly. Both smoking and non-smoking rooms are
available. Single bed rooms have a capacity of 2 people, while the capacity of rooms with two beds is up to 5 people.

To book your room on line,
please use this link [8] and under "Group Booking Code", use, "NOT" for this event. You may,
alternatively, book rooms by calling 1-800-HOLIDAY. Again, be sure to give them your booking
code. PLEASE NOTE: The parking rate of $14 listed is WRONG. I have confirmed with the hotel
that the rate is in fact and will remain $5 for pre-registrations. Blame bad software
for their inability to change it for us :)

Publicity

Want to help publicize Notacon? Fliers and other information can be found on our
publicity page [9].

Vending, Commerce, Sponsorship, Non-Profits and Table Space

Those interested in either selling stuff at Notacon or promoting their organization with our
table space need to contact us in advance to make sure those resources will be available.
Information about this topic can be found on our commerce resources
page [10].

Information for Presenters, Musicians and Artists

If you are presenting or performing at Notacon, the organizers have put together a
set of webpages [11] designed to answer your questions
as they relate to your presentation or performance.

Location