Official A2K Gathering in Chicago, May 7th, 2006!

The German pronunciation is close to GER-tuh: the "oe" should be pronounced like a short "e" with the lips rounded for an "o" sound.

Frankly, I prefer "GO-thee."



(Ooooh, Wells and Goethe -- sweet neighborhood!)

I told her to use 75-100 people as a guess. The per person minimum stays the same. If we are only in the Founder's room at lunchtime it will still come in somewhere between 30 -35 per person which is steep for lunch, but it puts everyone in the same place at the same time and takes having to find caterers, etc out of the picture. I'm game to keep looking, I just wanted to through this out there as a baseline. We have a hold on May 6th, which means rights of first refusal. If someone comes up with a deposit for that day we'll have to decide quickly if we want to keep it or not.

Sounds good to me...


assuming we are more than eight people.

Sounds really okay .... and I'm sure, we are at least nine :wink:

The menu reads very attractive, and $35 minimum per person seems fair to me as well. What do the time spans mean though? For example, if we took the 5-7 pm dinner, would they expect us to leave after 7 pm? Or could we spend the rest of the evening hanging out there?

I'm also not sure, but I'll venture a guess. "Each person receives a customized menu at no additional charge" could refer to the ability to choose from that list of foods, with two meal choices available ("One First Course, Two Entrees, One Dessert" or "Choose Two First Courses, Two Entrees, Two Desserts") and the added of additional selections at $5 each. It does end up allowing you a decent amount of choice; still doesn't seem to fit the definition of "customized" I have in my mind. This kind of customization would be free, as it requires little effort on their part.

"We have the opportunity to customize a menu for your event with our Executive Chef based on what you are looking to offer." This is probably actually a custom meal, being able to tell the chef ahead of time exactly what specific foods, different from their menu, you wish to have. That would most likely cost extra.

I'm not sure if anybody has asked the question, but how is the acoustics at this venue?

You are going to make music, c.i.? (Or shall we sing as a choir?)

Seems to me a Founder's Room, plus the ability to go outside... sounds preferable to some other places we've been discussing, CI, re acoustics..
hard to tell of course.

J_B, thank you so much for the research..

Walter, With a few drinks under the belt, I may be tempted to chase everybody out of the place with my singing....

c.i.,

Your singing would be better than listening to walter make a long speech!

Walter was in the teaching profession before he retired, so it's a toss-up whether his long speech is worth listening to.

I know, my father is a retired college professor. (Speeches from retired teachers may or may not be interesting.)

I think this means that the organizer chooses from the list. S/he chooses "One First Course, One Entree, One Dessert" for the party-goers to have. If s/he wants more selections, they cost the additional $5 each per person. The more expensive options would give the party-goers some selection rather than everyone eating the same thing.

The "customized menu" would be a piece of paper at each place telling individuals what they may select/will be served.

That makes sense, mac. It also makes sense of the "two entree" options and such -- why would someone want two entrees?? It means that the organizer would choose two entrees, etc.

Ah, yes, that makes much more sense than my theory, mac11.

<picks up phone to ask about customized menu>

Soz, are you still coming to Chicago next month? Maybe we could meet there for lunch while you're here and check it out. It's much less expensive than reserving the space for a large group and will give us a chance to sample the food.

That's an interesting idea! I do plan to go to Chicago, but we still don't have details worked out. As of now we're planning to cram a bunch of things into a short trip, but lunch is feasible (especially if you don't mind sozlet coming along). I'll PM you my email and we'll go from there.

I don't know. Is she well-behaved? :wink:

Very. :-D