Edmonton Convention 200 kms Away

by jgnat 19 Replies latest jw experiences

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  jgnat

  This has come up before but we ran in to an old guy from the hall over the weekend and he confirmed a few things about the change of Edmonton venue this year.

  I'd mentioned this old fellow, too. A rare friend from the Kingdom Hall, a real character, and I genuinely miss him. He's been calling regularly because he finally caught on that hubby is no longer attending. I'm screening calls. Well, the inevitable happened; hubby ran in to him at the store and they had a good long chin wag. In order to keep talking they kept up the fiction that hubby has been busy out-of-town.

  They got talking about the convention in Red Deer 200 kms away and this old fellow is thinking of just going down for one day. The trip is just too much of a hardship for him. He mentioned as an aside that there are many more at the hall that feel as he does. So I think this will be a significantly under-attended convention.

  See in years past, the convention has always been held at the Coliseum in this great northern city. Rural Witnesses from farther north and around would drive for hours to make it here. For city folk of course, it was a convenient venue, with transit arriving almost to the doors.

  NOW, this year, the venue is moved to Red Deer, another 200 kms farther south! For a family travelling from Grande Prairie, for instance, that's a seven hour drive, one way! Smaller city, smaller venue. Edmontonians are being asked to drive down daily so that the local hotels can accommodate those driving down from farther north!

  The old fellow also mentioned that the Colusseum has a new manager and he was insisting that the concessions be left open through the convention. So instead of bowing to the manager's demands, the local coordinating committee changed venues....200 kms south. I am sure the Edmonton Colusseum management won't have any trouble finding a replacement tenant for that weekend, with the added revenue from the open concessions. The WTS, however, will be shorted I am sure. I just don't think the sheep are as cooperative as they give them credit.
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  The Searcher

  The "refining" of the G.B. devotees will continue apace - my heart goes out to them!!

  Even Satan transformed himself into an angel of light!
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  berrygerry

  Were they banning attendees from bringing their own food and drink, or would they still allow that?

  (I've heard this threat before - where if attendees bring in take-out food from nearby establishments, then the facility will end up saying - No outside food, period.)
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  ILoveTTATT

  Almighty dollar... Always wins...
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  Simon Morley

  For the benefit of others a bit of context shows the stupidiy of this move. Red Deer has a population of about 12% of Edmonton. There were conventions in Red Deer in the mid to late 90's so some may not remember how bad it was at that time to decend on such a small city and the challenges with services.

  While the distance is only 200kms (120 miles) the QE2 is not a very safe road - even though twinned, the lanes are unusually smaller than most canadian highways and add to that heavy north south traffic to and from the Oil Sands and it is not unusual to hear of multiple deaths as vehicles are often crossing the median - drunkeness or a simple lack of sleep and excessive speed. so would it not be wise and practical to limit the amount of traffic and stick to what has worked in the past?

  Given that the new arena is under construction and slated to be completed in two years the original "Coliseum" (now Rexall Place) run by Northlands is desparate to hang on to existing customers. In reality using the new arena will be very problemmatic with its downtown location and lack of parking that Rexall place now has an abundant supply of. So I would be securing a long term deal with Northlands. In addition, the lease of Rexall place includes aprking which they will man for a fee or the organizer can do. It always pissed me off that WBT$ charged $25/car to park when this was included in the lease - another cash grab. I know because I was part of a group that negotiated a deal for a trade show.

  This only makes sense if you look at it from a business proposition viewpoint of maximum $$ for a return on the investment. It makes no sense as the actions of a supposed loving, kind and benvolent society with a direct channel to holy spirit to guide them.
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  Vidiot

  jgnat - "For a family travelling from Grande Prairie, for instance, that's a seven hour drive, one way!"

  Harder-to-reach venues, increasingly dogmatic rhetoric, blatantly obvious financial strategies, nebulous warnings to obey potentially weird instructions...

  ...I'm tellin' ya, they wanna prune out the fence-sitters.

  Any of the R&F start wondering why more and more are leaving, they'll just tell 'em that the "love of the greater number is cooling off", thus convincing the hard-core loyalists to be even more rabid True Believers.
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  Simon Morley

  Really, why not have the concessions open? If all did bring the food it would only take a year for Northlands to realize that it simply was not a good money making evnture for them and not push the issue any further. Really, what parent today has the time to pack a ginormous cooler stocked with food? Northland food is not only fairly good - it is not unreasonably priced - unless its a hockey game.
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  jgnat

  Were they banning attendees from bringing their own food and drink, or would they still allow that? - berrygerry

  In years past Witnesses were instructed to bring their own food, and year after year they were admonished to eat their self-carted food and NOT descend on the few open venues in the neighbourhood. There were also instructions on the size of the lunch case as well (must fit under seat) to meet fire regulations.

  I have no idea what sort of pressure the new Northlands management put on the coordinating committee. Unless they simply said they wouldn't rent without also opening the food venues.
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  jgnat

  It's the parsimonious nature of the convention planners I suspect. The money is supposed to go in to WT coffers, not "worldly" concession stands. Like I say, I predict this will be an under-attended and "loser" year at the Red Deer convention.
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  Vidiot

  jgnat - "I predict this will be an under-attended and 'loser' year at the Red Deer convention."

  Make it harder and harder to be JWs, and more and more will eventually stop being JWs.

  Obvious, really.