If you are a member of ARRA, you should check your email. There is a suggestion that ARRC 2013 could be held in Perth in conjunction with the RWA conference. It would obviously be cheaper for ARRA in terms of productions cost, but I suspect they will lose attendees if they do go ahead with it. ARRA has sent around a survey to gauge interest in this idea in an email this morning.
I personally wouldn’t attend ARRC 2013 if it was in Perth – unless I won the lottery, met a sugar daddy or got a substantial raise. None of these things are likely to happen in the next year and a half, so I can say with very little doubt I would not attend a Perth conference. The reasons for this are numerous, but the main one is if I had the money to go to Western Australia, I would spend it in a 4WD playing tourist, not paying for a conference and accommodation to spend the weekend in a luxury hotel. This, for me is about priorities. If I had the money to fly to Perth (approx $800 return), pay a couple of hundred in accommodation, another $200 or so for the conference, and then another $200 or so for clothes and accessories (there is a awards dinner and ladies need a chance to frock up!) I would need well over a thousand dollars! O.O I just don’t have that sort of money.
I have talked it over with my paranormal romance book club and we had tentatively decided to attend the next one and make group bookings for everything. You need ten people for that, but once you have that number, things get cheaper. One of our members is a travel agent and she knows these things. I very much doubt these ladies would go to their first ARRA conference if they needed to spend more than $1000 to spend a weekend in a hotel.
For the average member, I assume they would need to get some big names in the genre to attend for people to find it worth attending. By average member I mean someone without a lot of disposable cash. Yes, we have two years to think about saving, but that is A LOT of money for a two day event! O.O
If someone is going to spend that sort of money, they do so to see the sights and experience new environs. This is not me complaining that I never want to go to Perth. This is me saying when I go to Western Australia, I want to do a bloody good job of it. I would rather ARRC 2013 be somewhere accessible for most of the members, somewhere I could afford to go, and somewhere I could convince my friends to go. Let’s face it. ARRC 2011 was at Bondi Beach. How many attendees actually made it down to Bondi Beach? Maria and I went down for ten minutes or so while we were waiting for our bus home on the last day. No one would have made it to Bronte – and it is, by far, the better beach of the two! I am sorry ARRA, but if it is held in Perth, there is no way I will be able to attend, or would choose to attend. Which is sad, because I really enjoyed ARRC 2011!
