Suggestion Box Notes
These are all the suggestion box notes we received, along with our responses. They were posted on Facebook on the event page, but we realize that some people are not on Facebook. There have been some comments on some of the posts, but we are not including them here; if you are interested and are not on Facebook, find a friend who is, and ask him or her to help you see them.
We hope that this provides some transparency, and helps you understand the choices we made and why they were made. If you have any comments, feel free to contact us by February 23, 2015. (After that date, we will not be checking the email account set up specifically for this event.)
We hope that this provides some transparency, and helps you understand the choices we made and why they were made. If you have any comments, feel free to contact us by February 23, 2015. (After that date, we will not be checking the email account set up specifically for this event.)
Suggestion box note #1: lower lighting for late night venues. (We got 5 different notes about this.)
Unfortunately, we did not have control over the lighting, and we were specifically instructed by the Las Puertas staff not to change any of their settings. We spoke to the Las Puertas staff about making the lighting dimmer, but they were initially resistant. Eventually, we did get them to make it lower.
Unfortunately, we did not have control over the lighting, and we were specifically instructed by the Las Puertas staff not to change any of their settings. We spoke to the Las Puertas staff about making the lighting dimmer, but they were initially resistant. Eventually, we did get them to make it lower.
Suggestion box note #2: cups. (We got 2 different notes about this.)
In our Odds & Ends email, we asked that you all bring water bottles to the event. Our thinking was that we would use disposable ware only if it was absolutely necessary, and we didn't feel that cups were absolutely necessary.
In our Odds & Ends email, we asked that you all bring water bottles to the event. Our thinking was that we would use disposable ware only if it was absolutely necessary, and we didn't feel that cups were absolutely necessary.
Suggestion box note #3: $30 for one night is too much.
We disagree. Let's look at what you got for your $30 on Friday and Saturday (Sunday's dance cost less). Note that we didn't have separate charges for a main dance and a late-night dance.
For your $30 on Friday, you got a half hour lesson with Luke and Jeannie, 6 hours of dancing in the large room and 5 hours of dancing in the small room, teacher demos, top national and local DJs, and late night food.
For your $30 on Saturday, you got a full hour practica with all four teachers, 6 hours of dancing in the large room (including a 3-hour DJ mashup by our headliner DJs) and 2 hours of dancing in the small room, top national and local DJs, and late night food.
You should know that we paid all our DJs for each set and, in addition, we paid transportation costs for our headliner DJs.
We disagree. Let's look at what you got for your $30 on Friday and Saturday (Sunday's dance cost less). Note that we didn't have separate charges for a main dance and a late-night dance.
For your $30 on Friday, you got a half hour lesson with Luke and Jeannie, 6 hours of dancing in the large room and 5 hours of dancing in the small room, teacher demos, top national and local DJs, and late night food.
For your $30 on Saturday, you got a full hour practica with all four teachers, 6 hours of dancing in the large room (including a 3-hour DJ mashup by our headliner DJs) and 2 hours of dancing in the small room, top national and local DJs, and late night food.
You should know that we paid all our DJs for each set and, in addition, we paid transportation costs for our headliner DJs.
Suggestion box note #4: couches or cuddle area (possibly bean bag
chairs). (We got 5 notes about this, one of which said "couches for
sex". Sex was then crossed out and "I mean cuddling" was added.)
We had planned to have a few air mattresses near the large dance floor. However, shortly before the event began, a serious scandal broke about an international dance (blues and Lindy) teacher having sexually assaulted students over a number of years. Because of that, we were concerned that if anything untoward happened at ABQFX, we would be liable. So we decided not to provide any mattresses.
Since they don't have couches at Las Puertas, we never considered having them; bringing them to and from the venue would have been way too much work.
We didn't think of providing bean bag chairs. (And since we didn't have any of our own, we would have had to buy them, which would have increased our costs and ultimately yours.)
We had planned to have a few air mattresses near the large dance floor. However, shortly before the event began, a serious scandal broke about an international dance (blues and Lindy) teacher having sexually assaulted students over a number of years. Because of that, we were concerned that if anything untoward happened at ABQFX, we would be liable. So we decided not to provide any mattresses.
Since they don't have couches at Las Puertas, we never considered having them; bringing them to and from the venue would have been way too much work.
We didn't think of providing bean bag chairs. (And since we didn't have any of our own, we would have had to buy them, which would have increased our costs and ultimately yours.)
Suggestion box note #5: group warm-up/strengthening class prior to lessons.
We didn't consider this, although we've seen it done at other events (notably some of the Fusion Exchanges). However, if we had considered it, we probably wouldn't have done it, primarily because of cost. This was our first year, and we worked to keep our budget as low as we could while providing as much as possible. We decided to work with 4 teachers in the 2 tracks (blues and fusion) and budgeted for that. Every teacher that we add to the event adds additional costs.
We didn't consider this, although we've seen it done at other events (notably some of the Fusion Exchanges). However, if we had considered it, we probably wouldn't have done it, primarily because of cost. This was our first year, and we worked to keep our budget as low as we could while providing as much as possible. We decided to work with 4 teachers in the 2 tracks (blues and fusion) and budgeted for that. Every teacher that we add to the event adds additional costs.
Suggestion box note #6: It would be nice to have more instructors and more classes. (We got 2 notes about this.) There are a number of factors that we considered, but primarily they came down to cost and venue.
There is the additional cost for each teacher that we add. In addition to what they charge per hour for lessons, we also have to pay their transportation costs to and from Albuquerque. So we decided to go with 2 tracks, and a pair of teachers for each track. And, because of cost, we didn't consider having multiple teacher-pairs for each of our 2 tracks.
Then, there is the venue to consider. We do not know of any good venue in Albuquerque for 3 (or more) tracks. To do that, we'd have to use a hotel. We didn't even consider using a hotel for an event that was in its first year.
We decided to have only 3 classes per day because we wanted a relaxed event. We wanted time between the classes so that students and teachers didn't have to run off to another class as soon as the current class had ended. We wanted there to be time for questions, for experimentation with what had just been taught, for interaction with other attendees, and for the demos about the next class. We didn't want people to feel overwhelmed; instead we wanted them to be able to take in what was offered. We wanted people to be able to stay late at night and still attend all the classes. And we added alternative learning opportunities -- mini-lessons and practicas (which we wish more people had utilized).
There is the additional cost for each teacher that we add. In addition to what they charge per hour for lessons, we also have to pay their transportation costs to and from Albuquerque. So we decided to go with 2 tracks, and a pair of teachers for each track. And, because of cost, we didn't consider having multiple teacher-pairs for each of our 2 tracks.
Then, there is the venue to consider. We do not know of any good venue in Albuquerque for 3 (or more) tracks. To do that, we'd have to use a hotel. We didn't even consider using a hotel for an event that was in its first year.
We decided to have only 3 classes per day because we wanted a relaxed event. We wanted time between the classes so that students and teachers didn't have to run off to another class as soon as the current class had ended. We wanted there to be time for questions, for experimentation with what had just been taught, for interaction with other attendees, and for the demos about the next class. We didn't want people to feel overwhelmed; instead we wanted them to be able to take in what was offered. We wanted people to be able to stay late at night and still attend all the classes. And we added alternative learning opportunities -- mini-lessons and practicas (which we wish more people had utilized).
Suggestion box note #7: various suggestions about music. We got 5 notes about this, specifically:
1. some live music
2. less/shorter pop/funk sets (we got 2 notes about this)
3. a set of hip hop/club music during late night
4. more blues less trad
We considered having live music. We decided against it for a couple of reasons. First, the live music would have been Saturday night (because we had only the large room until midnight), and we couldn't find an act that we thought would work for both blues and fusion. Second, we believed that we could get a better variety of music using good DJs. We paid all of our DJs for each set, and we also paid transportation costs for our headliner DJs. We were able to use our headliner DJs all weekend, whereas a live act would have been for a few hours at most. We decided that this was a better use of our limited financial resources.
All our sets -- with the exception of the DJ Mashup, where the 3 headliner DJs traded 3s (each headliner played 3 songs in rotation) -- were 1 hour long. This is the standard length for a set, although occasionally they are longer. We ran 2 dance rooms most of the time, and the music that was playing in each room was different (never fusion opposite fusion, or blues opposite blues. Our thinking was, if you didn't like the music in one room, then you could walk the few steps to the other one.
We didn't have any hip-hop sets, and we'll keep that suggestion in mind.
I'm not sure what "more blues less trad" means. However, we had 24 hours of DJed music. This was a blues/fusion event, so 1/3 of that music was blues; 1/3 of it was fusion; and 1/3 of it was Miscellaneous (WCS/Pop, Soul, or Alt Tango). We tried to balance the music so that there wasn't too much of anything.
We hope that most of you were able to find music that you enjoyed dancing to most of the time.
1. some live music
2. less/shorter pop/funk sets (we got 2 notes about this)
3. a set of hip hop/club music during late night
4. more blues less trad
We considered having live music. We decided against it for a couple of reasons. First, the live music would have been Saturday night (because we had only the large room until midnight), and we couldn't find an act that we thought would work for both blues and fusion. Second, we believed that we could get a better variety of music using good DJs. We paid all of our DJs for each set, and we also paid transportation costs for our headliner DJs. We were able to use our headliner DJs all weekend, whereas a live act would have been for a few hours at most. We decided that this was a better use of our limited financial resources.
All our sets -- with the exception of the DJ Mashup, where the 3 headliner DJs traded 3s (each headliner played 3 songs in rotation) -- were 1 hour long. This is the standard length for a set, although occasionally they are longer. We ran 2 dance rooms most of the time, and the music that was playing in each room was different (never fusion opposite fusion, or blues opposite blues. Our thinking was, if you didn't like the music in one room, then you could walk the few steps to the other one.
We didn't have any hip-hop sets, and we'll keep that suggestion in mind.
I'm not sure what "more blues less trad" means. However, we had 24 hours of DJed music. This was a blues/fusion event, so 1/3 of that music was blues; 1/3 of it was fusion; and 1/3 of it was Miscellaneous (WCS/Pop, Soul, or Alt Tango). We tried to balance the music so that there wasn't too much of anything.
We hope that most of you were able to find music that you enjoyed dancing to most of the time.
Suggestion box note #8: front desk - please shush so we can hear instructors, and tape them without background noise. thx. We're sorry that the front desk was noisy. We hope it wasn't all the time.
This is the kind of suggestion that would have been most effective if you had spoken to one of us directly, so that we could have acted on it immediately.
This is the kind of suggestion that would have been most effective if you had spoken to one of us directly, so that we could have acted on it immediately.
Suggestion box note #9: it would be fun to have competitions and performances.
Concerning competitions, we can only quote our FAQ: The Fusion Exchange said it succinctly: "Our event is about social dancing, celebrating and inspiring each other, and creation on the dance floor. We do not have competitions, which to us means more community, less drama, and more time to dance!"
Concerning performances, we didn't consider this (and no one asked us if they could perform). Of course, we did have the instructor demos on Friday evening (and before each class). We would consider having a few performances -- but mostly we wanted the event to be about social dancing.
Concerning competitions, we can only quote our FAQ: The Fusion Exchange said it succinctly: "Our event is about social dancing, celebrating and inspiring each other, and creation on the dance floor. We do not have competitions, which to us means more community, less drama, and more time to dance!"
Concerning performances, we didn't consider this (and no one asked us if they could perform). Of course, we did have the instructor demos on Friday evening (and before each class). We would consider having a few performances -- but mostly we wanted the event to be about social dancing.
Suggestion box note #10: One note actually gave us a number of props.
1. I love the food options. I think it's great how you considered dietary restrictions.
2. I love all the effort that went into the event. It was well organized!
3. Thanks for being awesome!!!!!!!
We thank you very much for the kind words.
1. I love the food options. I think it's great how you considered dietary restrictions.
2. I love all the effort that went into the event. It was well organized!
3. Thanks for being awesome!!!!!!!
We thank you very much for the kind words.