So, it’s looking like I may actually go to CPAC in a couple of weeks. I was going to take the year off, but it appears that I have a legitimate business reason for going. And as long as I’m going, I should attend it, and blog the event—as I have every year since the winter of early 2006.
Yet the client for whom I’ll be going will only pick up part of the cost—like, a few nights and a few meals. Why? Because this is the dextrosphere, and we are all broke. {Insert long rant about how our monied types want a concrete return on any investment, whereas in the sinistrosphere the suits understand that there is value in disseminating ideas. Their wealthy people get it, and ours, too often, do not.}
Which brings us to the matter of fundraising, which is for my personal tip jar this time, rather than the Conservatory one that goes toward our own hosting costs and related expenses—rather than tonic and limes/protein bars for Joy when she’s out of town.
So, give generously! I’ll probably be doing this a few times a week until I leave town on a redeye around midnight on the 7th of February.
Josie Salinas on January 23, 2012 at 7:21 pm said:
I wish WE weren’t so broke, or I’d help out.
CCR on January 24, 2012 at 2:35 pm said:
You’re well up on me. I’m sitting here staring at my approval letter for credentials to cover CPAC as a blogger, knowing that unless someone drops a couple grand on me in the extremely near future it’s not going to happen.
Joy McCann on January 24, 2012 at 3:54 pm said:
I don’t think it takes quite two grand, depending on what one does for lodging.
Unless air fares are double from SF/Oakland to DC, it can be done for around $1500:
$250-300 air fare [I usually take the red-eye to save money];
$400-800 lodging, assuming one stays Wednesday night before the conference and Saturday night afterward [one can either share a room at the Marriott, or stay nearby at a less-costly place--it's $85/night at the cheap motel I like near Embassy Row, a ten-minute walk away, or five minutes by cab; the Omni, across the street, has luxurious digs for $200 a night, or there's a guest house that is $210 but offers a continental breakfast--and, of course, one can save here just by blowing off Thursday and showing up Thursday night. Sharing a room at the Marriott will cost you $130 or so.];
$400 meals, cabs, and incidentals, which is $130 a day if you count just Thurs.-Fri.-Sat, or $100 a day for four days, making Wednesday night and Sunday morning into half days–but there’s often a free lunch to be had here and there if one is a blogger, and I always pack plenty of protein bars. [Again, it's less if you lop off Thursday.]
$1500
To be sure, this may rest on flying into Reagan rather than Dulles, as the latter incurs another expensive cab ride each way (with Reagan one can take the Metro right to the Woodley Park Zoo stop). I just skip a few more meals if I have to do that, but let’s say that makes it $1600.
Peter and Bruce often stay even further off-site than I do, and save even more money that way, and of course the guys are always crashing in each other’s rooms, the damned hippies.
CCR on January 24, 2012 at 8:03 pm said:
The two grand figure comes from the cost of airfare taken from a package deal that included staying at the Omni. I could cut that by a few hundred if I stayed at a place on embassy row (name slips my mind) to maybe $1600 minus transportation to and from Reagan along with meals, but it’s still way out of my reach.