Dear Friends,
The venue for the May first seminar should be finalized next week. It will definitely be in Manhattan... book your tickets now.
The plan still includes a cocktail party Saturday night and the event will be ALL DAY on Sunday.
Continental Breakfast at 7:30... event starts at 8:15... lunch... afternoon session will go till 5:30. This will be a long day and will be tough for many attendees to get through, but we have a lot of ground to cover and many excellent speakers. I suspect that the next event will be 2 days.
Finalizing the venue has been tough. The potential venue that has hung us up for the last 3 weeks did not materialize. I have 2 venues booked now. The NY Athletic Club and the Yale Club.
NY Athletic is my first choice. I hope to finalize the booking on Tuesday. Sleeping rooms will be available at the following rates:
1 Twin 160
Queen 215
2 twins 215
King 245
The Yale club is a second choice for the event, but sleeping rooms are not available. Sleeping rooms will be available across the street at the Roosevelt Hotel for $249.
Cheaper rooms are available in NY, but they are tough to find and I suspect that they will not be as nice. (5 floor brownstone walkups) NYAC will be very convenient, especially for those who will need to take a break during the seminar to be able to go to their rooms. Also, for the social gatherings Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening... it will be easy if we are all together. But economic considerations will prevail. Find economical rooms... double up. If the above rates are OK with you, hang tight for a few days. I'll post the details and you can book into the appropriate hotel at the group rates listed above.
There is a dress code at the NY Athletic club. Men must wear jackets. Women must wear business attire. No jeans, no sweats, no tennis shoes. Sorry, but this is the best venue I could find and they have these rules that we must follow.
I hope to have online registration and payment up in a few days. It will be $150 for advance registration and payments received by April 3rd. After April 3rd, registration will be $185.
When I have everything ready to go, I'll start a new thread with all the final details. Hopefully Harrison will make it a sticky on Arthroplasty Central. Sorry to post incomplete info, but I know everyone wants to make plans and this will let you get started a few days earlier.
My wife and I have never been to New York. We are looking forward to meeting everyone. I'll get to meet Melanie (coming from Toronto) for the first time (
melanie's story). Tears will flow! I'll see Cindy (coming from North Carolina) for the first time since we were in Munich together for our surgeries (
Cindy's story.) It will be great to meet Harrison and thank him personally for the work he's doing here. Old MGH friends like Loves2Flip, BigJoe, John Lester and many others... some I've never met... others, like cervie queen and MariaA are dear friends I see often. This will be the best *** hugfest ever!
Mark