Some of you liked our venue in previous years. We rented out what we described as an old Masonic temple. Well, unfortunately, that has been purchased or rented indefinitely by a church.

So this year, after a long time hunting for a replacement, we’re happy to be crashing in the Historic German House in the South Wedge. If you’ve never been here, the German House has been a venue for a lot of performances and can hold upwards to 400 or more people. Here are a few pics, but you can also check out their website.

Some of you may say, “Yeah, cool, but what pragmatic improvements do we have this year?” Well let me tell you:

Location: South Wedge

While we love being in downtown Rochester (a place not many locals even go anymore), we are pretty excited about hanging out in an area that you can probably find us on the weekends. The South Wedge is an up-and-coming area of Rochester and home to a ton of restaurants, bars, shops, and whatever. So you’ll no longer be stuck in the middle of Main St. Rochester looking for a place to eat – you can find one in walking distance.

Parking: “Lots”

Last year, we had a problem with people parking in the wrong spot, and some people were even towed away by the owner of the Armory across the street! Thankfully, that won’t be a problem this year with 2 dedicated parking lots at the venue and across the street, there will be enough for everyone. Even if we run out, there is street parking which has pretty simple to read signs.

Presentations and Space

Previous years, you may have noticed that we had to hack up the way we wanted to run the conference. It was a big open space that we could do whatever we wanted with but it had its downsides. This year, we have a main auditorium area, a downstairs restaurant area, a back room, and even some spare rooms for speakers to prep. And they are all split up so that audio won’t be as big of an issue.

Food

We’ll be the first to admit, that because we’re a free con, we can only buy food that we can afford. Our first year this was a bunch of terrible pizzas. Such terrible, much complaining. Last year we had subs. This was nice, but nothing to write home about. This year, we’ve decide to  listen to what you’ve told us, and improve the food situation. We now offer a breakfast and a lunch option of real, delicious food. This will be buffet style and people that sign up for this are paying half the cost of the food, and we’re getting the rest. Plus, like I said before, since we’re in a great location, it’s easy to run out and grab lunch without having to drive anywhere.