Has next year’s convention location been announced yet?
I expect it to be announced this week at Construct.
I have been advised that it will be Washington, DC.
We will see sooner than later I suspect.
Construct 2019 will be held at National Harbor, Maryland on October 9 to 11 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
Please note - October 9, 2019 is Yom Kippur, in case that affects travel plans for anyone
Brilliant
Oh well.
The holiest day of the year for 7 million Americans who observe Leviticus 23:2632.
- Practicing Jews (4 million)
- Churches of God (1 million in various branches)
- Seventh Day Adventists (1 million)
- Messianics (Christians who follow the Hebrew Roots Movement and Jewish converts to Christianity 175,000 to 250,000 as of 2012 - another sources says 1 million)
- Various other sola scriptura (the Bible alone) Christian groups
Not sure how many of us are CSI members. Worth mentioning to CSI. I have sent a note to memberservices@csinet.org if you are affected, right? I will post here what they say so far, and if that is the right office to contact.
National Harbor - I remember limited parking for mega $$$, but lots of new construction there, including a ca$ino, don’t know if that would make it better to get around or just more dense.
CSI National is aware but this is a decision made by Informa, the company that owns the conference. I still suggest contacting them though. The resort is a self-contained facility, so not sure the parking will be an issue.
Sent a message to them at https://www.informaexhibitions.com/en/contact-us.html
At this point, I doubt that anything can be done. It speaks to Informa’s sensitivity on such issues.
People should be aware that CSI has little or no influence or input on CONSTRUCT. Anyone who believe that this is CSI’s show is sadly mistaken. There is no input from a local chapter, and I have no idea how the program is put together. They do provide some scheduling and physical space for CSI events, but this seems at times like an afterthought.
Good point, Peter. Since the national show has been sold twice now, it does seem to be getting further away from being “our” show anymore. I may give them a chance again sometime, since it is good to see old friends each year at CONSTRUCT. However, I am switching my focus to local and regional events all the more now.
There has been no reply from Member Services.
Update so far from London or wherever:
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your enquiry, and for raising this important issue. I have passed on your concerns to the Construct show team, who will be able to respond directly.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Informa Exhibitions
I just received the following response from Informa (I had contacted Member Services using the link Chris had provided–thanks Chris):
Hi David,
We received your contact form and concern regarding the 2019 CONSTRUCT Show dates. We respect all religious holidays and do our best to try and secure dates around the holidays, but there are unfortunately circumstances where a facility only has dates available to us that overlap these holidays. We will continue to do our best to avoid said holidays as we plan future CONSTRUCT Shows.
Best regards,
Meggan Spehar
CONSTRUCT Marketing Manager | ICRE | Global Exhibitions
Thanks David. And, i call “BULLSHIT”. In all the country, they couldn’t find a suitable facility that was available any other date except over the most sacred Jewish holiday? Does Meggan have an email you can provide?
Robin,
Her e-mail address is Meggan.Spehar@informa.com
And yes, was National Harbor the only venue considered?
I guess it’s a canned answer as I got the same one.
Does CSI realize it’s dying?
It can’t afford to continue to alienate the few active members it has left.
CSI will not live or die by CONSTRUCT–there are many other factors involved. We have no control over what Informa does with the event, including timing and location. We have had only a small part in the selection of education, but, as announced at CONSTRUCT, this will change.
Because the event is now too small for city convention centers, Informa has decided to move CONSTRUCT to a hotel/convention center venue. This resulted in an agreement with Gaylord Hotels for the next three years. If it wasn’t National Harbor, it would have been at one of Gaylord’s other locations, for which we have no knowledge of their availability at the time of the agreement.
CSI is not dying, but it is suffering; but not as bad as it was a few years ago. You can’t turn around an organization within a couple of years that has been declining over a period of 20+ years. The CSI culture has got to change. Chapters have got to change the way they service their local members. If current members resist change, then CSI will fade away like many former associations before it.
CSI is doing some very positive things to re-energize the organization. The dynamic chapters program looks promising. Also, a number of the regions are stepping up to help bridge the gap between chapters and national.
This scheduling issue next year will likely affect attendance at CONSTRUCT, which may be detrimental to the convention, but hopefully not CSI itself as we try new ways to engage and service the industry.
A bleak thought is that because these dates coincided with a religious holiday, they were naturally discounted at the resort.
um, well, yeah. Sounds like Informa needs more astute staff
I understand how some folks would be annoyed about this scheduling conflict. I suspect that the reason may be more about the number of people affected than anything else. The US Jewish population is about 2%, and according to the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public life, about 60% of Jews observe Yom Kippur. Attendance at Construct is about 2,000 people. Assuming that that attendance reflects the demographics of the US, that works out to about two dozen folks who are negatively affected. This low number may not affect the planning the event, even if it represents disrespect to those concerned.