Update 8/4/2026 - Hotel Construction and Temporary Attendance Cap

Heyo everyone!  We know you’re excited for the start of 2027 show news, and so are we.  But first, we gotta talk about a special piece of news we recently got that will affect this year’s planning.  Said news is that the Embassy Suites is getting a top to bottom renovation with the construction timeline being December 2026 - June 2027!  We’re excited for them as this updates the sleeping rooms, meeting spaces, and plenty of the decor for a brand new look.  However, because our show dates fall within the timeline, we have been notified this will affect how many sleeping rooms will be available during our weekend as well as what meeting spaces we can utilize for programming.

As the renovation is done in phases, the hotel won’t be shut down during its timeline, but access to the parts of the building currently being worked on will be closed off to the public.  While a plan is in place for the project, a baseline expectation has been set that the amount of sleeping rooms at the Embassy Suites will be temporarily less than before and that we won’t be able to utilize any of the meeting rooms or public floor space for the con; such as the atrium where breakfast and the maid cafe occurred.  While this could potentially change as the renovation progresses, it’s better to plan that we won’t have those event spaces than to assume we will and then not have them at the last minute.

Due to this temporary loss of square footage, we are looking at this show year being a temporarily downsized one with a soft attendance cap.  To operate as normal with the expectation of our usual numbers wouldn’t be responsible of us when there’s less floor space for activities and for general distribution of people.  We felt this path was the better choice as trying to move to a different weekend during 2027 after the renovation was complete would be an uphill battle in relation to marketing as well as for attendees’ annual planning.  It also would be a tighter planning timeline where we’d have overlapping show year plans with 2028 needed to be started quickly after (ie, if the con was during August 2027 and April 2028, we’d have less time to recover between them).

So let’s talk about what the soft attendance cap means and why we’re going this route.  First, the soft cap will be in the 6000-7000 person range.  Whenever we talk about our attendance numbers, it’s generally in the “over the course of the weekend” total.  When we say we’ve welcomed over 9,000 attendees, that number is never all there at the same time; especially in terms of daily attendance.  Weekend badges are the category most purchased, followed by Saturday, Sunday, and Friday passes in their respective quantity order.  Using data from the past years purchases, we can quantify a comfortable maximum of each badge type while making sure we have a reliable budget alongside producing an event space that is active and comfortable.

For the past few years, the 7000 attendee marker has been our reliable breakeven point based on the average revenue amount per attendee (our badge price ranges from $35-70 depending on type and discounts, and to be transparent the $70 one isn’t close to the majority bought).  As we’ll be welcoming fewer patrons temporarily for 2027, the soft cap will be utilizing mostly weekend passes for a reliable, trimmed down budget alongside a stable number of people on site.  We’ll still have a limited amount of one-day passes available, but Saturday’s quantity will be the heaviest hit.  The new budget will put our breakeven closer to the 5500-6000 range, meaning this year isn’t about growth or profit but once again seeing through a contractually obligated show year (we’re bringing the buzzword back, baby!)

Said budget is still being worked on as is what will be affected in the layout and programming tracks.  The biggest attraction on the hotel side was the maid cafe, and we don’t want it to simply take a year off.  Most of the annual staples of the con will still be there; guests, the usual exhibit hall floor plan, karaoke, gaming room, overflow parking and shuttles, etc.  But one change that will occur with the soft cap is that the con center will be put into private event mode, meaning one cannot enter the convention center unless they have their badge.  Registration will be moved to the con center’s box office in line with this change as well as to free up that big hallway for programming’s use all weekend.  If one doesn’t want to wait in line outside when buying at the door, they’ll want to either use the badge shipping add-on or get their pass at the early pop-ups and Thursday night’s open times.  While badgeless patrons in the hallways hasn’t been a past problem, we’re doing this temporary change with that goal of ‘active but comfortable’ in relation to the amount of people on the show floor and our soft cap within the building.  For parents and chaperones who usually stay on-site but use the hotel lounge or other public space to camp in, we hope to have an updated spot for you to hang out at and will keep ya’ll updated during the spring when more definite details are known.

Finally, why we keep referring to a soft cap rather than a hard line in the sand.  This will be an evolving situation as we plan.  We normally don’t want to do a cap for multiple reasons and this will be the first time ever that we do it, so like all convention aspects it’s subject to change.  If the renovation goes quicker than planned, some general space may open up and we might feel comfortable adding more one-day passes into the pre-con pool.  Similar could occur if the show floor isn’t as packed during the weekend’s peak times and we’re able to add some openings for those who arrive to the con that aren’t aware of the cap and it’s close to or at sold-out status (sorry to call out the not-as-attentive trip planners here, you’re always in our scenario thoughts).  While our 2027 budget is being reduced due to this choice, we’re trying not to exclude more annual con fun than we have to, so every badge will count even more so than usual.

That’s the main summary for now and we’ll provide more details as they’re confirmed and ready.  As always, we appreciate everyone’s support as we produce local nerdy fun each year.  It’s because of ya’ll that we’re able to do this, so we want to do right by our attendees as much as possible.  We look forward to another fun show year and wish ya’ll a cool and hydrated summer as we get our guest news and other announcements ready.  Thank you!