Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to con we go...

Once upon a time, the Icon committee decided to run a convention in Wellington. After listening to potential attendees’ views on what they wanted from the venue, we set about finding ones fitting the bill.

We tried one posh hotel which seemed happy to host us with great accommodation and venue hire rates but then they decided the con would not “provide [the hotel] sufficient yield”.

We started to look for another hotel. Unfortunately there aren’t too many hotels in Wellington which fit the requirements our conventions have so our choices were limited. We thought about separating the venue and the accommodation, but that proved far too expensive—particularly since we knew people want to attend conventions as cheaply as possible.

We were really impressed with another hotel. Great number of rooms and accommodation rates were well priced. The only sticking point was the venue hire price. They wouldn’t budge from a number that was twice our hotel budget! We know there is a limit to how much fans will pay for a convention fee, so we started to look for another hotel.

With our limited choices we made the only decision available—to go for a hotel which meets our requirements. It is relatively cheap (therefore making accommodation prices for you as good as we can get) and is centrally located. We have also been to this hotel before so are aware of its potentials in terms of programming space.

We felt it was important to indicate that we had tried other options, but had decided on West Plaza Hotel because it meets the requirements as both a convention venue and an accommodation space.

Lynelle, Convention Chair