Hey everyone;
Just wanted to post an update on the search for a new venue for SELEM. Thus far I have not been able to find anything that suits our budget - at least not for any venue locations that are reasonably close to the South Eastern US. I had high hopes for the Savannah Art College, because they have several amazing facilities on their distributed campus and any one of them would have been ideal for SELEM. Alas, they were not able to offer us enough of a price discount to make that idea work. (I am not prepared to triple the registration fee for SELEM just to get a nice venue.)
I was introduced to a venue owner in Kansas that has a very nice facility that would probably work well for a LEM, but due to it's location it's not going to work for SELEM. (I can't properly organize anything as big as SELEM at a venue that is 1200 miles from Charleston.) It might work for a separate event though (MWLEM?), so once I get more details from them regarding electrical capacity, the use of fog, and so on I will post the details here on PL and see if someone closer to the midwest would be willing to organize a separate event at that location.
As for SELEM though, the search continues! If anyone has more suggestions for possible venues, please post them in this thread. Ideally we'd like to find an old school that has a gym, cafeteria, or theater (or even a gym / cafeteria combined, or a gym with a stage at one end) and also has a couple classrooms or other spaces. We don't need a venue that has all the features of the auditorium and school in Newton, but I'd like to get as many as possible (assuming we can afford it).
Adam