Just a quick thought - used to book meetings for my company. If you call and give the hotels a number of rooms (and even a lunch in a meeting room for a number of people) they will give you better rates. This is done through the sales office not online or reservations. Just everyone individually booking rooms will cost a lot more money and probably have us spread all over town. My two cents - Dinah (and yes I will volunteer to help...my husband and I just had a conversation about trying to put something together in San Antonio or Dallas. So how timely is this? It is a lot of work, but we can do it and save money if it becomes a structered gathering)
This is another custom island. This one could be used for ads. This spot is one of the best places for ads on your site to be placed. This can be enabled/disabled on a per forum basis.