Convention 2010 Review: Your thoughts? Did you Enjoy it?

ASHOOR

Administrator
Staff member
Now that the convention is over, what did you guys think of it? did yo enjoy it compared to previous ones? I know Ninos26 posted his review already, but we wanted a special thread for this.

ASHOOR
 
And I am yet to see a single picture from the convention. Did they ban cameras there or what? come onnnnnnnnnnnnn guys...

ASHOOR
 
Conventions are never boring. Even if you go knowing nobody, you end up making loads of friends and barely sleeping.

I'm getting too old for that part, so the fewer academic/educational programs there are, the less sodah I have to go.

If you've never been - um, GO, you idiot.
 
I saw one big melee lol and that was about it.  There were arrests made as far as I know. And good.

Nice resort, could use better service; oddly the only good service present was for the landscaping.  Overpriced food, but it was surprisingly good.  Lack of shuttle service to athletic events, but doubt people would trade the pool to watch sports in 100-degree weather. 
 
jonadona said:
I saw one big melee lol and that was about it.  There were arrests made as far as I know. And good.

Nice resort, could use better service; oddly the only good service present was for the landscaping.  Overpriced food, but it was surprisingly good.  Lack of shuttle service to athletic events, but doubt people would trade the pool to watch sports in 100-degree weather. 

Speaking of athletic events, no one has updated us on who won the soccer tournament this year?

ASHOOR
 
My opinions and random observations:

-The resort was nice but some of the rooms were a good 10 minutes walking distance from the lobby ( i.e. my room)
-The food was overpriced but that's to be expected at a place like that
-Assyrian women can rock bikinis like nobody's business
-24 hour pool was fantastic
-The layout of the hotel was confusing (especially around 4 am-ish)
-The hotel was crooked as hell. They tried to tack on a bunch of bullsh*t charges to my bill and couldn't explain why I was being charged more than what I booked the room for.
-I called the front desk to see where the closest ice machine was, they told me the lobby, then delivered two tubs of ice to my room and charged me $10 for it.
-The cleaning lady stole my f*cking shoes.
-I didn't see anybody trash anything and I only heard of one fight which was quickly ended. All in all, pretty much everyone was well behaved
-Even the devil wears sunscreen in arizona because its so freaking hot
-I don't know how people live in a city where everything closes at 2am
-They played that guy's movie in the middle of a party. I understand they got a ton of backlash for not wanting to do it, but why during the middle of a party?
-My liver and I are not on speaking terms
-There's nothing more annoying than detroit soccer players chanting random sh*t whenever there's more than 3 of them in any given place.
-Some of the singers really sucked (maybe that's more of a personal preference but I don't want to hear your version of techo/assyrian fusion horsesh*t or watch you jump all over the stage like a monkey. Just try to sing on key and don't f*ck up the sheikhani line)
-Every year I go, I meet great people, see people I never would get to normally see, and get a kick out of seeing so many Assyrian people in one place.
-Did I mention Assyrian women can rock bikinis like nobody's business?
 
Hello everyone, I haven't been on this forum and years!! A few things have changed for one i now live in Phoenix for the past 6 years no more Detroit for me.... As far as the convention it was an overall success not because i live here or because I was part of the sports committee just because of the different atmosphere it brought to the convention.

The resort was amazing however yes it was a little expensive and the cost of everything in the resort was expensive. As far as fights i heard of a few altercations nothing too serious, police had been hired before the altercations happened because the AANF wanted to prevent any serious fights. Again we cannot control everything especially when you put 2000 plus Assyrians from different parts of the country together. I believe the 24hr pool was very useful because it kept ppl out of their rooms and vandalizing hotel property and kept everyone in the pool area enjoying the weekend.

Now i heard all the parties where fun, i didnt get a chance to go to all the parties because i was drained from the sport functions all day saturday and sunday... hats off to both detroit soccer teams for coming in 1st and 2nd place in the soccer tournament with a 12 team participation this year for soccer (2 Detroit, 3 Chicago, 2 San Diego, 2 Arizona, 1 Toronto, 1 Modesto, 1 San Jose)... For basketball the new young Az team came in 1st place and the veteran Chicago team came in 2nd place for basketball with a 10 team participation this year (2 Chicago, 1 Detroit, 3 Arizona, 1 San Diego, 1 LA, 1 Bay Area, 1 Sacramento)

However everything has room for improvement, and lets be realistic a little nothing will run perfect there will always be flaws!! and next year it will be in Detroit it was annouced at the Presidential Dinner sunday night, I think Ramsen was wishful thinking loool.... it would be nice to have one in Toronto

 
Nevermind lol, i read Ashor's post.
Ashor its in Detroit next year? awww maybe i can actually go to this one, with the fam of course lol. btw, how come u and ur sister dont visit here anymore?
 
To sum up this year's convention, I must say that overall I really liked it.

The hotel:
What everyone said is pretty much true.  Great location and high-end hotel/resort.  It was so big we barely found the entrance lol  It was overall clean but I do agree with everyone in that it was very expensive, everything they did they pretty much charged you for and the front desk really SCREWED us over on our first night there... don't want to bring it up :p  The food was expensive but I didn't eat inside, mostly outside.

The pool:
The main highlight of the entire weekend.  24 hr pool?  What a great idea.  Like Ashour said it was the main reason why no bull sh-t happened this year.  Instead of being in room or the lobby everyone congregated here.  The routine was pool all day/afternoon...party/club... then back at the pool in the AM hours.  I swear there were more people at the pool at 3am than 3pm! lol  The weather was nice for it so why not?  Not to mention the eye-candy :)

The parties:
Singers did a good job despite no real headliner.  I disagree with Hookah, I like the mix up versions of songs and GLAD they did NOT play any Arabic!! :)  Kudos to Ramsen Sheeno and Charles Tooma.  Only thing too was it was the same 3 khigga's over and over again due to simplicity and being at convention its surprising to realize how many people CANNOT dance!  I swear every time I was in khigga the guy/girl next to me was horrible.  I had to move numerous times in order to shake it like I mean it. :shades:  I also did not like the fact that they played the movie during the party Sunday night.  There's a time and place for everything and that was not the time or place for it.  I lost some respect for the film and did not like their shallow attempt at marketing/promotion.

The people:
Overall decent crowd.  Young crowd but no wannabe gang-bangers or too-fobbish people representing whatever they try to represent and fight over.  A lot of good looking people, especially at the pool and at party as well.  The picnic had more of a local/older crowd which was expected.  I met some new faces but didn't find a future ex-wife lol  Mostly cali and of course local arizona people.  Chicago had a good turnout but not so much Detroit or Canada which was probably expected.

The picnic:
It was indoor due to the 105 degree (F) temperature.  I was there for about 20 minutes and left.  I was all partied out at this point.  Saw a lot of family but then just hung out with friends.

Sports:
Didn't attend the games but sad how Chicago lost at the end in basketball but I heard it was a good game. Congrats to the young AZ team who came through. I still can't believe the soccer players played in that HEAT for that long!  Crazy!  But congrats to Detroit for showing up and dominating.  No shuttle to the games but I know how hard it can be to arrange that sort of thing.

Registration:
Actually not bad this year...better than prior years.  Smooth flow and no complaints from what I heard.  No pictures on badges which was weird and some people did sneak into the parties from what I heard/saw.  But then again, come Sunday they weren't checking IDs to being with lol

Lectures/Seminars:
Non-existent.  I couldn't believe this but again not surprised.  I doubt people would have showed up with the pool but at least have SOMETHING to show!!

Organization:
Horrible.  The AANF website didn't offer enough details and people were often lost at the grounds.  No program or anything and signs that didn't mean much.  They have to do a better job of communicating events and the hotel grounds.  Then again, not surprised.

Other:
Heard of some fights but nothing major.  Vandalism I barely saw as everyone was spread apart.  There were some medical cases like a kid who had a seizure at the pool and a lady got bit by a scorpion on the way to the party but nothing else from what I heard.  Everyone was pretty much laid back, I guess the sun does that to you right?

See ya'll next year in Detroit 2011!
 
detroit?? lol good luck to aanf with that decision. all these last minute choices and horrible organization makes convention not worth going to anymore
 
AssyrianBookTa said:
detroit?? lol good luck to aanf with that decision. all these last minute choices and horrible organization makes convention not worth going to anymore

It's not last minute AB, it's the east coast "turn".  It's either Boston, Detroit, or Connecticut.  And they voted for Detroit.  :)
 
baklawa said:
So now to the more important question....mootchikhlookh bakhta?  :mrgreen:

Unfortunately no. It was WAY too hot to try to be smooth, I was more concentrated on not passing out from dehydration.
 
Rum rum it was chosen during convention and not years before to schedule a good hotel,plan events. It's the same way they choose Arizona.
 
It's really all on the organization and not so much the city.  But it does help that Chicago/Toronto is only a short drive/flight/train ride from it.
 
AssyrianBookTa said:
Rum rum it was chosen during convention and not years before to schedule a good hotel,plan events. It's the same way they choose Arizona.

Arizona was chosen because it falls under the west region and it was their "turn" to host it this year.  It was between Arizona and San Diego...San Jose would've been distant third.  Other western cities were LA and San Francisco.  They voted on Arizona because like Jonadona said, they finally were mature enough from an organizational perspective to host it there. 

So next year, the East Region, they voted on Detroit.  Probably because it's the easiest one to find a cheap hotel and organize easier as well.
 
Convention was over all good, I agree with most of what Hookah and rumrum said about the hotel and convention-I didn't have as much fun at the parties as I did last year, I was generally chilling and chatting by the bar....but hanging by the pool during the day and night with everyone I knew and got to know was great, esp. since I got to work on the tan as well!!!

Assyrian chicks do rock bikini's :lol: and I think every single Assyrian guy had some sort of Assyrian tattoo on them!

Hopefully next year I shall hit up Canada and then head to the convention...See ya all there  :mrgreen:
 
What was so poorly organized about it? and what could they have done to make it more appealing? The parties were great, the hotel was beautiful. I used to love the political round table, but realistically we are past those days. Do we really need to see irrelevant Assyrian "politicians" getting owned by ADM all the time?  :ROFLMAO: Or how many times do we need Michael Youash telling us to get off our ass? Lets face it, the conventions have changed from 1990's. People come from around the world to see relatives, friends, and to meet new people, they come to have a good time and that is exactly what everyone did.
 
rumrum said:
Will this stupid rumor please come to an end already?  NO CITY/HOTEL IS EVER BANNED FOR A CONVENTION!  EVER!  :) 

Also, they did play it all day on Sunday at the convention but I guess that wasn't enough so they played it at the party too.  It was a clusterf*ck of organizing to begin with but it should've been handled properly on both sides.

umm downtown chicago hotels want no part in the assyrian convention and nither does CCTB and u can't tell me its not true i've worked with those poeple.
 
i know i'm late, but I had a blast seeing all you ppl and partying with you ppl. As for the hotel...it was like saddams compound.
 
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