As
Canarsie indicated, we are currently have
23 additional people on the waitlist. I wish we could simply just accommodate everyone who wants to attend with no limits. Just to put things into perspective, last year we have a
TOTAL registration of
66 people. This year, counting the current registrations and the volunteer staff, we are already at a
TOTAL of
128 people, almost
DOUBLE that group and growing. There are several reasons that we have to hold steady at our current limits:
- Both Canarsie and I want to maintain a smaller and more personalized experience for those attending, which is difficult, if not impossible to do when the group becomes too large. In my personal opinion it was one of the major highlights from last year.
- It is difficult to plan logistics including transportation for a group this size. As it is now, for the venues such as the TOC, Firestation and evening events, we will already require two full size buses (55 per bus) to transport everyone.
- For venues like the TOC, we are in a secure FAA location that is a live production environment that requires a badged escort for every 5 visitors for both safety and security purposes. For this group that will require Delta to provide 25 employees just to manage that single venue. The OCC can only handle approximately 30 visitors at a time, we will have to schedule more than 4 separate visits just to accommodate this group.
We greatly appreciate the outstanding support that the Delta team is providing us, and there is a tremendous amount of work going on “behind the scenes” to pull this event together. If you review the feedback from last year’s event, one of the most common themes was highlighting the incredible and personable hospitality from the Delta employees in each and every venue that became one of the key cornerstones of this event. With that said, we want to be very mindful that we are guests in a real time production and working environment, and we are visiting areas and venues that are not equipped to handle large groups of visitors. I could give you more details, but you get the picture in terms of the logistics and effort it will take to pull this event together.
We will release some of the additional slots on the waitlist in small groups, and do our best to let you know what you the availability of the venues before you register.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we work through this process to accommodate as many people as we possibly can for this event.
P.S. No comments about me pulling my hair out while planning this event. It appears that already happened from last year's event.
