In-Person Workshops Moving to Las Vegas!!!

Starting in October…

That’s right, after this summer Series Workshop here in Lincoln City, all “coast workshops” will be held in Las Vegas.

That’s right, after almost twenty years here (first was in 1999), we are graduating the in-person workshops up to the next level.

I will be writing those signed up for the two workshops coming up, the Business Master Class in October and the Anthology Workshop in early March to confirm if you still want to attend or not. Or you can contact me. Either way is fine. 

There are slight changes to format and schedule which will make this better for everyone. (We talked to a lot of people about these, so thanks everyone for the feedback. Everyone seems excited to be moving.)

Here are some details…

Travel… First off, we tried to make this easier to get to. (Las Vegas is a ton easier by factors of hundreds. Cheaper to fly into from anywhere by a long, long ways, and we also get rid of the two plus hour drive one way over the mountains to the coast. In Vegas you don’t need rental cars.)

Workshop Time… We will be holding the meetings from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. with a lunch break. Six hours per day. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. We will then have a two hour session on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. that will be summary, so people can fly out that day. It can be skipped if you need to catch an early flight.

This also allows people to only be gone one weekend and if need be come in a day late and only miss work from one week. A ton easier than a full week over two weekends as it has been here.

So basically six full days. About the same amount of total time as we were doing on the coast. Single track the entire time for both the Master Business Class and Anthology Workshop.

Food… The coast food sucks, to be honest. Now, oh, my, anything you want to eat is close. There has to be upwards of a hundred restaurants within easy  couple-block walking from the Golden Nugget, not counting the restaurants in the hotel itself. Anyone with any kind of allergy or food issues will be able to eat easily and with selection.

Resort… Oh, my, the pool is something to believe, not counting all the other stuff. The Golden Nugget has been completely remodeled even since I was there at Superstars six years ago. Brand new meeting rooms are wonderful and the staff is amazingly helpful.

Entertainment and fun… Well, we are changing the format of the workshops to end at 6 p.m. every day, so you have dinner and evenings free. We will have a suite to gather in after hours to talk as we did here at the Anchor after hours, but every evening is open and unscheduled to enjoy the wonderful city. And if you have never seen the Fremont Street Experience, you are in for an eye-opener. Think Bourbon Street in New Orleans, covered and then done crazy.

Hotel Costs… The best we can figure, for the entire time at the Golden Nugget, checking in on Thursday and out on Wednesday, counting all fees and taxes, would be around $800 per room. For the entire time. That is if you book with the workshop code we will give you through the workshop block. (The block is limited.) More expensive if you don’t go through the block.

That is about $300 for the entire workshop more expensive than the Anchor was here. But you will save that much on travel costs and the ride over the mountains to the coast. Plus it is hard to compare the Golden Nugget and the Anchor. (grin) But the hotel rooms will be standard and cleaned every day, with fresh towels and all that normal stuff. (grin)

Limited Enrollment… These workshops are still very limited. The Master Business Class is limited to 60 writers and the Anthology is limited to 50 writers. (Both are the same numbers as last year. We are not changing that because we feel those are good sizes. Also, these are still invite workshops, so write me if interested.)

Workshop Fees… Here comes a part we can’t avoid I’m afraid. For the first time in 18 years, we have to raise our price for the workshop itself. We have to contract for those wonderful meeting rooms and suite for after hours and pay for instructors and all that.

So here is what we are going to do. We are going to a normal convention kind of structure for fees.

Early Bird Fee… $650.00 Ends May 1st. Same price each for both workshops announced. So everyone signed up and paid is in at the early bird fee. If you have only paid a deposit, you need to pay in full by May 1st I’m afraid.  Write me with questions on this at dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com

Regular Fee…. $750.00. Ends September 1st. Again the date is for both workshops since the Anthology Workshop starts writing the end of November.

Workshop Fee… $850.00. Any time before October 15th for the Master Business Class and November 15th for the Anthology Workshop.

So like all conventions, the Early Bird fee is by far the best. May 1st isn’t far away I’m afraid. Nothing we could do about that.

Summary of Costs… If you get in on the Early Bird fee or have already paid, the price of coming here or going to Las Vegas should pretty much be the same, or very close when the extra price of the hotel is added in but the savings on travel costs and time are taken out. We worked very hard to try to make this a wash in price for everyone who has come here before and wants to keep attending.

Business Master Class…

October 19th to the morning of October 24th, 2018. (Travel on Thursday the 18th and on Wednesday October 24th since the last session is done at noon.)

Hotel: The Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, right on the Fremont Street Experience. (We have a block of rooms reserved and will be sending out codes to those paid to get the discounts and extra stuff when you book a room.)

Advanced Level Indie Business. More instructors to be announced very soon, but right now the three core instructors are confirmed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Leslie Lafabvre, and me, Dean Wesley Smith. We will have numbers more.

Anthology Workshop…

March 1st to the morning of March 6th, 2019. (Travel on Thursday and on Wednesday March 6th since the last session is done at noon.)

Hotel: The Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, right on the Fremont Street Experience. (We have a block of rooms reserved and will be sending out codes to those paid to get the discounts and extra stuff when you book a room.)

Anthology Workshop. More instructors to be announced very soon, but right now the three core instructors are confirmed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Leslie Lafabvre, and me, Dean Wesley Smith. Two more are confirmed, but we want to check with them first.

All workshops are part of the WMG Publishing Workshops programs.

More workshops will be announced around December for the future.