Nome banquet coverage?

[Taz]

he power of the fans. Visit this bssd forum thread to read a play by play of the banquet:

http://mushing.bssd.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=994

I'm hoping to have at least partial audio posted sometime, but it may take a few weeks (especially since the volcano is slowing down mail from Alaska). I'll post the link here. Look for a thread on the Race Talk page.







Cool. Thanks emwcee

[fladogfan]

Bumping this up.

See ITC, wanting coverage of the Nome banquets is not a new idea! Anyone wanting to request banquet coverage please post on this or/and on 'Trying to Decide' thread. Thanks

[Heidi]

I think it might help if we contact the members of the Board of Directors. If you read the minutes of their past meetings (http://www.iditarod.com/aboutus/boardmeetings.html) you can see they're looking for ways to increase revenues. If they knew how important it is for fans to hear the finishers' banquets LIVE - as they're happening - they might do something about it. I don't think they realize how many fence-sitters would get Insider if the 'banquet carrot' was dangled in front of them.

From the 12/4/09 minutes:
"Larsen noted that at this time the Board needs to makes sure the staff knows that the Board supports them while we are figuring out how to increase revenues and decrease expenses."

Please email and send snail mail to the ITC Board of Directors. If you receive a response, please post here and let us know.

EMAIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS: boardofdirectors@iditarod.com
***At the very least, do this.***

SNAIL MAIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Iditarod Trail Committee Inc., PO Box 870800, Wasilla AK 99687

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Aaron Burmeister
John Handeland (Treasurer)
Lee Larsen (President)
Sam Maxwell (Vice-President)
Mark Moderow
Mike Owens
Jim * (Secretary)
Dan Seavey
Rick Swenson

I also think it would be a good idea to write the following people who are not members of the board but who do have a lot of influence:

Greg Bill, Development Director Email: gbill@iditarod.com

Chas St. George, Director of Public Relations Email: cstgeorge@iditarod.com

Stan Hooley, Executive Director Email: shooley@iditarod.com

[fladogfan]

I know of several people who have sent this request, but none of us have gotten a reply from any ITC person yet. So Iditarod Insider, what's up?

[Iditarod Staff]

According to the last Iditarod Newsletter:

"The 2010 Iditarod Insider provides live streaming coverage of the Start, Restart, and Finish of the first musher arriving in Nome Alaska."

[fladogfan]

That is correct Iditarod Staff. But what I'm asking is, is it possible, and if not why isn't it, to have some type of coverage of the Finishers Banquet in Nome. The first year the Insider was available the banquet was covered. Now a lot of us fans had trouble hearing or seeing the coverage, but with the help of fans who could, we enjoyed it also. After all these years I'm hoping the problems have been fixed. Yes, on the first covered banquet you received a lot of complaints because of the noise factor and the reporters talking over what was being presented on stage. All we need is a camera and good mike, don't need reporters.

What about the Ustream that emwcee mentioned in earlier posts in this thread?

This year I will be in Nome to see for myself, the banquets. I'm hoping that my friends back in front of their computers will be able to enjoy it also.

[Iditarod Staff]

Hello!
It is my understanding that banquet coverage is not included in the production budget this year. I will see what else I can find out and post it here.

Diane Johnson

[Mooselook]

Thanks, Diane. Banquet coverage, even just audio, would be hugely appreciated by many, many race fans. I certainly can appreciate budgetary and man/woman hour constraints, but there must be someone nearby with the interest and ability to make this happen.

If the ITC itself can't pull this together, then turn the project over to someone who can. How about a local radio station? How about the BSSD program? How about the Alaska Pod Show guys? The ITC would garner much favor from race fans around the world. Next year some of us might even be willing to cough up the price of a "banquet ticket" in addition to Insider.

As I said earlier here (or on another thread), I'm going to Nome this year and will be at the banquet. I'm no media techy, but if a lowly race fan minion can help in some way, I'm your woman!

[Heidi]

Diane, perhaps they can make use of Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv/) which is FREE. BSSD used Ustream last year and they attracted many of the Iditarod forum people (many who were not members of the BSSD forum).

It would be nice to hear from one of the ITC execs. They complain about not having enough money, but they don't seem to want to appease the fans who might be more willing to pay for Insider if they got coverage of the Nome banquet.

I would gladly give up coverage of the race start in exchange for coverage of the Finisher's banquet. To be able to hear the trail stories would be such a treat. I really enjoyed the banquet coverage the ITC provided the one (and only) year we got it. In some ways I almost wish we had never gotten it that one year because then I wouldn't know what I was missing now.