Addendum:

With all the positive accolades that we have received from the visitors and that we keep receiving in emails and phone calls, there were few concerns/questions that we like to address. We admit that although the hotel was absolutely gorgeous and accommodating, the location was sub par. However, for proximity to NY city, major airport (Newark International), and capacity to handle big enough crowd (1500 size ballroom) while keeping the room-per-night cost at the minimum, this was the best deal by far among all other hotels in NY/NJ area.

The direction was challenging at best, but we made sure that adequate information gets to our visitor. Handy informational guide was posted, along with travel coordinator's phone number. If you had registered, you also received an informational booklet that provided all the information (from direction to/from hotel to NYC, Sports location, restaurants etc to forums, movies and other programs) for the visitors. Registration Table was thus setup in the front lobby to provide information to the visitors.

With all these arrangements in place, we still might have missed some notes because of the mass of visitors we had to attend. We are certain you will overlook our small shortcomings and we ascertain you that we have learned immensely from this event.

We were asked why we enforced a strict ticket (and wrist band) checking policy; this was primarily due to the loop holes that few party spoilers exploited during the two DJ nights.
For those (99.9% of the crowd), who followed the rule, we hope it wasn't of a major inconvenience.

We were also asked about the price of the ticket, which was comparatively minimal for a NY event where not one, but around 8 bands performed with about 14 artists coming from outside of US. Ticketing was the only option (thanks to our sponsors, sponsorship bear some cost) we had to recuperate the money invested in the state of the art Audio-Visual (major concert grade lights, 2 projected screens, 1 live feed and mind blowing sound system that required extra amperage), artist compensation and operational cost. Also, the price of the ticket was actually $5 (free for girls), $15, $25 and $30 for DJ, Grand DJ, Cultural Show and Concert for those who registered. For those who didn't register, still received other perks and only had to pay $5 extra for each event (while it is expected in any other convention that visitors would register).

Last but not the least, why did we advertise as NY when it was in NJ? First and foremost, the convention goes beyond the hotel and sporting locality. We had the whole NY city to offer to our visitors and the information was provided in the Registrants info-let. Like NY/NJ Giants (while the stadium is in East Rutherford, NJ), and similar to DC convention being held in Virginia, we wanted to offer best of both world to our visitors. Besides, we tried to reserve a hotel in NY metropolitan area, but a hotel that meets our visitor's specification (proximity to airport, ballroom that can hold 1500 people, low room rate-per night) was the Sheraton, 25 minutes from NYC. All the logos created prior to this decision bear the word ANA-NYC 2006, those created after said ANA-NY/NJ 2006.

But as we said we received more pat in the back than pinches, to a point that it almost got overwhelming to return the calls and emails. Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers, without whom this wouldn't have been conceived, planned and executed. Thanks also to all the visitors, moderators, artists and well wishers. We are all proud of the fact that we hosted a convention that went without any glitches, cultural show/concert and DJ party went without any interruption or technical difficulty, sporting events went without any scuffle or similar problems and overall the crowd management was to the par.

We are getting requests from various other organizers to collaborate with NYNYC and host other events, shows and we welcome those requests. NYNYC is now expanding and this is the time to be part of it. If you want to be a member, serve in official post or in executive committee, please visit our site: www.nynyc.org (or email pdshah@yahoo.com). We will have a new site ready within a month and we hope you will visit us then and continue your support.

NYNYC