Convention housing now open

When you’re planning for a trip, what’s one of the first things you need to do? Book a hotel! You get online and search through numerous hotels in the area you’re traveling to and you narrow your search down by price, amenities offered, and let’s face it, the photos they provide. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had someone who could go through your list of choices, check them out and let you know which ones are best? Well, for the national FFA convention and Expo, you have that service!

The national FFA convention team contracts with more than 130 hotels each year. The hotels that meet our standards then become a part of our convention housing block. What are the benefits of staying at one of these hotels, you might ask?

• Two quality assurance visits are made during the convention planning season at each of the properties to check on cleanliness, customer service and safety.
• Prices are negotiated on your behalf to be affordable and include several amenities (in fact,  at some properties, there are additional amenities that are not offered to the general public).
• A discounted registration fee for those who pre-register for convention and reserve rooms through the FFA housing block.

We hear time and time again from staff at these hotels that they can’t wait for the convention and Expo to come to town. They rave over FFA members and enjoy having them as patrons, even if it’s just for a few days. In meeting with one of the downtown hotels in Indianapolis after convention this past year, we discovered a contest they put together for FFA members: the Cleanest & Neatest Room contest. Each day during the national FFA convention — Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — the hotel staff selects a guestroom that is the cleanest and neatest for that day and the guests of that room win a snack prize. On Saturday, the hotel staff selects a grand prize winner and the guests of that room, up to four, each win a $50 Visa gift card! What a great idea!

Housing for the 2012 National FFA Convention & Expo is now open! Visit www.ffa.org/convention and click on Housing under the Planning tab. For questions about housing or other convention-related topics, send an email to convention@ffa.org.