GABIT attendees thread

[JuliaR]

Hi everyone,

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be popping in with information about AT5.

Today's is about the hotel.

For those of you staying at the hotel, I've arranged for a dedicated GABIT AT5 room check-in desk on the Thursday afternoon and Friday. It willl be at the main Hotel check in.

Car parking is at a special AT5 Convention rate of £5.00 per day and your parking tickets can be validated at a special desk at lunchtime on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees will need to produce their Event badges to obtain the special rate.

During the Event light lunch items can be obtained daily from the new Starbucks in the hotel or the Hotel bar which will have a small selection of packaged sandwiches to purchase as well as their usual lunch menu. Tea, coffee and soft drinks can of course be purchased all day at either Starbucks or the hotel bar.

If you want to have a meal as a group in the hotel restaurant on Friday, Saturday or Sunday night then you would be advised to pre-book your table as soon as you arrive. Just head on over to the desk at the entrance to the restaurant and they will help you there.

We are all up to our eyes in preparation for the Event now, Staff and G4 alike. The phone calls this week have been phenomenal. Our phone bills will be eye wateringly high post convention!

I'll be back with more information later.

Not long now! Can't wait to see everyone again!

Julia
G4

[samcarterrules]

*Bounce* *Bounce*

Julia(samcarterrules)

[EH-T]

Mmmm. Shortbread.

http://www.griffins.co.nz/by-name/shortbread

NZers love our Griffin's biscuits... My sister's cat when we were growing up was called Griffins because he had Ginger nuts. (My father and brothers named him, my sister and I were only 4)

*waits for EH-T and her badge*

Sorry i was late....

That's quite enough of that!

My badge may be worn out before AT5! Hope they have more badges this year.

bless your heart, and all your other vital organs. thank you.

My vital organs thank you.

Hi everyone,

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be popping in with information about AT5.

Today's is about the hotel.

For those of you staying at the hotel, I've arranged for a dedicated GABIT AT5 room check-in desk on the Thursday afternoon and Friday. It willl be at the main Hotel check in.

Car parking is at a special AT5 Convention rate of £5.00 per day and your parking tickets can be validated at a special desk at lunchtime on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees will need to produce their Event badges to obtain the special rate.

During the Event light lunch items can be obtained daily from the new Starbucks in the hotel or the Hotel bar which will have a small selection of packaged sandwiches to purchase as well as their usual lunch menu. Tea, coffee and soft drinks can of course be purchased all day at either Starbucks or the hotel bar.

If you want to have a meal as a group in the hotel restaurant on Friday, Saturday or Sunday night then you would be advised to pre-book your table as soon as you arrive. Just head on over to the desk at the entrance to the restaurant and they will help you there.

We are all up to our eyes in preparation for the Event now, Staff and G4 alike. The phone calls this week have been phenomenal. Our phone bills will be eye wateringly high post convention!

I'll be back with more information later.

Not long now! Can't wait to see everyone again!

Julia
G4

A sure sign that the event is just around the corner.

Great job Julia. The hotel is obviously being very accomodating, very good of them (also shows we can't have been that bad in the past )

[JuliaR]

Great job Julia. The hotel is obviously being very accomodating, very good of them (also shows we can't have been that bad in the past )

They are very fond of GABIT and we like them. Plus we have been going there consistently since 2005.

Makes for a great relationship

Julia
G4

Goes back to speech writing......

[EH-T]

They are very fond of GABIT and we like them. Plus we have been going there consistently since 2005.

Makes for a great relationship

Julia
G4

Goes back to speech writing......

And they have a fabulous breakfast buffet, especially those veggie sausages!

[samcarterrules]

They are very fond of GABIT and we like them. Plus we have been going there consistently since 2005.

Makes for a great relationship

Julia
G4


Goes back to speech writing......

*gets tissues at the ready* I love Julia's speeches!


Julia(samcarterrules)

[starsong101]

I, too, love Julia's speeches. Since I can't be there I hope she puts it up on the GABIT website. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese !

[rderoch]

I, too, love Julia's speeches. Since I can't be there I hope she puts it up on the GABIT website. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese !

I second that!

[lame moose (mocha)]

i think i remember reading a speech from julia for maybe at3? i know it wasn't at4. i would like to see her speech from at4 and i would also love to read what amanda said. i was there, but have a lousy memory and would like to hear again what she said.

[Presley_Carter]

Hey All,

For personal reasons I am no longer able to attend AT5. Although heartbroken it is for a wedding so it is not all bad.

So - I am selling my ticket, and I am willing to haggle on the price too. I don't care if I lose a bit of money I just want to get rid of the ticket.

If anyone knows anyone who would be after a discounted ticket - or if you are - please email me at [email protected]!

Please spread the word around too. I am hoping to find someone who maybe does not have to travel so could take the ticket if it was cheaper.

Thanks
Chloe

[Skydiver]

you may want to check with Gabit. They may have someone on the waiting list that could take your ticket.

[EH-T]

Hey All,

For personal reasons I am no longer able to attend AT5. Although heartbroken it is for a wedding so it is not all bad.

So - I am selling my ticket, and I am willing to haggle on the price too. I don't care if I lose a bit of money I just want to get rid of the ticket.

If anyone knows anyone who would be after a discounted ticket - or if you are - please email me at [email protected]!

Please spread the word around too. I am hoping to find someone who maybe does not have to travel so could take the ticket if it was cheaper.

Thanks
Chloe

Sorry to hear you can't come but at least it is for a good reason. I have to miss a shower while I'm in London. If it had been a wedding I would have missed AT5 as well.

[SWMBOTGSG]

you may want to check with Gabit. They may have someone on the waiting list that could take your ticket.

We currently do not have a waiting list. There are a handful of tickets left for us to sell.

Kay G4

[JuliaR]

i think i remember reading a speech from julia for maybe at3? i know it wasn't at4. i would like to see her speech from at4 and i would also love to read what amanda said. i was there, but have a lousy memory and would like to hear again what she said.

Aww as you ask so nicely and I'm busy working on AT5's speech, here you go.

Can't give you Amanda's cos it's not written down anywhere. Sorry. Mine will have to suffice.

*******************

AT4 - Closing Ceremony - Julia's Closing Speech & presentation to Amanda

"Wow. There’s a lot of you in here this weekend.

You know, it’s the first time I’ve stood in front of a completely full room at one of our Events. It might interest you all to know that out of the generally up to 270 fans per event, at this one, we have 100 completely new Amanda fans, 120 fans who have attended two or three Gabit Events and that leaves 50 of you who have attended every single AT Event. And that’s what I call loyalty.

And that is what Amanda’s fandom is about. Loyalty. And friendship, and love and compassion and fun.

Amanda, your fans have a very simple way of describing how they feel about you. They love you for who you are. They hold you in their hearts just as you take away in yours all that they give you at these Events. And your fans make casual friendships which are born of admiring you, but which develop into strong, lasting friendships which endure over years and across continents and become simply about them. And so their lives are changed…for the better - just through being one of your fans.

And, I know I speak for the rest of the G4 in telling you this. It is quite simply Gabit’s privilege and pleasure to do your events for you and for your fans. From the tentative beginnings of AT1 when we were just going to do one Event – remember that? - and now, with four AT Events under our belts, we’re preparing to take ourselves and our team to Vancouver next year to do something completely awesome - the Sanctuary Experience. We’re proud that we were right in all that we believed all those years ago, about your fans, and about you. That your fans are probably the most compassionate, friendly and generous bunch of people you could wish to meet. And that you are an amazing person whose warmth, love, integrity and compassion mean that you are a joy to work with and an inspiration to those around you.

From well over a decade in the Stargate franchise you have embraced change and led the way with your involvement in your own innovative and ground breaking show, Sanctuary, and while your fans watched hopefully that the rest of the world would feel as strongly as they did, that your skill as an actress and your eye for knowing what makes really good television, would be recognised, the rest of the world did indeed start to peek in - in their droves and saw what this new show was all about and liked it and the networks realised that this show had legs. And that loyal band of fans who had hung in there, from the beginning and all through the Stargate SG1 years, through your stay on Atlantis and through the early days of the Sanctuary webisodes are finally able to say to people – I knew this would happen - as they puff their chests out with pride and smile as Sanctuary garners praise from all over the world and their Grand Empress of Sci-fi finally gets the recognition they had known all along was so richly deserved and due to her.

This year you have indeed been showered with nominations and awards from your peers in the Industry, and what a valid recognition of you and your work they have been. From the Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Television, which recognised what you have done in such a beautiful way, to the award for your performance in Requiem at the Leos and now your nomination/award for Best Actress at the Geminis. Your star is rising higher than it ever has before, Amanda, and I can tell you from reading the forums and the groups and the tweets on Twitter that your fans are beyond proud of you and justifiably proud to call themselves Amanda Tapping fans.

And just before I ask you, Amanda, to come up and receive something rather special, I want to make one last comment to all of you sitting here in this hall tonight.
I know of no other actress or actor for that matter, who would have made the decision that Amanda made a few months ago. And that was to come here this weekend and spend it with her fans – and that is because of who she is. I know of no others because, quite simply, there are no others. Amanda is unique. And it is the reason why you who are members of her fandom, remain loyal members of her fandom, year after year after year. For those of you who are the old guard and old hands at Gabit – and I mean old in the nicest possible way - you won’t need me to tell you what I’m about to say, but I know you will be nodding with me in agreement. For those of you who are new to Amanda and her fandom, and have taken a tentative step on the road to join those who do already know –– you should rightly be very proud. You’ve chosen the most fantastic, most loyal, and most compassionate person that it is possible to follow in Amanda and her presence here this weekend is testament to that.

And that word…compassion. Brings me on to that one last thing.

I searched for some words which could sum up what giving is all about. What could describe the act of charity. The act of giving to others. The knowledge that by giving of oneself in some way, someone else can benefit. And that life doesn’t always have to be about self, it is far more about being selfless. And then I found someone who had already said it more succinctly and with more grace than I could ever hope for.

In a beautiful and thought provoking quote, Mother Teresa of Calcutta said this.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is but a drop in the ocean but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

And so it takes people like you, Amanda. And your fans, to provide those “drops” in the ocean. Because without them the ocean would run dry. And the drops have become streams and indeed rivers of help in people’s lives. And so, I am proud to be a part of recognising that tonight. Your fundraising for charity is well known. Your ability to recognise the causes which will benefit the most from your time as an actress, as a mentor, as a human being or simply as a woman supporting other women is second to none. Over the years your fund raising has extended globally. You have compassion for so many charities, linked to animals, and people. To children and the environment and important causes close to your heart and you give of your time and your energy tirelessly and with love. And by giving, you have led by example to those who have witnessed and then followed your efforts. You have taught those looking in that it is possible to make a difference. That every single one of us can make a difference to the lives of others, simply by caring. And simply by taking that caring and acting on it and shining a light for those who are less fortunate or who need our help. And you’ve taught, that by coming together, we can do so much more. That by combining our efforts there are no boundaries to what we can achieve.

But those who end up recipients of your help through your fund raising are so often unable to be anything other than silent, because they have no one to give them a voice. A voice of thanks for your willingness to give of your time, of your heart and of your spirit in the cause of helping others. A voice of thanks for your leadership and your determination. So tonight those who have benefitted from your compassion and leadership are going to be given a voice, and that voice is also extended to those who you are setting out to help in the future through the creation of your own foundation, Sanctuary for Kids, a charity I am proud and privileged to support personally.

So, my dear friend, it gives me great pleasure to give you something very special.

Amanda, this very beautiful and yet simple award is in recognition of your work to raise money for charity. It is a unique award for a very unique person. The award is called “The Compassionate Heart”, and it depicts a small girl holding a golden heart, and the name says it all. So from all those people whose lives have been made better because of everything you have done in the past and from those whose lives in the future will be made all the better because of you and what you have taught those around you to do I give you their heartfelt thanks.

And I know you very well. And I know that you will protest that you have only done what many others have done, but in answer to that I will tell you this. There are those who have a unique ability to lead by example in such a way that they inspire others to do the same. You are such a person.

Amanda, you have shone a light and led others to a place where they will not only add drops to that ocean, but, by coming together, create a waterfall which will flow into it. Thank you.

[PengYn]

warm-up for the tearducts ^^