Bay Bridge Closure

By Kevin on October 27th, 2009
Posted in Travel | Comments Off on Bay Bridge Closure

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that connects those two cities has been indefinitely closed due to the failure of an earlier repair to the bridge. As of tonight, nobody knows when the bridge will reopen. This should not directly affect most people coming to San Jose for WFC. San Jose is fifty miles south of San Francisco and Oakland, and the Bay Bridge is not in the direct line of travel for most people that might be driving to the convention.

Do be aware that if your travel plans involve tourism before or after the convention and driving in the San Francisco-Oakland area, you may be affected by this closure on account of it is the main highway link between the two cities and you may want to revisit your planned routes to avoid the closure. However, if you are coming only to San Jose and do not plan to drive in the San Francisco and/or Oakland areas, we do not expect the Bay Bridge closure to have a significant impact on your travel plans.

Getting from SJC to the Hotel

By Kevin on October 27th, 2009
Posted in Hotels, Travel | 4 Comments »

We’ve fielded a number of questions recently in the form of “How do I get from San Jose Airport [SJC] to the Fairmont?” and “Is there a hotel shuttle?”

There is no hotel-airport shuttle, and no free transportation between the airport and the Fairmont. The least-expensive way to get to the hotel is to take the free #10 bus (headsign “LIGHT RAIL”) from the airport to the Metro/Airport light rail station, then board a light rail train ($2 fare) heading downtown, getting off at Paseo de San Antonio station outside the hotel’s back entrance. There are also taxis and shared-ride shuttle services that will cost more but will not require changing buses or riding trains.

For our full story on getting to the Fairmont Hotel, see our Travel Information Page. This also includes information about getting to the hotel from the other Bay Area airports, and also by car and by train.

Weather Report

By Cheryl on October 27th, 2009
Posted in General, Tourism | 1 Comment »

The latest from Weather.com has backed off on the shower warnings for the weekend. They still show a 20% chance of rain, but that’s a vast improvement on the 60% they were showing last time we checked.

What Are People Tweeting About Us?

By Cheryl on October 27th, 2009
Posted in General | 1 Comment »

With the convention only days away, posts about it are starting to appear on Twitter. You can see what people are saying about us via our Twitter Tracker. If you want your tweets to be included, don’t forget to use the #wfc2009 hashtag.

And Another Dealer Flies In

By admin on October 24th, 2009
Posted in General | Comments Off on And Another Dealer Flies In

Welcome Fly by Night Books to our Dealers’ Room. That’s 34 dealers confirmed as we come down to the wire.

Banquet Reminder

By Cheryl on October 24th, 2009
Posted in Banquet | Comments Off on Banquet Reminder

Monday will be the last day to pre-order your banquet tickets! Go here to purchase them. We’ll be closing the web-based purchase system after that.

However, don’t worry, we will have additional banquet tickets available at the convention through noon on Friday, October 30. If you haven’t purchased one, stop by registration desk.

Program Change

By Cheryl on October 24th, 2009
Posted in Program | Comments Off on Program Change

Saturday – 8:00 PM Club Regent Publishing and Bookselling in 10 years – Maryelizabeth Hart no longer participating

Internet Access

By Cheryl on October 23rd, 2009
Posted in Hotels | 4 Comments »

As with most high quality hotels, the Fairmont charges a daily rate for Internet access from your room. However, if you are a member of their President’s Club scheme then you get Internet in your room for free. And joining the President’s Club costs you — nothing. (You may have to give them a credit card number as that’s part of the express check-in system, but there is no club membership fee.) Details on how to join are on the hotel web site.

That access is for sleeping rooms only. It does not extend to the convention space. We are hoping to have free wi-fi available there too, but we don’t have any firm details yet as to how many simultaneous connections we’ll be able to afford.

Another Dealer

By Cheryl on October 23rd, 2009
Posted in Dealers | Comments Off on Another Dealer

Welcome please, Eraserhead Press. By my count that puts us up to 33.

More Views of the Program

By Cheryl on October 23rd, 2009
Posted in Program | Comments Off on More Views of the Program

We’ve added a couple more versions of the program for you:

As these require quite a bit of width they are PDFs designed mainly to be printed out