If you’ve already registered for HippoCamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, here are a few resources and options for you to consider prior to arriving.
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Pre-Conference Arrival Information – all registered attendees should have recieved an email on Aug. 16. We’re pasting the details here as well.
We cover:
[Rather print this out? Download these details in PDF form, here.]
REGISTRATION & ARRIVAL
Pre-Conference Workshop Arrival Info
(Yes. You can still add a pre-conference workshop through Thursday, Aug. 22. Three of the four still have room.)
SCHEDULE & MEALS
We encourage you to peruse the website for full details about all the sessions, activities, and speakers between now and the conference.
Conference Sessions
Meals
The following meals/snacks are including with your registration:
Opening reception (heavy appetizers and cash bar; one drink on us w/ a ticket)
If you have a guest traveling with you, they can have meals with you through our guest meals plans, available for purchase on this page.
Social/Misc. Events
Thursday 7:30 p.m. – if you are in town early or live close by – join us of an unofficial pre-conference meet-up at Tellus 360 at 7:30 p.m. — note, we’ll gather on the second floor to mingle; then we get access to our own room at 8 p.m. This is always fun!
Friday, 9 p.m. – It’s the second edition of HippoCamp Story Slam, produced by Lancaster Story Slam. We’ll have some snacks and a cash bar.
Sunday pre-breakfast (exact time TBA) – yoga
What do I do with my bags on Sunday?
We know: Check-out times are so early! If you need to check out of your Marriott room Sunday, the hotel will hold your bags until the end of the conference. If you are not staying at the Marriott and need somewhere to store your bags, we’re happy to keep them in our locked conference office. See the registration desk.
TRANSPORTATION & PARKING
Hotel Parking:
If you are staying at the Lancaster Marriott, the conference venue, parking is included with your reservation. (Parking is in the Penn Square Garage at 38 S. Duke St.)
If you are driving to the Marriott each day, you can get a discounted parking ticket at the HippoCamp registration desk. (When you leave the garage, you will insert both the ticket you got when parking as well as the discount voucher, which will apply the discount.)
The discounted parking will also work at most other city-owned garages.
Transportation from MDT (Harrisburg) airport:
Your best best is a taxi or ride-share app. It’s about a 25-minute ride to the Marriott.
Transportation from PHL airport:
The most common options would be: airport to 30th Street station (by taxi or SEPTA train), 30th St. Station to Lancaster (Keystone Route), then taxi or ride-share to Marriott.
Transportation from Amtrak station:
There is always a line of cabs waiting at normal train arrival times. You can also ride-share or call for a cab (we recommend Unique Cab of Lancaster for local taxi service)
Transportation around Lancaster:
All official conference activities are held within the Lancaster Marriott. If you’re staying elsewhere, wish to go beyond the central downtown for dinner, or want to explore before or after the conference, and need transportation you can use: Lyft, local taxi, or Red Rose Transit (local bus). We also have a few bike-rental spots near the hotel.
WHAT TO BRING
Clothing
There’s no dress-code for HippoCamp. We’re a laid-back conference, so come as you’re most comfortable. What we DO recommend is a sweater or light jacket as session room AC can get chilly. Please know that we monitor the temp and general consensus of a particular room and ask the hotel staff to adjust as needed, but even still, that “just right” temp for everyone will vary. Bringing an outer layer, just in case, is a good idea!
Water Bottle
Hydration is important! We suggest bringing a reusable bottle so you can refill it at our water stations, which you’ll find in each session room. (If you don’t have one; no worries; they’ll be plenty of cups available!)
Note-taking Stuff
This sounds obvious, we know. But we wanted to remind you that you’re going to learn a lot! Use the best note-taking method for you — whether a notebook and pen, typing into a notes app, or using your laptop.
Business Cards (etc.)
In a day of digital contacts, business cards still stand out! Bring some to swap with other attendees. (If you don’t have any, your local Staples or OfficeDepot/Max might be able to print some for you with a quick-turnaround time and at a reasonable price. MooCards and other online providers also often have a rush-job option — and you can have those sent to the hotel to buy you more time!)
Lit Swap Table
All attendees are invited to bring something to place at our lit swap tables to share with attendees. (This is usually a business card, postcard, flier, bookmark, pen, etc.) Please don’t forget to take any remaining items with you; everything left behind will be discarded during the venue’s tear down.
Book Sale Table
If you purchased a spot at the book sale table, you will, of course, need to bring your books! If this is you, you’ll receive an email from our book sale manager with some logistic details.
GET INVOLVED
LOCAL TIPS
If you are coming in early or staying later to add on some vacation time, we have a few ideas on what to do at our Around the Region section of the travel page.
Suggestions include: doing an escape room with some conference friends (we have two local escape rooms, and on is downtown), catch an indie film at Zoetropolis, catch a marionette show at Lancaster Marionette Theater (Wizard of Oz and Aladdin are on the schedule around HippoCamp).
If your family is coming along and you have youngsters, consider North Museum of Science, Lancaster Science Factory, and Dutch Wonderland. The famed Hershey Park is less than an hour away as well.
QUESTIONS & OTHER INFO
The BEST place to ask questions before the conference begins is through email at conference@hippocampusmagazine.com — we have messages sent to this address automatically flagged as important and filtered into a specific folder. We will do our best to respond quickly, but please understand we’ll be doing a lot of running around this week and might be away from devices for hours at a time.
DURING the conference, the best place to ask questions is at the Registration/Resource desk; whoever is staffing the table at the time will have the answer or will know who to ask and how to reach them.
Resources & Maps, etc.
Lancaster downtown parking map [PDF]
The original attendee page information is below.
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We love to stay in contact with attendees between the time you order and the event itself, so expect some periodic updates! We’ll send them to the email address we have on file for you from your attendee registration form.
We created a private Facebook group so we can stay connected with attendees in a more casual way between now and the conference, as well as between conferences. This group isn’t meant to be a customer service channel, but rather a way for attendees to interact with each other. While we may make periodic announcements here, all official communication will also be sent by email. Please also adhere to the community guidelines set forth in the group.
Note that the group also has members who’ve attended past conferences, as well as members who haven’t yet decided if they will attend. It’s a fun and active group!
Request to Join Group(Note: If you don’t “like” our official Facebook page yet, you can do so here.)
If you’re active on Twitter and Instagram, we make good use of our conference hashtag — #hippocamp19 — all the way leading up to the conference and after. Twitter, especially, is a great way to meet attendees beforehand, share nuggets of wisdom (and photos!) during the conference, and stay in touch afterwards. If you’re not already following us, we’re @hippocampusmag on both Twitter and Instagram.
We offer our attendees the opportunity to place up to two books for sale at the conference book sale table. If you have a book you’d like to sell at HippoCamp, our friendly conference staff members can help.
BOOK SALE SIGN-UP DEADLINE HAS PASSED.
If you’re traveling to Lancaster with a partner, friend, or family member who is not attending the conference, your guest may still be able to eat some meals with you and/or enjoy the Saturday evening keynote. Guest meal packages start at $30 for the opening reception/evening readings to $75 for all meals and the keynote, with several options in between.
NOTE: Your guest’s meal tickets and nametag for the reception will be with your registration materials.
You may complete the purchase through this PayPal form:
To help us best prepare for your arrival, we asked about any needs in a required field on the attendee registration form. (This means if your registration went through, you either checked off that you didn’t have any needs, or checked off the ones that pertain to you. We made this a required field this year to make sure no one missed it!) If a need developed after the time of registration, please simply reach out to us and we can edit your attendee registration.
Our ABOUT page features a brief FAQ and other details about the event and its history.
We’ve adopted a code of conduct for HippoCamp, as well as offer some reminders about session etiquette. You may review this information review by expanding the toggles.
Hippocampus Magazine is excited to welcome writers and creative nonfiction lovers from all over to Lancaster, Pa. for our conference. We’d like to remind our attendees that we expect that conference-goers will respect others, and to formalize that request, HippoCamp has adopted a code of conduct.
HippoCamp is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Harassment includes verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination (related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion), deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of official conference events, inappropriate physical contact, and any unwelcome sexual attention.
Attendees asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including issuing a warning to the offender, or expelling him or her without a refund. If you are being harassed or witness someone else being harassed, please contact a member of the conference staff immediately. Conference organizers also will be happy to help attendees contact convention center security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or assist those experiencing harassment in any other way.
HippoCamp asks that all attendees give our speakers the courtesy they deserve. Please silence mobile devices during presentations, and do not disrupt presentations in any other way.
Session Etiquette
Media Guidelines [Thank you to Open Source Bridge and DrupalCon Austin 2014, from whom this media policy was derived.]
When you register for HippoCamp, you consent to be photographed by our official conference photographer(s), and to have those photographs published under a Creative Commons license and potentially used in various promotional materials, on the conference website, social media channels, or other online properties controlled by Hippocampus Magazine and Press LLC. We also encourage attendees to take and share their own photographs, as long as these rules are followed:
1. Photography/recording that is legally allowed in public spaces is allowed at the HippoCamp.
2. Photography/recording should be treated like other potentially harassing interpersonal interaction. That is, when one person being photographed says “stop” or “leave me alone” (etc), the taking of photographs must end and no further attempts to photograph that individual should occur.
3. Photography/recording shouldn’t be done in such a way as to hide from the subject that it’s happening.
4. The subject may inspect the photo/recording at any time and, if requested, the photo/footage/etc must be deleted immediately if so requested.
5. Those who are taking photographs and/or recording must also follow our general Code of Conduct.
6. While this won’t likely come into play at the conference venue itself, please be respectful of our Amish neighbors; the Amish do not like their photos taken, so if you peruse Central Market or drive through the rural areas, please do not photograph them. (From a distance, where the subject cannot be identified is an alternative.)
How to opt-out of photography: If you do not wish to be photographed or have your image published, you may opt out by contacting the conference organizers. The committee will make every effort to accommodate your request.
Dress Code
HippoCamp does not have an official dress code. But we provide this information because some conferences do have a dress code. Wear what you feel most comfortable in. If that’s a business suit, wear it. If it’s cozy jeans and your funniest writerly tee, go with that!
We do recommend wearing shoes that won’t hurt your feet after walking a bit, and suggest that you bring a sweater, light jacket or zip-up hoodie along to sessions just in case the AC gives you a chill.
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