Whoo.. been fallin' down on my job here.... Here's some official responses
1. Hotel verra nice. Shame what we're gonna do to it. Be sure to ask for the "Anime Weekend Atlanta convention rate." Knocks the cost down to just over $100 a night. Yeah, I know it's a lot, but it's the best deal we could make with the hotel. (Oh, get your room quick! There's still some rooms available, but they should be filling up soon...)
2. We've got no restrictions on submission material in any of our current contests. We've only ever disqualified one video on those grounds, and it was from some confused 80's cover band that just sent us their studio vid.
3. Whole range of ages. Late night tends towards older, after the kiddies go to bed, but AWA tries to be a family-friendly con.
4. Screen projectors. The awards ceremony is shown in the main hall with a similar setup, but the VAT track has a slightly smaller screen with high quality projector.
5. The last couple of years there's been a "Fan Favorite" award based on a qualitative audience response. (It's always been pretty obvious) But that's the extent of the audience participation in the judging. The Expo is judged by VAT staff, the Pro is judged by the participants, and the Masters is judged by me. Audience voting is too much of a hassle for us to bother with.
Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.