On Nov 1 at 4pm I’ll be judging the final round of Hotel Wars at Flux Factory. This round is the Closing Ceremony and the winner will be crowned!

More info:

In the past decade, dozens of independent and brand name hotels have sprung up alongside the Flux Factory building in Long Island City, and more than twenty hotels are set to break ground. The hotel boom, the result of a delayed 2008 rezoning that allowed for rapid new developments in Dutch Kills’ mixed-use industrial areas, has quickly changed our neighborhood into a shifting environment of passing visitors. How can LIC residents, small businesses, and developers constructively and collectively respond to the complex political and social realities of the hotel industry’s rapid growth in a way that takes all stakeholders’ needs seriously?

To playfully respond to these rapid changes and their implications, Flux Factory is posting three teams of highly collaborative artists, game designers, urban theorists, and performers at hotels within a one-block radius of our building for a month-long Olympic-style competition. Each week, teams will receive a prompt that provokes questions about how hotels serve an existing neighborhood, the effects of tourism, and the communities the industry creates and/or displaces. They’ll have seven days to engage with tourists, hotel employees, neighbors, and local business owners and craft their responses using a variety of media. At the end of each week, works will be unveiled at a series of elaborate awards ceremonies, where Long Island City community stakeholders will award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. Collaborating hotels are: Home2 Suites Long Island City, Holiday Inn L.I. City — Manhattan View, and Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Queens / Queensboro Bridge.

Join the festivities and help Flux Factory crown the first Long Island City Hotel Wars Champions!