A year ago today, the Azkatraz website went live. We've had a spectacular year with exciting announcements and a wonderful event in San Francisco last month, but now it's time to start looking forward to next summer, and Infinitus.

Infinitus will take place in Orlando, Florida at the Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal Studios Orlando from July 15 - 18, 2010, and you can learn more about the event at Infinitus2010.org.

Most importantly....

Registration is Open!

We are currently offering an early bird registration price for $165.00 until midnight of September 7th, 2009. After that, registration will be $180.00 until March 31, 2010. It will then increase to $200.00 pending availability.

Please note that your registration will include all Formal Programming except Keynote Luncheons (which can be purchased when you register). Additional items will be available as the year goes on, and will be registration system once they are announced through this website and The Infinitus newsletter, The Infinitum.

So head on over to Infinitus2010.org and sign up at the special low rate, so we'll see you next July in Orlando!

Topic's include:
- Our favorite moments from Azkatraz (and Aziza's from Portus)
- The Podcast Palooza Panel! recorded LIVE at Azkatraz featuring Will and Greg Gershman (from hpprogs.com) along with Terrance Pinkston of Hogwarts Radio, Travis Prinzi of the Hog's Head Pubcast, Robert Standring of Spellcast (fictionalley.org), and our special guest Adrianna one of the winners of the Podcast Survivor contest.
- Infinitus talk! including hotel and registration information.
- Also, we reveal the first confirmed "presenter" at Infinitus and offer a little preview of next episode.
- Call us with your favorite moments from Azkatraz or your excitement abotu Infinitus!

...and much more...

If you have questions or comments about this episode or any other, feel free to email us at pr@infinitus2010.org or leave us a voicemail comment about your excitement for Infinitus and we just might put it on an upcoming episode! The number is (610) 523-0475. We'd love to hear from you!

Be sure to visit our website at www.infinitus2010.org.

And we hope you've had as fantastic a time as we - the organizers - have had.

It's been amazing walking the halls of the Parc55 and meeting new friends and old - it's been magical to walk into the elevators and see everyone wearing a badge, or a pin, or a What Dumbledore Taught Me sticker, to see confabs in the halls and session rooms when they're filled to the brim and when there's a cluster of intensely interested people engaged in discussion, debate or drawing.

Today's your last chance to shop the vendor room - WhimiscAlley will be open this morning - or pick up a character print at ArtInsights' Gallery.

It's your first chance to register for Infinitus 2010, which will take place at the Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal Studios Orlando from July 15 - 17; stop by the Infinitus Desk in the Great Foyer on Four - and while you're there, pick up your Azkatraz t-shirt, a doorhanger, shot glass, pin or bag - I think we have three or four of the red totes left. We are taking VISA, Mastercard and American Express this morning.

And don't forget that Gwendolyn Grace and Heidi Tandy will be joining Azkatraz presenters Leslie Combemale, Lev Grossman, Melissa Anelli and Henry Jenkins at Eric Bowling's Comic Con panel in San Diego on Sunday at 3 PM; we'll have Infinitus flyers and swag at the ArtInsights booth at 1317 throughout Comic Con as well. You can twitter to us at @hpef for more specific times.

Hope you travel home safely, whether it's by plane, car, Floo, broomstick, train, Portkey or bus, and we'll see you in Orlando in just 359 days!

If the time of something is different online and in the program you get at Registration, the printed program times control.

Registration on 4 is open from 8 AM 'til 11:30 AM and 2 PM 'til 4 PM.

Melissa Anelli's reading will take place in Hearst (the Common Room Annex) on the fourth floor at 10:00 AM, and she will be doing a signing in the Vendor Room afterwards.

Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen's reading/signing will be in Market Street at 10:00 AM and  Mugglenet's How To Podcast will be at 4:00.

FedEx seems to have misplaced (hopefully only temporarily) the National Institute of Medicine's Harry Potter's World exhibit so it is not yet on display in the Gallery. Hopefully, they will find it soon!

The Vendor Room/Art Gallery will be open from 10 AM until 8 AM - come and check out the amazing wares, crafts, books and art, and stop by the deabble/drawble booth while you're there.

And don't forget to come to Ye Olde Fandom Craft Faire in Diversadero on the second floor from 4 'til 6.

Merchandise, Meet & Greet and the Infinitus Informational Table are on the Fourth Floor at the top of the escalator - come by and say hello, and pick up an Infinitus water bottle if you haven't already, or purchase an Azkatraz button, bag, shirt or door hanger, or a limited-edition Wrock Around the Rock enamel pin.

When you check into the Parc55 Hotel, remember to tell them to note in your record that you are part of the AZKATRAZ convention.

You might know the difference between an Anapneo and Animagus, but do you know enough to be the smartest quizzard in Hogwarts?  There's only one way to find out.... Join us for the Harry Potter Trivia Challenge during Friday's Meet & Greet at the Parc55 Hotel!  Players form houses, or teams, and compete for a cash prize in our multimedia, interactive trivia extravaganza.  The top four houses will face off in a buzzer round on stage, but only one can take the honorable "House Cup" title!  Are you up for the challenge?

Trivia will begin at 8:30  sharp and last til about midnight. Don't miss out!

Hosts:
Wes Kauble from Ten Dollar Trivia, the most original gameshow on YouTube.com
MightyQuiz.com, a user-generated trivia game where you can play your favorite trivia topics, challenge your friends, and make your own custom trivia apps for your blog or website.

ArtInsights releases new "Witches and Wizards of Harry Potter" limited edition sets with specially selected images of actors featured in the movie series, and offers 2 new worldwide exclusive Mary GrandPre images from the deluxe edition covers, Order of the Pheonix "12 Grimmauld Place", and Deathly Hallows "Escape from Gringotts".

The art will be premiered at Azkatraz 2009 on July 16th, will be shown at Comic-Con International July 22nd through 26th, and will feature special certificates made especially by Warner Brothers only available during these events.  This release also coincides with a new charity partnership with Kids Need To Read.  Starting with these new releases, the charity will receive 10% of the profits of all Harry Potter fine art sold through ArtInsights Gallery.

Specs:
Witches and Wizards of Harry Potter
Edition count of 700 each

9 images at $45 each, exclusive complete sets at $430 for 10 images, which includes the bonus piece, "Luna Lovegood".
Price increase to $480 for the set will take place on July 27th.

Hermione Granger || Luna Lovegood

"12 Grimmauld Place" and "Escape from Gringotts"
regular paper edition, edition size 500, for $425 each
Artist Proofs as giclees on canvas, edition of 50, $800 each
--1/3 of the APs have been presold.

10% of all profits to benefit Kids Need To Read Charity.

Call ArtInsights at 703-478-0778, visit their website at www.artinsights.com,
or visit them at booth #1317, under the name of their friends, "Heroic Fine Art",
with whom they are sharing a booth. You can also pick up postcards and swag for Infinitus at the booth from Wednesday night on, and catch Leslie from ArtInsights, along with HPEF's Gwendolyn Grace and Heidi on the Harry Potter panel at ComicCon on Sunday afternoon.

We know you’ve been waiting with baited breath and keeping your fingers crossed as hard as we have. Late yesterday, we were told, most unfortunately, that IMAX was unable to secure a pre-screening of the print of “Half-Blood Prince.”

We’re heartbroken. Please understand that IMAX and WB did everything in their power to try to make this happen for us. The problem did not lie with them in any way, and it came right down to the wire with the negotiation process. When push came to shove, however, Paramount simply refused to work out a deal.

We are as upset and angry as you are surely feeling right now. But! The important thing to remember is that we will STILL have a “Half-Blood Prince” showing - all together, all united by our love of the story.

We hedged our bets a couple weeks ago and purchased tickets to the regular screen's 11:30 PM show. This means we're moving forward with our line party beginning around 9:30 PM at the Metreon and the post-movie LeakyMug Podcast will occur at approximately 2:30 AM on Friday.

Read more on our livejournal post

Barnes & Noble Extends Book Fair Through July 10

Read more here.

Don't forget - Azkatraz is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/HPEF. Follow it - especially next week - so  you can keep up to date on room changes (if any), ticket sell-outs, registration hours, meet-ups and more!

We'll be posting an updated list of author signings later this week, but for now, you should look into pre-ordering Erin Pyne's book about Azkatraz, fandom and more - Azkatraz: Inside the Cell. She'll be signing copies on Saturday in the Vendor Room, and at Wrock Around the Wrock.

Tickets for Wrock Around the Rock are still available - you can add them to your registration, or if you're not registered for Azkatraz itself, you can purchase tickets to Wrock Around the Wrock here from TicketLeap. Until July 16, tickets are $100 for the soda-bar version, and $125 for the open bar version; you must be 21 to purchase an open-bar ticket, and anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, or have a chaperone who is registered for Azkatraz, and whose parents/guardians have signed the chaperone-authorization paperwork.

A portion of any purchases you make in any Barnes & Noble in the US this weekend can go to support HPEF and Infinitus - and purchases in the Fisherman's Wharf Barnes & Noble can help prisoners get access to Harry Potter books.

Azkatraz is supporting various charities with our on-site and pre-event fundraisers - one of them is San Francisco's Prisoners' Literature Project, a project coordinated by Bound Together Books.

As their website says:

Most prisons do not allow prisoners to receive books directly from individuals. Instead, books must be sent through "pre-approved vendors" such as publishers or expensive bookstores like Barnes & Noble. In many cases, prisoners do not have anyone on the outside who is willing or able to send books via this route. And what about prison libraries, you ask? Some consist of mostly suspense or western novels, and even then, library access may be treated as more of a privilege than a right.

This is where PLP steps in. We believe that everyone deserves access to literature and educational materials, including people trying to work towards social change, self-empowerment or rehabilitation within the incarceration system. Through our affiliation with Bound Together Books, PLP is able to send free books to those inside.

Given Azkatraz's themes of making the choice between what is right and what is easy, and the concept of imprisonment, we thought it appropriate to support the Prisoners' Literature Project this year - especially when we heard that so many of those incarcerated love to read the Harry Potter series. And there aren't enough copies of the later books to go around - especially because Deathly Hallows hasn't been released in paperback yet.

Let's bring Deathly Hallows - and Half-Blood Prince - to those who want to read them.

You can call the Barnes & Noble at Fisherman's Wharf this weekend and pre-order a copy of Deathly Hallows in paperback, and just ask for it to be held for the PLP. The Prisoners' Literature Project representative will be able to pick up all the donated copies after July 7, and send them "inside". Donations of other Harry Potter books, as well as dictionaries, are also appreciated.

Dial 415-292-6762 and give them the code 581066 and place your order; make sure to tell them to hold the books in the Prisoners' Literature Project box. Or if you're in San Francisco, stop by the store at 2550 Taylor Street, and make sure you say hi to Azkatraz Vendor Chair Linda, who'll be on-site much of the weekend, and who can help you with your PLP donation.

Later in the month, in the Vendor Room at Azkatraz, you'll also be able to purchase a copy of any of the Harry Potter books in paperback and donate it to the PLP right there.

You can also use the 581066 code in any Barnes & Noble in the United States, and a portion of the purchase will be donated by B&N to HPEF to use towards making Infintius wonderful. Print out our PDF flyer and bring it to a store near you, then give it to the checkout clerk before they ring up your purchases.