[Foss4g2009] Venue & program comments

[Dave Patton]

On 2008-12-11 7:16 PM, FOSS4G OC - Tour Hosts wrote:

>> Do we get an option to save money by not using the Parkside Auditorium
>> on Thursday? The program as structured suggests we don't need it.
> We would need to pay for the Auditorium on the Thursday even if we did
> not use it for two main reasons; Firstly, the Foyer area which we are
> using for Exhibition and catering comes packaged with the Auditorium ie:
> SCEC would be unable to sell the auditorium to another client as they
> would not have access to the foyer.

I seem to recall from SCEC website info that the auditorium
appears to straddle two levels of the conference centre.
Do we have any options to provide access via "the lower
level" if access via the foyer is blocked/restricted?

>>From your above and previous comments we realise that the OC does not
> want a speaker's preparation room as part of the conference. Is this
> because most delegates will use their own computers for their
> presentation? Please confirm.

For 2007, we had a small room(Sooke) designated as a
Speakers Ready Room:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2007_VCC_Rooms#Miscellaneous
I don't think more than maybe a couple of speakers used the room.
It did get used for prep by some some others, and as a 'spare
space' in which to sit(even on the floor) for some delegates
to use their laptops.

> Are you planning on offering workshop delegates morning and afternoon
> tea? Looking at the program it seems like only lunch will be offered,
> can you please confirm?

For 2007, workshops ran for 3 hours, with no breaks, so
there was no mid-morning or mid-afternoon "tea".
However, we did provide "tea" before the Workshops
started in the morning.

2007, "Workshops Monday":
http://www.foss4g2007.org/program_overview/monday/
Workshops were scheduled to finish at Noon and at
4PM. These had to be 'hard deadlines'(no allowance
to "go a bit longer") because of having 1 hour for
lunch(and room reset for the afternoon) and because
we wanted to start room teardown 'right at 4PM'.
Because of wanting the help of Workshop delegates
for "10 minutes" at the end of the afternoon
Workshop to start breaking down the Workshop PCs,
if there are to be any activities starting late
that afternoon(OSGeo AGM, BOFs, social events, etc.)
we should allow 'a bit of a break'.


>>> f) Will the booth bump in during the night on the Monday incur extra
>>> costs? 
> There is a small charge for bumping into the exhibition area from
> midnight. However it is less then paying for an extra day's room rental
> for bump in on Monday.

Is there the option of "starting at a reasonable hour"(i.e. not
midnight) and having the cost adjusted accordingly? I don't
think anything will be taking place "at midnight".

> Following on from my point above regarding G07 we are concerned about
> the room capacities of the session rooms and would recommend that
> instead of using G07 as a session room that we hire half of the Parkside
> 110 rooms (either A or B) giving you the following room capacities:   
> 
> Parkside Auditorium - 1000 delegates
> Parkside 110 (A or B) - 240 delegates 
> Parkside G02 - 70 delegates
> Parkside G03 - 50 delegates (tutorial)
> Parkside G04 - 120 delegates (tutorial)
> 
> In providing a bigger room, it provides greater flexibility in
> programming and gives delegates a bit more room and comfort.

When you are quoting room capacities for theater style seating,
do you use the SCEC numbers, or numbers based on what you will
think we would use? For example, in another thread I had pointed
out that our use of rooms for Workshops would result in slightly
different capacities than SCEC's numbers. For theater style
seating, you had suggested that capacity needed to take into
account 'delegates wanting to leave an empty seat next to them'.
Rather than 'empty seats', I would just seat the room with a
bit of space between chairs, but that may then not meet with
the SCEC's capacity numbers.

-- 
Dave Patton
CIS Canadian Information Systems
Victoria, B.C.

Degree Confluence Project:
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http://2009.foss4g.org/

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Maps, GPS, etc.
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