[FOSS4G-Oceania] What is our upper limit of registrations?

[Alex Leith]

Hey John

The other constraint we should consider is Human Resources. This is our
first one of these, and we have no paid staff. If we’re not careful we may
end up with heaps of firefighting to do in the day and it may end up
no-fun-at-all!

My view is still to keep a hard ceiling of 200, just to keep it manageable.

Cheers,
On Thu, 27 Sep 2018 at 1:34 pm, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all, profound apologies for adding to the email traffic at a very busy
> time, but we need to address rego numbers. We can also discuss at
> tomorrow's meeting, but it requires context.
>
> On Monday, with 50 days left, we're announcing our program. We can
> probably expect to gain some attention, and a run on regos. At the same
> time, we're planning to announce the number of tickets remaining, to let
> would-be attendees know how much urgency they should feel.
>
> Right now, we have 172 total registrations (136 actual, plus 36 set aside
> for sponsors, students, committee members, presenters). A couple of
> committee meetings ago, we talked about upper limits, and agreed to 'watch
> and wait'. At this point, though, we need to come to terms with our actual
> upper limits, so we can make an informed announcement on Monday.
>
> I think our key consideration is around constraints - what can we handle?
>
> *What are our bottlenecks?*
>
> *The #1 bottleneck: space for lunch & morning/afternoon teas.* The Arts
> Hall will be used for catering and the sponsor tables. We'll need to make
> sure we have enough space to accommodate all these people. A few stats on
> the Arts Hall:
>
>    - total area: 220 sq m
>    - total usable space, after sponsor tables and catering: about 90-100
>    sq m (conservatively)
>    - capacity, based on 0.5 - 0.75 sq m pp (suitable for mixed
>    standing/sitting): ~125-175 (plus area behind sponsor tables, for another
>    10-20)
>
> My best estimate is that the room will start to feel crowded once we get
> past 175, but we have a few options to increase our capacity.
>
> To mitigate crowding we'll use lunchbox-style catering, so people can grab
> their lunch and stand with it, or easily go to other spaces. As a bonus,
> this will reduce queuing.
>
> Other readily available spaces:
>
>    - We have 2 nice rooms adjacent to the Arts Hall (rooms 257 & 263),
>    with capacity of 48 each, that we could use as overflow seating.
>    - We have talked about running Birds of a Feather sessions during
>    lunch breaks, could use 257 & 263, or could use room 116 (cap 48)
>    downstairs.
>    - There are a number of seating areas in the corridor right next to
>    the Arts Hall, with about 25 seats (stools/tables/chairs/benches), and many
>    more throughout the building.
>    - We have a room allocated to family use, which should be able to
>    accommodate ~10-20.
>    - If the weather's good, there are many nice outdoor areas where
>    people can enjoy their lunch.
>
> All in all, I think even in bad weather, if we really pushed it, we could
> potentially accommodate 300 - I would probably be uncomfortable going this
> far.
>
> *The #2 bottleneck: lecture theatres.* We have 4 lecture theatres
> available, from which we need to choose 3. The capacities of these rooms
> are 405, 121, 83, and 81. If we're thoughtful with where we place our talks
> (using the community vote as a guide), we should be able to handle quite a
> few. I see this as being a secondary concern, after the catering bottleneck.
>
> So, what can we handle? Given what we know, I would be comfortable
> recommending that we keep our registrations going until 250. This would
> mean that from right now, we would be able to take 78 additional
> registrations, beyond what we've already set aside, before cutting off. I
> would love to see us welcoming as many people as we can handle.
>
> Thoughts? Are there other constraints we should consider?
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-- 

Alex Leith
0419 189 050
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