[Foss4g2009] Venue & program comments

[Mark Leslie]

Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Excellent work Simon, thanks for pulling it together.
> My comments inline.
> 
> Jody, Mark and I have been discussing the idea of an Install-fest. Bring 
> along your laptop and install with latest software. Geeks hovering 
> around helping out.
> Probably set it up in one of the workshop rooms on Tuesday night.
> Ideally, we will have beer & nuts in the rooms to help keep the geeks 
> hovering around.
> So I suggest we dedicate 16:30 - 18:00 to an install-fest..

We've talked about potential locations somewhat, and a workshop room 
seems like a poor plan.  With G04 being the largest room, it will still 
be setup for a single speaker at the front of the room.  We will want 
something where people can cluster together more freely.  More 
importantly, we're going to have many people struggling to take apart 
the workshop and get the room ready for sessions on Wednesday.  An 
exhibition hall seems better suited, but we have the same problem of 
exhibitors trying to setup while people are installing.  I haven't 
actually seen the venue, so I don't have a solid suggestion at the moment.

>>
>> 2. 20-10-2009 (Page 2 of PDF)
>>
>> Shows a potential workshop program - each of the confirmed\held rooms 
>> and capacities are shown, including Parkside 110A and 110B. I would 
>> like to present 3 possible options, I'm sure there are others:
>>
>> a) Conservative - 290 attendees
>> b) Medium - replace G04 & G03 with 110A & B     - 460 attendees
>> c) High Risk - 630 attendees
>>
>> As SCEC are pushing for confirmation we need to make a decision on 
>> this. Parkside 110A & 110B are large rooms (we also have the 
>> auditorium) and are away from other rooms in the SCEC - i.e. upstairs. 
>> I'm not sure that we would make optimal use of these rooms and even 
>> when partitioned they could feel empty. At this stage my preference 
>> would be to opt out of these rooms and work with the alternate room 
>> suggestions for both the conference and workshops as I have drafted in 
>> the program.
> I'm confused, you have Parkside 110A & 110B identified in your spreadsheet.
> 
> I'm inclined to target the Medium estimate.
> Lets discount the High Risk 630 people, as there is a good chance we 
> won't get that many at the conference in total, let alone only the 
> workshops.

If we're targeting 500 conference attendees, it seems unreasonable to 
target 460 workshops attendees.  We can't take 110A and 110B anymore 
anyway, so 290 it is.  Are we able to partition G04 into two rooms?  It 
seems on the large side to me, and I always like to have more variety in 
workshops.

>>
>> a) Both the call for abstracts AND workshops will be handled by the OC 
>> - Cameron can you confirm?
> Yes, that is the intent.

Do we have a firm timeline on issuing the calls and closing dates?  I 
seem to recall mention of a calendar at some point.