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Well, we are victims of our own success, so on the assumption the we ''might'' see attendance as large as 500 for PyCON DC 2005, we need to establish another venue. Barring a surprising change in Python's growth, PyCon 2006 will be too large
for GWU's facilities. The 2005 conference will therefore be the last one at GWU.
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Even if we decide we can get away with GWU for another year, we definitely need to establish relations with other venues soon. The larger the venue, the further in advance we need to book it, so we should regard 2006 venue choice as an immediate problem, rather than waiting until it's too late. The larger the venue, the further in advance we need to book it, so we should regard 2006 venue choice as an immediate problem, rather than waiting until it's too late.
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 * Low-cost, so that PyCon will continue to make money. If the venue cost is going to rise dramatically, then it would be better to limit attendance to PyCon for 2005 in order to keep the current GWU deal. '' Can we put a number on this? "Low-cost" is abit vague, although clearly desirable -- sh'' ''In addition, some people think that "make money" is not a desirable characteristic. --Aahz''
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 * When eventually the venue does change, does it have to stay in the DC area or do we want to start moving PyCon around? ''There's nothing carved in stone, but close to DC means we can predict attendance based on past history more easily.'' ''I would really like for PyCon to move, because right now you are losing all the people for whom, for whatever reason, cannot or will not go to D.C. And there is no reason to assume that these people are smaller in number than the people who will not attend if we move it from D.C. or indeed that the _D.C. or lose me_crowd is any more desirable than the _West Coast or lose me_ crowd or any other such. Arguing that OSCON is on the west coast is besides the point, since OSCON is so expensive. The current membership of PyCon organisers 2004 may be terrily biased in liking D.C., because people do tend to volunteer for 'around home'. The people who dislike D.C. may be entirely off the radar. lac''
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* room for tutorial sessions. aside from this, no 'ballroom' like rooms for sessions.  * room for tutorial sessions. aside from this, no 'ballroom' like rooms for sessions ''[Note: this might mean reserving additional space just for delegates to eat -- SH]''.
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= Preliminary Surveys = = Options =

 * [http://marriott.com/property/meetingsandevents/floorplans/waskb Key Bridge Marriott] -- largest room seats 500 in theatre style, so this is probably too tight

 * [http://marriott.com/property/propertypage.mi?marshaCode=WASBN Bethesda North Conference Center]: largest room seats 3000.

 * [http://marriott.com/property/meetingsandevents/floorplans/wasdt Wardman Park Marriott] -- largest room seats 4200 in theatre style -- plenty of room for expansion. Room capacities go from 400, 450 to 750, 800. ''I went to XML 2005 at this venue, and my opinion was that it's big enough to swallow PyCon. There may well be other conventions at the same time, and even at 1000 delegates we'd be small fry to them. Not sure that this venue would support the community spirit we try to engender -- SH''

 * [http://www.itcdc.com/meetings.php Reagan International Trade Building] -- very fancy; probably too expensive.
 * Rockville Conference Center
 * American University
 * Gallaudet University
 * Yorktown High School
 

[http://www.baltimore.org/meeting/mp_facilities_results.jsp?scat=DHCC List of Baltimore venues]:
 * Baltimore: [http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/BWIIH/planameeting/main.wnt Wyndham Baltimore @Inner Harbour]
 * Baltimore: [http://marriott.com/property/meetingsandevents/business/bwiwf Marriott Waterfront]
 * Baltimore: Marriott Inner Harbour
 * Baltimore: [http://www.radisson.com/lordbaltimore Radisson Lord Baltimore]
    - JHU hosted [http://www.ismir.net/ismir2003 ISMIR 2003] there and were very impressed with their general competence. At least in 2003, were slightly cheaper than above hotels because it is three blocks from Harbor area, not right on the Harbor. Still in safe area (basically the core downtown business district). Wireless was through a third-party service, but worked fine. Unfortunately, largest space is "ballroom style" which I see above is not desired. [Doesn't seem to have well-placed space for us; the ballroom can be broken up into pieces, but we'd need to use the entire ballroom for keynotes. Or we can use space scattered over several floors. Can be ruled out. --amk]
 * Johns Hopkins (in Homewood). [JHU has been pinged. They needed to have a meeting to discuss the possibility; at that meeting, they decided hosting the con wasn't feasible. --amk]
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  * Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
    * Contact Craig Sommer (970-491-6222)

Thank you for visiting our website and for your interest in Colorado State
University as a potential site for your conference. Since we do not have
sleeping rooms available in March or April, we can only offer dates in the
summer. Potential times that we could host your program in 2005 are late
June/early July or possibly early August.

Although our 2005 rates are not yet available, I would not expect an
increase of more than 3 or 4%, and it might not even come to that. A 2004
rate of $56.75 per person per day would include:
* lodging (double occupancy)
* 3 meals
* use of meeting facilities
* support services (see attached Adult Package Plan)
* use of the Student Recreation Center
* campus parking
* all applicable taxes.

Lodging
Campus lodging would be in a residence hall utilizing suite-type
arrangements. Each room has two twin beds, closets, drawers, telephone,
and a vanity with a sink. Two rooms are joined by a shared bathroom.
Rates include linens, towel sets, pillows, blankets, beverage cups, daily
maid service, and all applicable taxes. High speed internet access is also
included. Although the residence halls are not air conditioned, large
sliding windows and generally cool evenings usually provide for comfortable
sleeping. Residence halls are a pleasant 5 to 10 minute walk from meeting
rooms at Lory Student Center. Standard check in time is 4:00 PM and
standard check out time is 10:00 AM.

Again using 2004 rates, the same package but with single occupancy lodging
would be $75.40 per person per day. A new hall with air conditioned rooms
may also be available, and the rate should be about $59-60 per person per
day for the double occupancy package.

Food Service
Campus food service is through a residence hall cafeteria. Service is
characterized by unlimited selection and return privileges. Although not
included in the quoted fees, special meals such as outdoor barbecues are
available for nominal additional fees. Extensive catering services are
also available both in the residence halls and in the meeting facilities.

Meeting Facilities
The meeting space for your program would be in Lory Student Center. With
more than 300,000 square feet of floor space, the Student Center has over
50,000 square feet dedicated to 25 meeting rooms, five ballrooms, a 650
seat theater, and related meeting space. Other Center amenities utilized
heavily by conferences include the University Bookstore, a full service
copy center, several large open lounges, a hair salon, a floral shop, a
travel agency, several ATM's, and a variety of food service outlets.
Internet connections are readily available--we would just need to discuss
your specific requirements.

Support Services
Our Adult Package Plan, which is included in the sample rate illustration,
features a professional coordinator from this office as your single contact
for all University facilities and services. Please refer to the attached
copy of the Adult Package Plan for details. For a nominal additional fee,
the Office of Conference Services offers advance and on-site registration
and full accounting services.

Recreation
The package includes use of the Student Recreation Center. Facilities
include indoor and outdoor basketball and volleyball courts, a ten-lane,
25-yard swimming pool, a spa, a large aerobics room, an eighth-mile indoor
track, and an extensive weight and exercise room. Use of these facilities
is on a shared basis with students and with other conference participants.

Parking
Our service plans include parking permits valid at lots adjacent to Lory
Student Center and at lots next to the residence halls.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to present this proposal. Please
call or email me with any questions. I will look forward to your response.

Craig Sommer, Director
Office of Conference Services
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-8037
Phone: 970-491-6222
Fax: 970-491-3568
http://www.conferences.colostate.edu/


NAME: Evelyn Mitchell
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National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (really!)
http://www.conferencesolution.com/ (Arlington, up to 750)
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Baltimore Conference Center
http://www.bccenter.org
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= Other Related Events and Questions =
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  * OSCON will likely stay on the West coast though this might be the last year for Portland. = Crystal Gateway =
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  * I think Paul Prescod is considering having a West coast Python event. How does this relate?
  ''Not at all, though I've suggested "PyCON West" a couple of times.''
[http://marriott.com/property/propertyPage/WASGW Crystal Gateway Marriott]

'''This venue never got back to us. Let's look for somewhere else. --amk'''

'''''I think this may be a little precipitate. Would somebody like to try
entering requirements on [http://marriott.com/schedmtg/erfpinfo.mi?marshaCode=WASGW this page] and see if we hear anything? The venue looks good ... SH'''''

   * Suggested by Michael McLay; he says we can get a good rate for the week after Easter (April 17-21, 2006).
   * Largest ballroom has 2200 capacity in theatre style, followed by one room for 1600 people, two rooms for 600 people, and one for 500.
   * There are about 10 rooms with 250-person capacity, and 12 rooms with 50-60 person capacity.
   * The 50-person rooms seat around 30-40 people in banquet style, which seems more suited to sprints, BoFs, etc.
   * Catered food available.
   * Wireless Internet available, but imposes registration conditions; need to talk to hotel's A/V person.
   * $14/day on-site parking
   * Hotel is expensive: $299 standard price (presumably PyCon guests would get a better rate, but we don't know what the rate is yet. $160 was suggested.)
   * Connected to [http://www.crystalcity.com/phone.htm Crystal City Shops], which has a lot of food places.
   * Unknown: cost of venue
   * Available in the evening?
  

== Questions for site visit ==

 * What's the bedroom rate going to be? Number of room-nights required? Right to audit is required.
 * Get detailed food costs: costs for breakfast, lunch, breaks. Are tips/tax included? '''Do we have a choice of caterers? --CatherineDevlin'''
 * How much will wireless support cost? Can it be open to everyone or are access controls required?
 * Function space: Any auditorium-style space?
 * Function space: get capacities and style information.
 * A/V equipment: projectors. Cost?
 * Is function space available in the evening?
 * Parking cost for attendees?

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CategoryPyCon CategoryPyCon2006

Barring a surprising change in Python's growth, PyCon 2006 will be too large for GWU's facilities. The 2005 conference will therefore be the last one at GWU.

The larger the venue, the further in advance we need to book it, so we should regard 2006 venue choice as an immediate problem, rather than waiting until it's too late.

Since venues typically book up to 18 months in advance, you might argue we are already too late, and I wouldn't disagree. Typically we should expect to be doing long-range planning 18-24 months in advance.

First let's try to establish some ground rules. Before we start to advocate particular venues, let's all try to agree on what we'd like from an ideal venue. The hope is that this can be incorporated into some kind of "scoresheet" that those who visit potential venues can use to report back - preferably to the pycon-organizers list, with a summary here.

Desirable Venue Characteristics

  • Close to public transport. We are interpreting this to mean within a five-minute walk of a Metro station, with no obstacles to wheelchair-bound or otherwise disabled delegates.
  • Convenient for low-cost accommodation. Not necessarily in the immediate vicinity, but if not then we'd need to establish such accommodation and the route(s) to it. Low-cost can be defined as under $60 per night (although I'll accept arguments on this).
  • Able to handle at least 1,000 delegates. This might seem like an extreme upper limit, but it would be nice to avoid the venue selection exercise becoming an annual event.
  • Facilities support must be comparable or better than what you have at GWU. Plus be aware that the cost of catering, networking, equipment, etc. could be significant additional costs beyond the base venue. as they were for the first two events, but yes, they clearly have to be budgeted -- sh

  • Venue must support sprints before or after the conference or we need another venue to hold the sprints.
  • Venue must allow for sessions in the evening for the annual PSF meeting, BOFs, etc.
  • I want a demo-room, for people who want to give demos. I'd like a little more formal structure backing this -- certainly one can use Open Space for demos, and we did, but I think there would be more demos if it had its own independent and formal structure. --lac

  • room for tutorial sessions. aside from this, no 'ballroom' like rooms for sessions [Note: this might mean reserving additional space just for delegates to eat -- SH].

Options

[http://www.baltimore.org/meeting/mp_facilities_results.jsp?scat=DHCC List of Baltimore venues]:

  • Baltimore: [http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/BWIIH/planameeting/main.wnt Wyndham Baltimore @Inner Harbour]

  • Baltimore: [http://marriott.com/property/meetingsandevents/business/bwiwf Marriott Waterfront]

  • Baltimore: Marriott Inner Harbour
  • Baltimore: [http://www.radisson.com/lordbaltimore Radisson Lord Baltimore]

    • - JHU hosted [http://www.ismir.net/ismir2003 ISMIR 2003] there and were very impressed with their general competence. At least in 2003, were slightly cheaper than above hotels because it is three blocks from Harbor area, not right on the Harbor. Still in safe area (basically the core downtown business district). Wireless was through a third-party service, but worked fine. Unfortunately, largest space is "ballroom style" which I see above is not desired. [Doesn't seem to have well-placed space for us; the ballroom can be broken up into pieces, but we'd need to use the entire ballroom for keynotes. Or we can use space scattered over several floors. Can be ruled out. --amk]

  • Johns Hopkins (in Homewood). [JHU has been pinged. They needed to have a meeting to discuss the possibility; at that meeting, they decided hosting the con wasn't feasible. --amk]

Please add information here that you have obtained from specific venues. Where possible please include contact details for your sources of information, and add your own identity.

  • The Inn and Conference Center (University of Maryland University College)
    • Contact Tim Ultenbern (301-985-7855).
    • Auditorium supports 750 people.
    • Foodservice available in hallway or in main ballroom.
    • Flexible catering.
    • 3 Floors of meeting rooms ranging in sizes from small to large.
    • Available March 21 - 25, with sprints and/or open space rooms available 2 days before and/or after.
    • Cost is $85 per person per day, which includes rooms, beverages (coffee and soda), AV, lunch, service charges, and parking.
    • Rooms available for reservation.
    • Wireless complimentary in public areas (hallways), and to get a line into each meeting room we'd need $175 per line per day. We can install our own switch and/or 802.11 access point.
  • Stamp Student Union (University of Maryland College Park)
    • Contact Paul Prescott (301-314-7881) or Stamp Student Union (ask for reservations: 301-314-3375)
    • Grand ballroom supports 800 people, auditorium style
    • Hoff theatre supports 500 people
    • Food is catered (same as UMUC above)
    • The food outlets in basement are closed during spring break
    • There are rooms that hold 100 - 250 people, including the colony ballroom
    • Recommended talking to UMUC, as it is more self contained and perhaps more appropriate. Am waiting on a callback from Stamp Union.

Other possibilities

Some possible sites:

Marymount U.: http://www.marymount.edu/confcenter/main.html (Arlington, up to 750, but only available from May to August 1st),

DoubleTree Tysons Corner: http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=IADLRDT (largest room is 600; calls itself "executive", so probably pricy).

4H Center, Chevy Chase, Maryland http://www.4hcenter.org/index.html (up to 800, but specializing in youth conferences; has 800 beds available, though)

Hilton Mark Center, Alexandria http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=DCAAHHH (largest room seats 1200; this is where Python10 was held; forget about mass transit, though).

Crystal Gateway

[http://marriott.com/property/propertyPage/WASGW Crystal Gateway Marriott]

This venue never got back to us. Let's look for somewhere else. --amk

I think this may be a little precipitate. Would somebody like to try entering requirements on [http://marriott.com/schedmtg/erfpinfo.mi?marshaCode=WASGW this page] and see if we hear anything? The venue looks good ... SH

  • Suggested by Michael McLay; he says we can get a good rate for the week after Easter (April 17-21, 2006).

  • Largest ballroom has 2200 capacity in theatre style, followed by one room for 1600 people, two rooms for 600 people, and one for 500.
  • There are about 10 rooms with 250-person capacity, and 12 rooms with 50-60 person capacity.
  • The 50-person rooms seat around 30-40 people in banquet style, which seems more suited to sprints, BoFs, etc.

  • Catered food available.
  • Wireless Internet available, but imposes registration conditions; need to talk to hotel's A/V person.
  • $14/day on-site parking
  • Hotel is expensive: $299 standard price (presumably PyCon guests would get a better rate, but we don't know what the rate is yet. $160 was suggested.)

  • Connected to [http://www.crystalcity.com/phone.htm Crystal City Shops], which has a lot of food places.

  • Unknown: cost of venue
  • Available in the evening?

Questions for site visit

  • What's the bedroom rate going to be? Number of room-nights required? Right to audit is required.
  • Get detailed food costs: costs for breakfast, lunch, breaks. Are tips/tax included? Do we have a choice of caterers? --CatherineDevlin

  • How much will wireless support cost? Can it be open to everyone or are access controls required?
  • Function space: Any auditorium-style space?
  • Function space: get capacities and style information.
  • A/V equipment: projectors. Cost?
  • Is function space available in the evening?
  • Parking cost for attendees?


CategoryPyCon2006

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