BayPiggies is taking the lead in making a bid for PyCon2010 in the San Francisco Bay Area. See PyCon2010BayPiggiesProposal for more information.

The following are the questions asked by Python.org of bidders to host PyCon.

Staff and volunteers who have answers are encouraged to put the information here. This is not the official bid, so don't worry about formatting, but do try to be accurate. It helps to give the source of your information as a link.

The requirements for future PyCon bids will be different than years past in that we won't be asking local groups to actually begin negotiations with venues.

Right. We can identify candidates, but we won't be negotiating the contract.

Instead, we're looking for a somewhat less formal proposal telling us why PyCon should be held in your local area:

• Tell us, briefly, what's good and what's great about the city/region/state that would make it a good place to host PyCon.

[http://www.baypiggies.org/ BayPiggies], Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Berkeley, Guido, Google, Stanford, UC Berkeley...

Tell us the pros and cons about the local area:

• + Are major venues (1000+ person capacity) plentiful?

• [http://www.moscone.com/ Moscone]}

• [http://www.santaclara.org/conventioncenter/ Santa Clara Convention Center]

• [http://sanjose.org/meetings/facilities/convention.php San Jose Convention Center]

• [http://www.oaklandcvb.com/ Oakland Convention Center]

• [http://www1.hilton.com/ Hilton Hotels]

• [http://sanjosemarriott.com/ Marriott Hotel]

• [http://dtsj.com/ Doubletree Hotel]

• [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/index.html Westin]

• [http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/ Holiday Inn]

• [http://www.fairmont.com/ Fairmont Hotel]

  • + Are they clustered or located in any particular area?

San Francisco, Peninsula, South Bay, East Bay

• + Transportation resources: o How close is the nearest major airport to the heart of the city or region?

SFO 15 miles from downtown San Francisco, 40 miles from San Jose

SJC 5 miles from downtown San Jose

• o What sort of transportation options are available? Bus, taxi, train, light-rail, subway, etc. How much does a trip on each cost?

• [http://www.sfmuni.com/ SF Muni] $1.75; [http://www.vta.org/ Santa Clara County VTA] $1.75 (includes Santa Clara County Light Rail)

• [http://caltrain.com/ Caltrain] San Jose Diridon (Zone 4) to SF 4th & Townsend (Zone 1) $7.50; SFO-SF $4.00

• [http://www.bart.gov/ BART] SFO to Montgomery St., SF $5.35

• [http://www.bayshuttle.com/ Bay Shuttle, SFO-SF $16; SFO-San Jose

• [http://www.bayareashuttles.net/bay_area_airport_shuttle.htm All Bay Area shuttles]

SF taxi companies:

• Yellow Cab

• Luxor Taxi & Cab Services

• American Taxi Cab
• Desoto Cab Co
• Town Taxi Inc
• City Wide Taxi Dispatch
• Royal Taxi
• ABC Taxi

Major hotels have free airport shuttles.

o How close are these resources to the large venues you identified above?

Usually within a block.

• + What other major (1000+ attendee) events has your area hosted recently? o Any tech-related events?

Only a few hundred in recent years.

Recent and currently scheduled tech conferences:

• Linux World
• Mac World
• Game Developers Conference
• RSA Security Conference
• Web 2.0

• JavaOne

• Cisco Systems Conference
• Semicon
• Embedded Systems Conference
• Unicode Conference
• Technosium

• DesignCon

• Search Marketing Expo
• Software Development West
• Multicore Expo

  + How's the weather? Remember, the target is for PyCon to be held between mid-February and mid-April.

No snow, anyway. Rain possible but not probable.

• Tell us about your group: + Who are you?

Bay Area Python Interest Group

• + What's your connection to Python?

well, Guido is a member.

• + How many volunteers can you expect to provide for PyCon?

A few dozen, including volunteers from Google.

• Remember, this is planning for two years in advance.

• + Are there any key players who bring experience or skills that you feel are particularly valuable to PyCon?

Guido. Google.

• + Looking at the PyCon staff roles list, are there any local people who would be committed to filling a particular role?

Yes.

• Ed Cherlin, Chairbeing
• John Menerick, Webmaster
• Aahz, Acting Lord High This and That
• Andrew Fife, ??
• Tell us about the local Python community: + Users group(s) for Python? Django? Zope? Plone? Any local university Python groups?

Indeed.

• BayPiggies

• unnamed XO Sugar hacking society (SF and Silicon Valley) + Local companies doing exciting things with Python?

  o Would they be interested in sponsoring PyCon?

Google, for a start. They say they want to continue sponsoring PyCon.

• Tell us about the local tech community: + Who are the big IT and Tech related companies in the area?

Uh, wow. Well, Google, HP, Apple, Intel, AMD, IBM, Oracle, and a cast of thousands.

• o Do they use Python?

Google does.