Facilities

Auditorium: A large lecture-hall style room that can hold all the conference attendees at one time (for keynotes).

Meeting rooms: Three rooms with a total capacity approximately equal to that of the full assembly. One of these rooms may be the auditorium.

Common area: A common area in which groups of attendees can informally meet and where conference registration can take place. Requires a number (4 or so) tables for registration.

Sprint rooms: two or more rooms for sprints. These rooms are usually re-used during the conference for open space talks. Multiple sprints can run at the same time, so these rooms should contain a number of tables that can seat ~10 people with their laptops.

Quiet room: A room for people to use their laptops in silence. This room should be able to seat 30-50 people at tables, and have an Internet connection.

Storage: A secure room in which to store supplies, including materials for all the attendees and all necessary equipment.

All facilities should be accessible by disabled persons, and held in controlled temperature environments (air-conditioned or heated as needed).

The location should be accessible by public transport. It's a bonus if there are interesting attractions nearby (museums, attractions, etc.).

When would the conference be scheduled? e.g. the time of year; on the weekend or during the week; how late the venue can stay open.

Networking

All areas of the conference (listed in Facilities above) need wireless and wired Internet access, for all attendees simultaneously. The venue may be able to provide the networking, or we may have to contract with a third party. In either case, service level guarantees should be part of the agreement.

Catering (optional)

Breakfast, snacks, and a light lunch for three days. Some attendees will be vegetarian/vegan; some may require lactose-free or low-carbohydrate meals. While not all meals may be provided, the resources must be available. (Snacks are less important than lunch; if no meals are provided at all, the resulting registration cost should reflect this.)

If food will not be provided, there should be restaurants or other places for lunch within walking distance. There should be enough of these to handle the conferance attendance (if there's only one small restaurant within walking distance, it'll get swamped).

Accommodation

Nearby commercial hotels, restaurants, and social venues must be available.

If the facility is a hotel: how many rooms does it have? What would the room rate be?

If the facility does not offer accommodation, some nearby inexpensive accommodations, such as hostels, should be identified.

A/V Equipment

Auditorium and Meeting Rooms: Public address system, data projectors, transparency (overhead) projectors. Preferably wireless microphones as well as podium mics.

Transportation

Nearby access to an airport, preferably a large one.

Parking facilities or arrangements, as appropriate.

How to arrive by public transport and taxi from the airport, or other major points.

Finances

Rough cost information for all the above so that we can estimate the required registration price. The PSF doesn't need to make an enormous profit, and can tolerate a small loss, but it's obviously better if the conference can be slightly profitable.

The acceptable upper bound on the early-bird registration cost is $250; as a first approximation you can assume that everyone registers at the early-bird rate.