NOT YET COMPLETE

San Francisco/Silicon Valley Proposal Pycon 2008/9

Primary Contact Alvin Wang [MAILTO] alvinwang@gmail.com

Budget

• Google Spreadsheet

• Basically the 2007 budget copied on 2/10
• Adjusted fixed costs to San Mateo figures
• The meals figure of $150 per person includes 3 lunches and 6 breaks
• I do not know if it includes sodas and juices, if it does, we can eliminate $13 per day
• I would hope that we can do a little better in sponsorship as is the trend

Dates

• Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Feb 28, 2008 - Bid from Hotel Word Doc

• Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - Feb 26, 2009 - Bid from Hotel Word Doc

• In Feb, there is ~30% chance of rain/day
• In April, there is ~5% chance of rain/day

• For those of you from the North East, there is approximately no chance of snow. There have only been 10 days when snow touched the ground in the last 146 yrs.

Hotel

• San Mateo Marriott

• Floor Plan

• Deluxe room - 2Q - $119 = 10% + $1.10 = $132/night
• Exec Suite - $139 = 10% + $1.10 = $154/night
• all rates - non commissionable
• Complimentary fitness center and heated pool
• Hertz rent a car onsite

• Pictures and PDFs

Rooms

• 476 guestrooms including 152 two bedroom suites
• All rooms renovated in 2005/6.
• Have a large LCD TV with SVGA and HDMI inputs.
• Have a safe large enough for a notebook with an integrated plug so you can charge it in the safe
• 90% nonsmoking
• Free USA Today
• 1 free roomnight per 50

Travel to Bay Area

There is not just 1 major airport. There are 3 major airports in the SF Bay Area. All the discount airlines fly here with direct flights to major urban centers. SouthWest and JetBlue are starting service to San Francisco Airport this summer.

Airline Discounts - The conference organizers will negotiate a reduced fare from United Airlines and Southwest. Since we are not a major conference, it will probably be 5%. You can usually get that just by asking.

From Airports to Hotel

• San Francisco - Free Shuttle

• Oakland - $3 bus to BART to SFO - $5.80

• San Jose - Free VTA shuttle to Caltrain - 2 blocks from hotel - $3.75

Main Tracks

• Golden Gate Ballroom - 700 people
• Bay Bridge Room A/B - 260 people
• Bay Bridge Room C - 215 people
• Crystal springs room - 200 people
• AV is $2400 for 3 days including onsite staff

Additional Areas

• Exhibit Area - Golden Gate Foyer - 39'x39'
• Marina Room - Break Room - 5 tables of 8
• Presidio Room - Break Room - 5 tables of 8
• Lombard Room - 110 people - additional presentations
• Cannert Room - 90 people - TBD
• Boardroom - Storage Area/Registration
• Geary Room - Quiet Room - Laptop usage - 3 tables of 8
• Post Room - Quiet Room - Laptop usage - 3 tables of 8
• 3 other rooms - conference table - 20 people with Large LCD screen builtin

Internet Access

$5K for 3 days for 200 concurrent users. We can increase it since the hotel has more T1 lines. Nearby Foster City is completely covered by Free Wifi. San Mateo is covered by the Wireless Silicon Valley agreement and may be completely covered by Wifi by the time of the conference.

24 Hour Nerding

We have all the conference rooms for all 4 days. We can have evening events like sprints, additional ad hoc discussions, etc.

Speaker Benefits

One of the biggest advantages of the Bay Area is that we can get speakers that might not be willing to travel for a Python convention but would be perfectly willing to drive. For example, Ebay, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, etc have API's that can be used by Python. They would be willing to drive but might be unwilling to fly.

Outreach Opportunity

There will be additional meeting rooms available. There are many interesting Python projects that could use some corporate support. We can arrange presentations for companies of using your project.

Transit

BART The subway system from the Bay Area

Caltrain - Commuter train takes you from SF to the Gilroy Outlet Shopping

Volunteers

There is already a list of a dozen local people that have volunteered to help. Personally, I live 4 miles from the hotel and can accept shipments. BayPiggies has a email list of several hundred people that can potentially help.

If you have never been to the San Francisco Bay area

map here It is about 60 miles from San Francisco to San Jose.

San Jose and area is what is know as Silicon Valley. All the tech you could possibly be interested in is here. It would be simpler to list what is not here.

In San Francisco, there is World Class shopping, eating, tourist spots. You should make reservations to go to Alcatraz because the ferry is often booked up.

Going South, there is Outlet Shopping in Gilroy, Monterey Aquarium, and many golf cities.

North is the Napa Wine Country. Home of OReilly Books.

The local organizers will provide tourism information and customized maps and details of the many local activities.

Because it is Time

2003-5 were in DC, 2006 - 2007 was in Dallas, 2008-9 should be on the West Coast. It makes sense to move the convention around North America.