NOT YET COMPLETE

San Francisco/Silicon Valley Proposal Pycon 2008/9

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

Dates

• Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 - Feb 28, 2008
• Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - Feb 26, 2009

Hotel

• [http://www.sanmateomarriott.com San Mateo Marriott]

• [http://www.sanmateomarriott.com Floor Plan]

• Deluxe room - 2Q - $119 = 10% + $1.10 = $132/night
• Exec Suite - $139 = 10% + $1.10 = $154/night
• all rates - non commissionable

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

[http://www.bart.gov BART] The subway system from the Bay Area

[http://www.caltrain.com Caltrain] - Commuter train takes you from SF to the [http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=23 Gilroy Outlet Shopping]

If you have never been to the San Francisco Bay area

[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=sfo&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=9&ll=37.712072,-122.453613&spn=1.047287,2.936096 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 it often fills 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.

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.