Greetings all. As those of you at this month's UK Smalltalk meeting will know, we are attempting to put together a proposal to host ESUG 2011 in the UK. We brainstormed a number of ideas for locations and split them up among the people at the meeting to follow up on.
Giovanni is working to set up a mailing list for those who are interested in helping with this effort. In the meantime, however, I wanted to make sure everyone knew the details of everything we would require from the venue. I also wanted to recap the places that everyone at the meeting said they would look into.
As a reminder, we need to be finalizing a number of these details at our October meeting. We agree we would feed back all the information we have acquired by October 8. Since I'm thinking we may have a lot of venues to look through, I thought it would be helpful to have all the information in a semi-consistent format. This should also help make sure nothing is missed. Hopefully we can set up a wiki or something to hold the information but for now I'm attaching a (UK-inspired) template we can all use for each venue.
More details are below.... (Niall, Tim, and Yann: see notes in the last section for you :) )
Julian
Details to keep in mind when contacting each possible venue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Ideal dates: Sep 10-16. Week before (or after?) as alternates. - In general, get as much information as possible about what is and is not included in the stated costs. - We need accurate cost estimates in order to evaluate each venue. Our budget is going to be tight. - Rooms: - Sat + Sun before: room for Camp Smalltalk (~50 people) with tables - Mon - Fri: - Main lecture/presentation room holding up to 160-200 people (ie. the whole conference attendance). Projector/Screen. Probably sound system. - Secondary lecture/presentation room for ~70-100. Projector/Screen. Sound system maybe not needed depending on size. - It may be possible in some venues, rather than having 2 dedicated rooms, to sub-divide one large room at different points in the day to meet the needs of the above two rooms. - Either the Camp Smalltalk room above or some appropriate space for people to gather with laptops and work together. - The rooms must be physically near each other. - WIFI needed throughout - Lunch catering Mon-Fri (do we need to use a specific caterer? If so, what is the cost?) - Accommodation: - We need to pay for the housing for 20 student volunteers. This needs to be CHEAP. - A number of other attendees will want cheap (or relatively cheap) accommodation options nearby. - Generally, there needs to be enough accommodation conveniently located for all the attendees.
Areas for investigation (to report back by Oct 8) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Niall has already done a bunch of research on Scottish venues. Niall, can you look more into the practicalities of the castle? We like the castle idea! :)
Tim (MacKinnon), you left before the end, but we wondered if you would be willing to check into Reading University?
Yann, you weren't there, but you got volunteered (if you're willing) to see if you can find any castles or stately homes (presumably in the London vicinity?) that might work.
Jason - Oxford Ramiro - Cambridge (Steve Freeman is an alum) - Cornwall/Penzance Tim Matthews - Plymouth University - Manchester Nick - Bristol - Greenwich Bruce - Barbican/YMCA - BCS Francisco - Glasgow / JP Morgan venue sponsorship Giovanni - London colleges: - Queen Mary (Eliot Miranda is an alum) - East London - Imperial - Greenwich Magnus - Hull - Newcastle Julian - Trains - Cardiff - Swansey
uksmalltalk@lists.squeakfoundation.org