ESUG 2011 Planning

[Julian Fitzell]

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

-------------- next part --------------
BASIC INFORMATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Venue Name: Hogwarts
City/Location: Somewhere in Scotland
Researcher: Julian Fitzell
Venue Contact: Rubeus Hagrid

Weeks Available: Sep 10-16, Sep 3-9
Total cost estimate: 4,000 Galleons
General description:
 A large castle, held up by magic, isolated on a lake, and near a small town.

FACILITIES
~~~~~~~~~~

=SUGGESTED ROOMS:
 description | configuration | capacity | equipment | notes/cost
 Great Hall; long tables with benches; 320; data projector, sorting hat; 800 galleons 
 Room of Requirements; any configuration; any size; anything you need; good for second lecture hall and camp smalltalk, 600 galleons
 etc....

=WIFI:
 Wifi is included in all rooms but will cost 200 galleons for the week

=Other notes:
 Room of requirements is on a different floor from the Great Hall but there doesn't seem to be a better option.

SERVICES
~~~~~~~~

=CATERING:
 Required?: We must use their house elves for catering
 Options/Cost:
  - A full sit-down lunch can be provided in the Great Hall for 50 Knuts per head
  - A buffet service can be provided in the entrance hall for 32 Knuts per head

=OTHER:
 Transportation from the train station is included free of charge

ACCOMMODATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

=STUDENTS:
 All 20 student volunteers can be housed in the dormitories at a cost of 4 galleons per student, per night. This includes breakfast.
 
=OTHER ATTENDEES:
 There may be room for some other attendees in the above dormitories at the same cost. Others can stay in nearby Hogsmeade at one of several inns located in the town.

TRANSPORTATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only conventional method of transportation is by train from London's Kings Cross Station to nearby Hogsmeade.

Attendees may also arrive by air by their own means.

ANYTHING ELSE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 What else is cool about the venue? Any foreseeable problems?