Local site visit requested

[Theodore Tso]

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 01:33:22PM +0100, Alasdair G Kergon wrote:
> For the Corn Exchange, please contact:
>   "Megan Phillips" <Megan.Phillips at cambridge.gov.uk>
>   +44 1223 457555
> directly.
> 
> [I won't be joining you as I'm at the device-mapper/lvm summit in
> Germany this week.]
> 
> Also ask to see the Large Hall at the Guildhall while you are there,
> though at this point it seems less suitable.

Were any of the other locations worth visiting?  Someone mentioned a
church, and some large examination rooms that might be available?


Also, people may find this useful; it's a map of the facilities that
we used in Ottawa:

	http://www.ottawacongresscentre.com/facilities/capital.html

It requires flash, sorry.  But if you have it, click on configuration
options setup "B".  Then if you look at the map, you can see the room
layout, and as you mouse over the map, it will display the various
sizes of the rooms in the floor plan.

To give you a quick summary, we used room 1B (171 m**2, 1842 ft**2) as
a breakout room, rooms 2B and 3B (330 m**2, 3546 ft**2) as the main
plenary room, room 4B (165 m**2, 1773 ft**2) was not used and as part
of the hallway/discussion area, and room 5B (179 m**2, 1930 ft**2) was
what we used for lunch and dinner.

Rough ASCII diagram (not to scale):

  |   -----+-----+-------------+------+------+
  |  F     |     |             |      |      |
  |  O     |     |             |S    S|      |
  |  Y     | 1B  |  2B  / 3B   |o 4B o| 5B   | 
  |  E     |     |             |f    f|      |
  \  R     |     |             |a    a|      |
   \       | BOF |   Plenary   |      |Lunch |
    \      +-----+-------------+      +------+
     \          Hallway                      |
      \ Sofa/chairs  Food tables Sofa/chairs |
       \-------------------------------------+

The hallway area is approximately 330 m**2 / 3546 ft**2, not including
the 165 m**2 / 1773 ft**2 area from room 4B.  In the hallway and 4B
area, we had the tables for tea, soda, breakfast, and snacks, as well
as plenty of sofas and chairs so people could sit and chat during the
breaks.  (There were also some tables with computers, power taps, for
people to sit and work, but I don't recall them getting a huge amount
of use during the kernel summit in the hallway and 4B areas.)

The foyer is were we put the registration table, and it was also
coveniently the only entryway into the space, so a single person could
man the registration table as well as serve as door guard.

Note the difference between the room required for room 5B, where we
had everyone seated in round tables, but nearly every table was full
and people didn't have their laptops, in which case you squeeze
100-120 people in 179 square meters, versus in the plenary room
(2B/3B) where people want to spread out, and roughly face the front of
the room, and where we need space for the stage/podium/etc., and so
the resulting space is almost twice as big.  Do we really need that
much space?  Probably not, but we'll probably feel quite a bit more
cramped in a room which is only 250--300 square meters, for example.

Also note how it was very convenient for us to take a break for
dinner, wander over to 5B to get dinner on Monday night, and then we
could be sure that people would be available for BOF sessions in rooms
1B and 2B/3B.  My experience is that if we ask people to go out to
restaurants (such as what happens on Tuesday nights), people never
make it back on time, or they find the siren call of the local
drinking establishments too alluring, and they never make it back for
BOF sessions at all.  :-)


When people do the site visits, it would be really great if they could
prepare similar ASCII diagrams of the facility with the rooms marked
and with exact dimensions and suggestions for how each of the rooms
might be used.  I am sure other sites will _not_ have as much room as
what we had at the Ottawa Congress Center, but as I said, I think we
were very spoiled there; but people may not realize it until they see
how much space we're able to get at other venues.  

(And yes, that's a challenge to see if you good folks in Cambridge can
find us something better.  :-)


						- Ted