Site visit report.

[Ellie Young]

On Sep 29, 2006, at 7:11 AM, Theodore Tso wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 06:34:42AM +0100, David Woodhouse wrote:
>> We visited the University Arms, the Corn Exchange and the Guild Hall.
>>
>> We took photos but the ones in the brochures will probably be  
>> better --
>> and the brochures should be available to us in electronic form  
>> shortly.
>> I'll forward them when they arrive, and supplement them with my own
>> photographs if appropriate.
>
> Great, thanks for going out and taking a look at the various
> locations!!
>
> Did anyone go through a detailed pricing discussion with the Guild
> Hall about what A/V, catering, wifi access, etc. would cost?  I know
> Ellie and her staff have contacted the DeVere University Arms and have
> gotten that information to satisfy them, but do we have everything we
> need for the Guild Hall?  How much cheaper do you think it will be?
>
> I assume that one advantage of the Guild Hall is that they won't have
> a room block requirement, since they probably don't offer lodging?  At
> the University Arms, we would need to have something like at least 20
> rooms rented or they would charge us additional money ("a penalty")
> and the University Arms is probably more expensive than lodging that
> might be available at the surrounding colleges.  But if we're going to
> go with the Guild Hall, we'll have to gether detailed cost information
> fairly quickly.  Ellie, anything you want to add?


We just heard back from DeVere yesterday that they won't hold us to
a block of rooms.    They will only charge us a per day rate per  
delegate.
For a comparison re pricing:  The DeVere day delegate rate is approx  
$95 USD per day per delegate.  This is $7600 USD per day and  
includes:    AM coffee break, PM tea break, buffet lunch, main  
meeting room rental, flipchart, LCD projector/screen, A-V, and  
beverages in the meeting room.     Wireless broadband internet access  
is $100 USD per day.



>
> As far as speed of the wireless network, I suspect speed isn't that
> important, since we're not doing audio streaming or anything that
> requires high bandwidth, and most people will just want to do e-mail
> and web browsing.  What probably *is* important is whether or not the
> wireless congestively collapses when 100 people try to use it
> simultaneously.  Many hotels and function spaces, if they don't use
> industrial grade access points, will work fine and most conferences
> where the percentage of attendees trying to use the network at the
> same time are a lot smaller than what we'll probably have.  :-)
>
>
> 						- Ted
>>
>> In summary...
>>
>> The University Arms is probably the most suitable venue -- they seem
>> entirely capable of hosting an event such as this. The rooms are
>> sufficient in quantity and quality, and the technical requirements  
>> such
>> as wireless, audio systems, etc. should also be fine.
>>
>> The Corn Exchange has plenty of space in the main hall, and has  
>> suitable
>> space for BOFs, but lacks a really decent room for lunch unless we  
>> were
>> going to cross the road into the Guild Hall -- but in that case we  
>> might
>> as well do the whole thing there instead. If we use the Corn  
>> Exchange we
>> apparently need to use their caterers rather than getting someone  
>> else
>> in.
>>
>> The Guild Hall would also work well, and may be cheaper. We can use
>> their caterers or not, as we see fit. They have adjacent rooms -- the
>> imaginatively titled 'Large Hall' and 'Small Hall' which would be
>> perfectly sufficient for the conference and for luncheon,  
>> respectively.
>> There are other, smaller, meeting rooms which should be available for
>> BOFs. They don't yet have wireless provision but intend to have it by
>> next September -- we aren't sure what _speed_ the access to the  
>> outside
>> world would be (we don't know that of the University Arms either).
>>
>> -- 
>> dwmw2
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OperationCambridge mailing list
>> OperationCambridge at lists.infradead.org
>> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/operationcambridge