Re: [guadec-list] Guadec Planning Meeting Notes - 20th January 2007

[Glynn Foster <Glynn Foster Sun COM>]

Hey,

Thomas Wood wrote:

> Catering
> 
>      *  Do we include lunch with registration if possible?
>      *  Venue has set caterers, and is not flexible on this. We need to
>         know what they provide and if it is suitable.
>      *  Another possibility would be to ask a nearby hotel if they could
>         do any catering at a reasonable cost
>      *  Packed lunch style catering may be another option if we run out
>         of other options.
>      *  Lunch might only be provided during core days to keep costs down,
>         and to allow more flexibility. There are plenty of eating places
>         nearby ranging from cheap fast-food to supermarkets to more
>         expensive eateries.
>      *  Lunch will be an hour and a half which should allow plenty of
>         time for impromptu meetings and discussions.

In previous years we've had trouble with catering, mostly because everyone likes
to eat different foods (or have different religious backgrounds). Having options
close to or at the conference venue is awesome, but might not be the best bet to
include it as part of registration or as an official contract that we'd enter in
IMO.

> Accommodation
> 
>      * Still waiting to hear from Aston about availabilities
>      * Difficult to live up to 2006 "village" style accommodation
>      * Most cheap places are out-of-town, and would require transport to
>        get to the venue
>      * Possibility of organising bus or train passes since public
>        transport is relatively good
>      * Booking out a youth hostel may be a last resort, but there were
>        concerns about security.

Providing a list of accommodation options would be awesome enough - there may
never be another GNOME Village like last year, we're dealing with a completely
different location and environment and everyone will understand that.

>      * Branded USB drives were another idea
>            o These could be pre-loaded with sponsor literature, including
>              "interactive and multimedia" content. May be more effective
>              than paper literature if done well.
>            o Possibility of a small "website" pre-loaded to introduce the
>              conference and include other information. Possibility of
>              this being created as a community project.
>            o Include many other things, such as videos and demos. Perhaps
>              even include some good videos from previous conferences.
>            o Wacky idea about including a vmware image of GNOME 1.0 to
>              remind ourself how far we've come
>            o Could use credit-card sized cdrws if usb drives are too
>              expensive?

OSDL sponsored a whole bunch of these for Linux.conf.au - it worked out rather
well, and I'm sure Jeff can fill you in on the details.

Thanks heaps for the meeting notes guys, looks like things are progressing well.


Glynn