Please review the walk though notes and make updates before we send them out to the team. Thanks!
July 27, 2016 venue walk through.
Attendees
Eliot Center: Holli
Local Team: Danielle, Sri, Teresa
The walk through with the internet provider is this afternoon at 3pm.
We had a discussion about the pros and cons of having free admission to the conference. There are some things to keep in mind when not charging a registration fee.
-People inherently place less value on events that are "free" even if it's at a subconscious level.
- Cancellation rates and/or last minute attendees are often both higher. (There's no $ on the line so it's less of a commitment.) This makes it difficult to trust the numbers when estimating attendance.
- Events see a dip in attendance in the first year where fee is charged for formerly "free" events. This is normal
- Assuming 50 attendees at $100 each the potential income lost is $5k.
- Gnome Foundation and SUSE people don't pay as they are the major sponsors of the event(s). We estimate that each group will send ~25 people and anticipate a total conference attendance of 100.
- A suggested donation amount can be used in lieu of a registration fee in order to help defray some conference costs.
Venue:
1. Per our existing contract we may enter the building at 8am and must leave by 6pm. This will create a very tight schedule on Days 1 and 5.
Get a quote to extend access to the building by one hour on Days 1 and 5. (7am entry Day 1 & 7pm departure Day 5)
We need to end the conference by 5pm. This gives us an hour for people to leave and for us to clean up at the end of each day.
Tangentially related - get a copy of all presentations ahead of time. These can be put on a usb drive and we can test them on the projector in the room. This will reduce the odds of something going awry when the presenter is there waiting to go on.
2. Holli, our Eliot Center contact, is going to talk to another tenant of the building to see if we can borrow an unused classroom to use as a conference office. If not, we could use the hallway along the side of the Atrium, but there isn't a way to secure laptops or other valuables and there's no real sound barrier as the hall is created by extending a soft wall across one side of the Atrium.
3. The existing contract covers the atrium, an outside area, and a reception hall that has flexible dividers. When the dividers are extended the area is split into 3 unequal spaces.
The reception hall with the dividers open can seat 160 guests at round tables, 200 theater style, or 250 standing. Rectangular 6 and 8 foot banquet tables are also available and allow more seated guests.
With the dividers out there is space for ~150 people theater style in the largest space.
The dividing walls are floor to ceiling and provide a reasonable sound barrier.
The 2 small areas can hold up to 30 people each theater style and roughly half that if using rectangular banquet tables.
This creates an issue for us as the SUSE code sprint won't fit in either small area if they need tables. They would need to be split across both small areas, relegated to the atrium, or we will need to rent another room. We will have pricing on 2 optional rooms later today.
4. Set up and tear down of all tables, chairs and audio visual equipment from the Eliot Center inventory are included. The staff needs 30 minutes to flip the rooms if we're changing the chair and table arrangements between sessions.
The main room has a large permanent screen that descends from the ceiling. There are portable screens that can be used in the smaller areas.
There are whiteboards in both of the small areas (on the walls). We need to provide dry erase markers and erasers.
There are a few easels available for our use.
If we want access to the staging kitchen and/or use of their flatware and china; and/or if we will be serving alcohol at the event, an additional fee of $200 per day is charged.
Servers need their OLCC card and we also need a temporary liquor sales licence from the state.
Beverage Service including fair trade coffee, decaf, assorted teas, water and accouterments for $1.pp/break. (This cost is $4.pp/day and the beverage service is out all day providing bottomless beverages for all attendees.)
Black or white linens are also available for $15 each.
We should have linens on the registration/reception and beverage service tables.
Table linens are not needed for un-conferences, the code sprint, or any other activities where people are using laptops.
We may affix things to the walls using blue tape.
The large room has hooks along the windows overlooking the exterior courtyard. We may use the hooks to hang light drapes to block light if desired.
5. Lunch breaks: There are a number of food carts and restaurants in the area. There are pros and cons to having people go to restaurants
We can provide maps to conference attendees with starred locations with recommendations.
We could have food carts come to the venue.
Food carts often have a minimum guarantee that we would need to cover.
We need to work with the City and reserve the parking spaces. (cost unknown).
6. Printed materials:
Banners & signs:
At least one sandwich board on the sidewalk outside the Salmon Street entrance. The door is flat to the wall and rather unassuming so a sign in the window would be easy to miss.
A Welcome sign or banner at the top of the ramp/end of the hall outside the atrium to let people know that they are in the right place.
A Sign/banner behind registration/reception.
Site map in the atrium showing the various activities and their locations.
A large banner behind the presenter in the main room.
The logos should be arranged by donation amount with the largest, highest logos corresponding to the biggest donors.
Smaller banners/signs in the little breakout rooms?
Sign(s) for the SUSE code sprint.
Registration packets - what are we going to include in these? Name tag & lanyard, site map, schedule, map to restaurants, save the date fridge magnet for next years event, etc.
T-shirts or special badges for conference organizers. (To help attendees pick us out of the crowd.
T-shirts or special badges for speakers and/or SUSE code sprint organizers.
T-shirts for attendees (extra cost to attendee?)
Nelson: can the site map, restaurant, and schedule for the registration packet be done in an app, tested, and be ready to before the conference?
Group: If Nelson, or someone else, can create an app for the schedule/maps would we still need to print things for the registration packet? (Other than name tags and lanyards) If so this is a nice green option that we can highlight.