<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Brad Allen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bradallen137@gmail.com">bradallen137@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Let's discuss how well our venue worked out this time, at the Baylor<br>
University Science Building in Waco. Should we plan to use the same<br>
venue next year?<br></blockquote><div> <br>I thought the venue was great, and Waco was a nice central location for most attendees, I think.<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
My default is to prefer the same location for next year, because we<br>
now have experience with this venue and know how to make it work.<br>
However, it may be worth exploring alternatives.<br></blockquote><div><br>The only alternative that comes to mind here is Bryan/College Station (presumably at Texas A&M). <br>While I think A&M could be a great venue for an event like this (admittedly, as an Aggie, I'm biased), <br>
I think it might be a good idea to keep PyTexas at Waco for next year, and focus more on things other <br>than dealing with the venue.<br><br>I'm not sure staying at one location for _every_ year makes sense, for the same reason that PyCon<br>
moves around (attracting attendees from different areas).<br><br>But as far as the venue goes, my only complaint is the ban on refreshments in the classrooms, and<br>that's an awfully minor issue. It might be nice to have some tables designated downstairs for people to <br>
hang out at while refreshing themselves. Brad had a similar idea in another email.<br><br>It also might be a good idea to put a 15 min break into the schedule for this purpose.<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
One important question will be whether we can secure a large<br>
auditorium room. This year we had ~92 attendees and our keynote room<br>
was past capacity. I have some ideas about how to increase turnout<br>
for next year, and want plan to support up to 200 attendees. Getting<br>
everyone into one room is critical for certain moments in the<br>
conference.<br>
<br>
Some notes:<br>
<br>
* Wireless was down till about 9:30am(?). Thanks to Jeremy Langley for<br>
getting IT support to fix it!<br></blockquote><div><br>I didn't notice...I never even tried to get on the wireless except in the morning, when it<br>wasn't working, and I was mostly trying then because I thought I might need it later in <br>
the day. Which I didn't.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
* One hour was not long enough for lunch, due to the long walk to the cafeteria.<br></blockquote><div><br>Agreed, and hour and a half would be better. About 10 of us went to a cajun place across the freeway <br>(which was very tasty) and it took us about that amount of time to get there, eat and get back.<br>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
* The food in the cafeteria seemed pretty good ($8 all you can eat<br>
buffet). Do you agree? How many of you missed going to the cafeteria<br>
because of the earlier misdirection of the food court with Quizno's<br>
and Chick-Fillet ?<br></blockquote><div><br>As I said above, I didn't hit the cafeteria, but I heard no complaints.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
* We had some technical issues with one of the projectors; I heard<br>
that one talk had to be given with no projector (Intro to Version<br>
Control). I'm not sure what happened there.<br></blockquote><div><br>I think it might be a good idea next year to get volunteers to be "room proctors"<br>and have a brief "training session" at the beginning of the day in which they familiarize<br>
themselves with the equipment. That way, hopefully we have at least one person in the <br>room who knows how it is supposed to work. They could also introduce speakers and <br>otherwise coordinate things.<br><br>Ideally we'd only need to have people sign up to be a "room proctor" for specific sessions,<br>
so they wouldn't be chained to the same room all day.<br><br>I don't think I'd call having "room proctors" necessary for a one day event, but it might <br>be helpful.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
* The security paperwork to support wireless access is a bit<br>
cumbersome at Baylor, but I think it was acceptable and we can live<br>
with doing it again next year. What do you think?<br></blockquote><div><br>I think it was fine.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
* There was a lot of walking required, both to and from the parking<br>
garage, and to and from the cafeteria. We got lucky with the weather,<br>
which could have been much hotter or much rainier. That is a big risk<br>
for future events at the same place.<br>
<div><div></div><br></div></blockquote></div><br>I think weather is the only real concern here. By itself, I didn't think the walking was a <br>problem. If it had been 105F or pouring down rain, it might have been a problem, though.<br>
<br>All in all, it was a really nice place to have a conference/<br><br>Kevin Horn<br>