Update on Venue - PyCon India 2023
Hi Everyone, I wanted to provide some updates regarding the venue for PyCon India 2023. We had scheduled visits to JNTU Hyderabad and a couple of other venues for finalization this week. As of now, JNTU-H seems to be a good option for the conference days. HICC and The Address Convention are still being pursued parallelly. JNTUH has requested that we send a detailed proposal to them mentioning how this partnership will benefit JNTU-H. Below is the summary of JNTUH facilities: Building 1 (Jawaharlal Nehru Auditorium) features two halls: - Main Auditorium: Capacity of 1000 attendees - Hall-2: Capacity of 250 attendees Building 2 (JHUB) also consists of two halls: - Hall-3: Capacity of 300 attendees - Hall-4: Capacity of 300 attendees Additionally, there is a small room available in Building 1, accommodating up to 50-70 people. Positives: - The major positive is that there would be minimal rentals, as we have heard so far, but nothing is confirmed yet. - Permission for Outside Vendors: We have been granted permission to bring in outside vendors. That'll help us reduce the costs. - Sponsor Stalls: The management has no objections to setting up sponsor stalls. - Accessibility Features: The main building of JNTU Hyderabad is equipped with accessibility features, ensuring inclusivity for all attendees. - Ample Space: There is abundant space available to organize buffet lunches and accommodate sponsor stalls. While we believe that organizing the conference days will be relatively straightforward at this venue, we do need to make some accessibility arrangements between Building 1 and Building 2 as they are 300 meters away. The logistics team is currently working on the proposal and plans to share it with JNTUH later today. If you have any suggestions or concerns, please feel free to share them here or on Zulip. We will keep you updated as we progress further in the planning process. Best regards Sanchit
Hi Sanchit, Thanks for the update on the venue. I see a couple of red flags with JNTU-H. 1. Second largest room is not even half as large as the largest one. We have had problems in the past even with NIMHANs which have rooms of capacity 1000, 500 and 300. One popular talk placed in the second hall was good enough to create havoc. I think we need at least two rooms which can accommodate 700+. 2. Conference spread across multiple buildings. We have had conferences in venues like this in the early years of PyCon India and I must say that the experience was not very pleasant. It would be hard to move between rooms. People often get confused and end up in the wrong place and it would be too far to walk back. Anand On Sun, May 28, 2023 at 2:52 PM Sanchit Balchandani < balchandani.sanchit@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to provide some updates regarding the venue for PyCon India 2023. We had scheduled visits to JNTU Hyderabad and a couple of other venues for finalization this week. As of now, JNTU-H seems to be a good option for the conference days. HICC and The Address Convention are still being pursued parallelly.
JNTUH has requested that we send a detailed proposal to them mentioning how this partnership will benefit JNTU-H. Below is the summary of JNTUH facilities:
Building 1 (Jawaharlal Nehru Auditorium) features two halls:
- Main Auditorium: Capacity of 1000 attendees - Hall-2: Capacity of 250 attendees
Building 2 (JHUB) also consists of two halls:
- Hall-3: Capacity of 300 attendees - Hall-4: Capacity of 300 attendees
Additionally, there is a small room available in Building 1, accommodating up to 50-70 people.
Positives:
- The major positive is that there would be minimal rentals, as we have heard so far, but nothing is confirmed yet. - Permission for Outside Vendors: We have been granted permission to bring in outside vendors. That'll help us reduce the costs. - Sponsor Stalls: The management has no objections to setting up sponsor stalls. - Accessibility Features: The main building of JNTU Hyderabad is equipped with accessibility features, ensuring inclusivity for all attendees. - Ample Space: There is abundant space available to organize buffet lunches and accommodate sponsor stalls.
While we believe that organizing the conference days will be relatively straightforward at this venue, we do need to make some accessibility arrangements between Building 1 and Building 2 as they are 300 meters away. The logistics team is currently working on the proposal and plans to share it with JNTUH later today.
If you have any suggestions or concerns, please feel free to share them here or on Zulip.
We will keep you updated as we progress further in the planning process.
Best regards Sanchit
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Hi Anand Thanks for your inputs, these are valid points which we are also discussing internally within Logistics teams. 1. Second largest room is not even half as large as the largest one. We
have had problems in the past even with NIMHANs which have rooms of capacity 1000, 500 and 300. One popular talk placed in the second hall was good enough to create havoc. I think we need at least two rooms which can accommodate 700+.
Both halls in the second building can accommodate 400 people as well, 300 would be the minimum, sorry for not mentioning earlier. Also, we thought of capping the attendees' number to 1000-1100 if we plan to go with JNTU-H, and since we'll be running four tracks parallel so hopefully 300 people in each track on average shall work out.
2. Conference spread across multiple buildings.
We have had conferences in venues like this in the early years of PyCon India and I must say that the experience was not very pleasant. It would be hard to move between rooms. People often get confused and end up in the wrong place and it would be too far to walk back.
Yes, this could be a little unpleasant. However, if we need to look for a budget-friendly venue then this could be one compromise we might have to do. In the initial internal discussions, we thought of placing some cycles (there are some startups locally, and we could tie up with them) and also placing a few Battery Operated Cars[1] for better accessibility. Additionally, HICC is also being pursued in parallel, I and Senhith visited HICC for final negotiations today. Once we have rental information from JNTU-H, we could compare the pros and cons and take a final call. I'll keep everyone posted. [1] - https://sc04.alicdn.com/kf/Hffc5ba5211eb41ff8af2441f025a2e37x.png Thanks Sanchit
On Mon, May 29, 2023 at 2:52 PM Sanchit Balchandani < balchandani.sanchit@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Anand
Thanks for your inputs, these are valid points which we are also discussing internally within Logistics teams.
1. Second largest room is not even half as large as the largest one. We
have had problems in the past even with NIMHANs which have rooms of capacity 1000, 500 and 300. One popular talk placed in the second hall was good enough to create havoc. I think we need at least two rooms which can accommodate 700+.
Both halls in the second building can accommodate 400 people as well, 300 would be the minimum, sorry for not mentioning earlier. Also, we thought of capping the attendees' number to 1000-1100 if we plan to go with JNTU-H, and since we'll be running four tracks parallel so hopefully 300 people in each track on average shall work out.
I think even 400 is on the lower end. But I agree that limiting the number of participants if we go with this venue is a good idea. 2. Conference spread across multiple buildings.
We have had conferences in venues like this in the early years of PyCon India and I must say that the experience was not very pleasant. It would be hard to move between rooms. People often get confused and end up in the wrong place and it would be too far to walk back.
Yes, this could be a little unpleasant. However, if we need to look for a budget-friendly venue then this could be one compromise we might have to do.
Of course, these are all trade offs that we need to work with and take our bets.
In the initial internal discussions, we thought of placing some cycles (there are some startups locally, and we could tie up with them) and also placing a few Battery Operated Cars[1] for better accessibility.
+1 Thanks a lot for putting so much effort into organizing the event. Eagerly waiting to attend PyCon India in person after a very long time. Anand
Hi All Sharing details of HICC as well post our latest visit. The setup is more or less similar to the 2018 event. Ground Floor: - Main hall - capacity of 2000 - 2 Additional Halls - capacity of 500 each (HICC recommended using one of them for sponsor stalls & food) - One additional room of 300 capacity - Registrations area - Organizers suite First Floor: - 2 Rooms of 300 capacity - Foyer area for food - 2 Board Rooms for supplementary activities Pros: - The overall setup at HICC is very professional and looks great - From accessibility aspects, it's good. Lifts and escalators are available - 1500+ people can easily be accommodated Cons: - Cost is quite higher, and the budget shared by them excludes AV (audio/video) cost - Outside vendors are not allowed, which adds to the cost again Initially, the budget they shared was 1.5 CR, where we removed a few things which were not required and then it came down to 1 CR. Today post negotiations they further came down to 84.32 lakhs. However, not to put a negative point of view about HICC, I think HICC is also doable with some extra effort on the sponsorship front and increased ticket prices. Will keep you all updated. Sorry if I am spamming too much :) Best Sanchit
participants (2)
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Anand Chitipothu -
Sanchit Balchandani