[Chicago] Chicago PyCon bid

[Joshua McAdams]

> and the price is right. Important aspects: inexpensive hotels,
> restaurants, and the cost of the meeting facilities. We want an

I just read David's email and wanted to add a few IIT specific points
on this one:

- inexpensive hotels: There aren't any really close to campus.  We had
people stay in the dorms, which were very cheap, $55-$65/night for a
single.  Also, IIT has deals with Club Quarters where you can get
discounted rooms.  We had people staying downtown for just at
$100/night, which was reasonable considering that the conference was
held in June.  Since the Green and Red lines both stop at the campus,
it wasn't a big deal having people stay downtown and then travel down
to IIT for the conference.

- restaurants: There are about 30 restaurants within a mile of IIT...
none are posh, many are fast food.  There is some decent on-campus
dining though, and once again, the L makes getting to other places
(Chinatown) easy.

- cost of the meeting facilities: IIT is pretty cheap, especially if
you opt for Herman instead of the Tribune Center.  They didn't try to
nickel and dime us and somehow our bill ended up being a few thousand
dollars cheaper than anticipated.

Anyway, that's what I have for IIT.  Feel free to let me know if there
is any other information that you need.  I have research about the
area stashed away in various random spots across a few computers, but
I can typically dig up what I'm looking for.

Best of luck in getting the conference,
Josh