[Texas] PyTexas 2010 Retrospective: Facility

[Brad Allen]

Patrick replied privately but said it's ok to foward to the list, so
here's his reply.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Texas] PyTexas 2010 Retrospective: Facility
To: Brad Allen <bradallen137 at gmail.com>


On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 10:21:35PM -0500, Brad Allen wrote:
> Let's discuss how well our venue worked out this time, at the Baylor
> University Science Building in Waco. Should we plan to use the same
> venue next year?

I think the venue was fine.

> One important question will be whether we can secure a large
> auditorium room. This year we had ~92 attendees and our keynote room
> was past capacity.  I have some ideas about how to increase turnout
> for next year, and want plan to support up to 200 attendees. Getting
> everyone into one room is critical for certain moments in the
> conference.

Yes, you definitely want at least one room that can hold everyone
for the plenary sessions.

> * One hour was not long enough for lunch, due to the long walk
> to the cafeteria.

Agreed.  However, you managed to adjust the schedule quite nicely.

> * The food in the cafeteria seemed pretty good ($8 all you can eat
> buffet).

The food was fine; and it was great to have at least some variety
in the available food selection.

> * The security paperwork to support wireless access is a bit
> cumbersome at Baylor, but I think it was acceptable and we can live
> with doing it again next year. What do you think?

I didn't find the wireless security to be at all a burden; and I
suspect it'll be similar in any (low-cost) venue with comparable
facilities.

> * There was a lot of walking required, both to and from the parking
> garage, and to and from the cafeteria. We got lucky with the weather,
> which could have been much hotter or much rainier. That is a big risk
> for future events at the same place.

I didn't find the walk to/from the parking garage to be significantly
different from what I experience at other conferences/events I attend.

The walk to/from lunch wasn't ideal, but to me it didn't count as
a significant negative either.  To me, the ability to have shorter
drives for a larger number of attendees far outweighs any possible
negative of walking a bit to get our food.  :-)

That's probably a good summary -- to me, the advantages of a
location central to many attendees far outweigh the relatively
minor disadvantages we experienced at the venue.  Indeed, I'm
now wondering if Waco/Baylor would make sense for staging
a Texas Perl Workshop.  :-)

I've sent this reply privately (off-list), but you're welcome
to share it with others or the list as appropriate.

Pm