[Texas] venue bids for PyTexas 2013

[Brad Allen]

Great! Thanks for stepping up, Jeremy. I am sure you can make a
positive difference.

Our best next step is probably meeting of the volunteer organizer
committee to do some joint planning and see who can commit to what.
With the holidays coming up I am sure everyone will be busy but maybe
we can find an hour we are all available sometime soon.

Anyone interested in being included on the organizer committee should
email me off list so I can include you in coordinating a meeting time.
I will assume that at minimum we will have the same folks who convened
after PyTexas 2012.

On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 10:04 PM, Jeremy Kelley <jeremy at 33ad.org> wrote:
> This fall was insanely busy for me so I didn't get to participate in PyTX. I'd love to be involved next year.
>
> How can I help? Let's max out the MSC.
>
> -j
>
> --
> Jeremy Kelley - @nod
> "Christianity has not been tried and
>  found wanting; it has been found
>  difficult and not tried." - G.K. Chesterton
>
>
> On Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 10:01 PM, Brad Allen wrote:
>
>> The Dec 1 deadline passed yesterday, and we did not receive any other
>> venue bids. Looks like we should start planning for PyTexas 2013 at
>> Texas A&M.
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Brad Allen <bradallen137 at gmail.com (mailto:bradallen137 at gmail.com)> wrote:
>> > Would you like to organize PyTexas 2013 in your city? If so, please
>> > contact me and let me know about your interest. We will need a bid to
>> > contain documentation about a viable venue location, as well as
>> > information on who will act as venue coordinator, a list of features
>> > and amenities, capacity (plan for 100 - 300), costs and requirements
>> > to utilize the facility, and risks of losing the venue to a higher
>> > priority event.
>> >
>> > PyTexas 2012 took place last weekend at the Texas A&M Memorial Student
>> > Center, which was a significant upgrade over previous facilities
>> > hosting PyTexas. The rooms had excellent acoustics, and were sizeable
>> > enough to allow significant growth. The main two rooms had a
>> > retractable divider, which allowed dual podiums useful for alternating
>> > lightning talks at each podium. The open space rooms were also great
>> > and featured high quality projectors. The facility also had a lot of
>> > great amenities, including retail stores, art galleries, and a food
>> > court.
>> >
>> > This upgraded facility came with reasonable cost, which required that
>> > we charge a moderate registration fee ($25 early bird/$50 starting
>> > Sept 1) in order to rent the facility and provide breakfast + lunch.
>> > This may have hurt our registration numbers, which were only a little
>> > over 100 paid attendees. However, I suspect that we could have had
>> > much greater registration if more effort had been put into publicity,
>> > along with a stronger program and earlier information about the
>> > conference features (presentations were very "last minute", for
>> > example).
>> >
>> > We have the option of using the same venue next year, and that is our
>> > default choice given that it's a known solid option with very low
>> > risk. However we would like to introduce a process for bidding on the
>> > next venue. By "we", I mean the PyTexas volunteer organizers, which is
>> > a sort of "committee of the willing." The current group of organizers
>> > met on Sunday evening after the conference to discuss roles for next
>> > year, and decided that this year we need to make the venue decision
>> > much earlier in the process. In order to secure availability of the
>> > TAMU MSC, we need the decision to be made by Dec 1.
>> >
>> > If you wish to join the decision making process, you will need to
>> > volunteer for a significant role in helping to organize PyTexas.
>> > Please contact me if interested! We currently have openings for
>> > volunteer positions such as program chair and sponsor coordinator.
>>
>>
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>
>
>