In my experience accross countless conferences, not remembering the food is usually a good thing.
On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 7:06 AM, Ross Singer <rossfsin...@gmail.com> wrote: > Although I sat in the room and nodded a lot in Athens when we picked > and chose our conference options and signed the contract, I remember > very few details of it anymore. > > I do remember when the UGA Conference Center representative left the > room for a minute that we all thought that the prices we were looking > at must be the daily rate, since we couldn't imagine the total costs > being that cheap (in fact, it *was* the total cost). > > UGA could actually have handled a conference much more the size of a > modern C4L (the plenary session room seats ~350). > > What the Georgia Center doesn't have is polish ('zazz!) and Athens > definitely fits Kyle's and Joe's profile of being less accessible > (although that also applies to Bloomington, Asheville and Corvallis). > While I certainly appreciated the venues in Portland, Providence and > Asheville, I wouldn't say that they had a tremendous impact on the > outcome of the conference (I don't, for example, remember the food at > any and *none* of the plenary rooms were as good as Athens). I do > remember the bars at Providence and Portland, though. > > I'm not arguing for us returning to Athens, but don't think it's > completely unique (see: Corvallis). If this desire to offset > conference costs is really deep (and I think that reducing the > dependency on sponsorship *should* be a goal, honestly -- it's a lot > of work and very unpredictable), then I think there are definitely > opportunities. It's just a matter of scouting locations and figuring > out how to get the local population to get involved. I think this > would be easier if there was some kind of insurance policy in place so > that the host isn't completely on the hook for all of the costs if > things go "pear shaped". > > -Ross. > > On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Kyle Banerjee <baner...@uoregon.edu> wrote: >>> The third code4lib conference was hosted in Portland, and the venue was a >>> hotel. Costs were **much** higher in Portland, due mainly to the type of >>> venue (hotel) and Portland being a larger city. To keep the registration >>> fee at $125 (which I think it was, if memory serves me correctly), we >>> needed to get $40k worth of sponsorships, which was about 4x the amount of >>> either the previous two years. It was hectic and a bit nerve-wracking, but >>> we hustled and worked hard and brought in the necessary sponsorships >>> without the need to provide any special events - all of the sponsors we >>> willing to sponsor us based on the general sponsorship levels that we've >>> put out each year. >>> >> >> This is exactly what is going on in Seattle. >> >> If we can attract $40K in sponsorships, the registration fee will be kept >> low. But that gives people an idea of what is being dealt with in the >> background as that works out to nearly $200 per attendee. Not trivial to do >> in today's climate, but you can be sure everyone will try their best. >> >> kyle >> > -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com