2011 venue bids
Contents
Selection of venue
Discussion and selection of the venue, from the two proposals below, will be made by the WordCamp UK mailing list (registration required), working to the deadline of 17 January 2011, in the context of the 2011 venue requirements.
High Wycombe
So here is the outline for the High Wycombe bid based at http://bucks.ac.uk/ Bucks New Uni:
Venue Hire with Wifi provided(outline of rooms below and all of them have inbuilt projectors etc.):
- Owen Harris 1, Lecture Theatre (Seats 200)
- Owen Harris 2, Lecture Theatre (seats 100)
- Open foyer (Owen Harris) 1&2 - for sponsors
- N3.08, Seminar Room (seats 50) Additional rooms like this can be added if a 4th track were wanted for £250 per day.
- Break out Area = North wing open space and Beats Café - more sponsor space and for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies
Total excluding catering £2800 (this is probably ex VAT but VAT is not always chargeable).
For Tea, coffee and biscuits £1.55+VAT per person per serving.
The 3 buildings of interest are Beats Cafe, North Wing and Owen Harris. It takes about 2 – 3 minutes to walk from Owen Harris to Beats café and around 2 minutes to walk from Owen Harris to the SU bar/North Wing rooms: http://twitpic.com/3pym03
Location of mainline train and road networks: http://twitpic.com/3pylvp
I'm also investigating the possibility of getting some of the students from the National film and TV school (http://www.nftsfilm-tv.ac.uk/) to help film it.
Accommodation
University Accommodation is available for either £25 or £35 per night as there are 2 locations. There are also a number other hotels/B&B's close. For those that prefer to stay in London (not sure why) High Wycombe is about 30/40 mins from Marylebone by rail.
Socials
There is the option of using the student Union bar for a private social evening with venue hire being £250+VAT for the Saturday night and an informal social on Friday here: http://www.thebootleggerpub.co.uk/ (which is just across the road from the station) [TBC].
Portsmouth
The University of Portsmouth (Pic / Map) Conferences Dept have confirmed to me today that they can meet the 2011 requirements and will hold their prices as at the 2010 bid.
The team are similarly flexible as last year and are open to discussing any additional requirements (they also offer to handle *all* booking and payment for an additional £10 per delegate).
Venue: http://rjb.soc.port.ac.uk/wordcamp/Portland_Ground_2006.pdf (80k) http://rjb.soc.port.ac.uk/wordcamp/Portland_First_2006.pdf (80k) of which these rooms are available:
- PO 0.27 (80 seater LT)
- PO 0.36 (80 Seater LT)
- PO 1.53 (200 Seater LT)
- PO 1.20 (Seminar)
- PO 1.21 (Seminar)
- PO 1.22 (Seminar)
- PO 1.26 (Seminar)
- PO 1.28 (Seminar)
- PO 1.29 (Seminar)
Some Pics of the Portland Building: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45458521@N00/651197992/
Accommodation
Accommodation: http://rjb.soc.port.ac.uk/wordcamp/Rees_Floor_Plans.pdf (11Mb!)
Including VAT at 20% the costs shake out per delegate at:
- £37.20 Delegate day rate (£74.40 for both days) - If you slept rough and didn't eat, this is the base cost.
- £40.69 3* B&B per night (£81.38 for Friday and Saturday) - WiFi included in bar and lounge areas.
- £155.78 Two days of WordCamp and two nights of B&B
Food can be arranged at the following rates: £1.80 Nibbles £12.60 BBQ £9.60 Finger buffet £13.20 Dinner (two course self service)
If we were to add Bar nibbles on arrival for all guests (the accommodation has a bar) and do dinner "in" on saturday night before venturing out, the cost would be (approximately) £170.78 per delegate.
Socials
For Friday: Rees Hall (the accommodation venue, http://goo.gl/maps/1qRG ) has a bar with WiFi, so that might be a good bet. It's a 3 minute walk from a road with lots of small restaurants, going the other way, it's a 10 minute walk from Gunwharf Quays which is very similar to that spot in Brum we went to in the first UK camp (i.e. new build on historic site, with pubs and restaurants galore). If Real Ale is your thing, then there are some more traditional pubs only a 5 minute walk away.
For Saturday: Depending on budget there's a all sorts we could arrange - perhaps dinner on http://www.hmswarrior.org/ is a good opening gambit. I think however, that it might be tough to book something exclusive without knowing final numbers - would we want saturday to be good-enough for everyone, or brilliant for the early bird majority?
