I'm sorry I haven't responded to any of the questions about the
Waikato venue earlier; I'm on holiday at the moment.
A lot of details would have to be confirmed but here's what I would
expect of a Waikato venue.
Location
A lecture room of appropriate size. Projector, OHP, mike etc. All
good quality gear. I'd expect we'd use 'S' block for those of you
who know the campus. We'd use the foyer for breaks etc.
Food
There is no problem providing lunch morning and afternoon tea,
constant coffee, even a fridge. There are vending machines nearby.
This is a registration cost issue. How much do you want to bundle
in there?
I'd imagine we'd setup an optional conference dinner either at a
nearby restaurant or at the restaurant and bar on campus.
Network
There is good connectivity to any room we'd be in. (6-8Mbps to off
campus). Usage charges are a bit of an issue. I'd be billed about
10c/Mb. The 2-3Gb mentioned for the last conference is no problem,
but we'd need sponsorship to do streaming video. We (the WAND group)
are currently looking to buy some bandwidth so this issue may well be
gone by the time the conference occurs.
We didn't actually provide wireless to the last conference, but did
come equipped to do so, just because we wanted it ourselves. We
would certainly provide wireless in the conference room and foyer.
That too is a no brainer. We have (for another conference) provided
wireless to the on campus restaurant and bar and could probably do
that again if they were used.
Network access to accommodation depends. I believe some of the
on-campus accommodation rooms have LAN ports. We could probably do
wireless to others. It might be possible for us do an ad hoc
wireless link to a nearby motel but that's not a given.
Web vs Attendance
Because we don't have a very high one off cost I don't think this is
an issue. From memory (my notes are at work) the fixed costs were
low enough that I could probably sponsor them. So the registration
would mostly be covering per participant costs. It seems possible
to me that we could have free registration for those not wanting
food etc.
Niceties
Pens, paper, water, mints, power are a no brainer. A bag is quite
doable if people really want it. It either needs to be sponsored or
adds, say $25 to the registration fee.
Transport
Hamilton is only a 90 min drive from downtown Auckland (unless the
Auckland traffic gets you.) You can also take a bus, train or
even fly. People commute to Auckland from here. Surely, coming
down here for a couple of days isn't really a big issue. What may
be an issue for non-Aucklanders, is the fairly limited air
services to here. Wellington is good, everything else is indirect.
Accommodation
The big issue here is timing. If you want to use the on campus
accommodation the conference needs to be mid-Nov to mid-Feb. That
means it's 10 months away. Other times we'd have to use off campus
accommodation. The nearest is about a 20-25min walk so car pooling
(or arranging a mini-bus) is a good idea. We'd probably select a
conference hotel or motel and arrange most things around that.
(E.G. have the dinner walking distance from the nominated hotel).
There's a good range of accommodation of various prices nearby.
Sponsors and Speakers
Having other sponsors will be a big help in making the conference go
off well and be more fun. It's been suggested that sponsors might
be less keen to sponsor a meeting if it's at Waikato. I can't
really see that. It's the community that attracts the sponsorship,
not the location. We haven't found this to be a problem at
other conferences at the University
We have plenty of international contacts (we sponsored David Moore
last year). I'm sure we could attract some of them to come here.
Experience
The university does run a fair number of conferences. I was on the
organising committee for PAM2000 and am a co-chair for PAM2003. I've
also done a bunch of other meetings and conferences.
Why?
You might we wondering why I'm keen to host it here.
Firstly, I want the WAND group to be better known by the NZNOG community. > Our funders say we need to raise our profile within NZ. Also, I spent
more on student registrations last time that covering the basic
costs would have cost if I'd done it here and I can't justify that
again. But, if I can spend the same money, and have that payoff for
everyone, and buy some brownie points, it seems like a good deal.
-
To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz
where the body of your message reads:
unsubscribe nznog
