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 <[log in to unmask]> 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 <[log in to unmask]> 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