On 4-Dec-2006, at 13:54, Christian Nielsen wrote:
What about splitting the conference away from the Hotel? Go back to
looking at bussing people to less expensive locations which are close.
The feedback I have heard in the past is that people are strongly in
favour of holding the meeting at a hotel with a room block, as
opposed to using a convention centre and letting people find their
own accommodation.
The reasons given were mainly concerned with keeping the group as a
whole together, to maximise the opportunities for bumping into people
in hallways and doing business. If people are dispersed amongst
multiple venues, the thinking went, it's harder to find them.
Does this need to be re-thought?
There may well be cost implications of hosting meetings away from
hotels: e.g. there's no room block with which to subsidise the
meeting room hire, and there are frequently expensive in-house
contractors who need to be involved to arrange networking. San Jose's
costs were inflated due to the latter.
Joe
