[Inpycon] PyCon 2012: Venue?

[Navin Kabra]

As far as the venue is concerned, at this point no real alternative to last
years venue seems to be emerging. We tried to think through the
possibilities at a meeting yesterday and came up with nothing. Here is the
situation:


   - Requirements: We need one large hall, with a capacity of at least 500,
   and at least one or two smaller halls (with ideally a capacity of 150
   each).
   - Last year, we had peak attendance of around 650+ and that was because
   we closed registrations a little early, and we pulled back from local
   college publicity (since we already had enough registrations). This time,
   if we really want, we could reach 800+ - but it is not clear whether we
   have an appropriate venue for those numbers
   - Problems with last year's venue:
      - Old infrastructure
      - All rooms were packed way beyond capacity. This is a safety issue
      too - (e.g. Fire norms)
      - Power availability for audience laptops was inadequate
      - Total number of halls is limited
      - 2nd / 3rd halls are small
      - We will not be able to accommodate more than 700 delegates
   - The only other venues that are easily accessible and have the required
   capacity are 5-star hotels, and those are far too expensive. At roughly Rs.
   1000 per person per day (which can be brought down somewhat with
   negotiation and numbers guarantees, but still it is a lot).
   - Symbiosis Lavale is the only realistic alternative. The facilities
   there are phenomenal, but it is out of town (18km from University of Pune),
   and there is no public transport available. So we'll need to arrange
   transport (buses) and even then it will be inconvenient.
   - Another possibility is to have the event in two different campuses.
   This can be done by separating the event into "Beginners" and "Advanced"
   tracks, and have those two tracks in different venues. For example, we can
   have the beginners track in SICSR (which has many rooms with a capacity of
   roughly 120 each), and the advanced track in Symbiosis Vishwabhavan (last
   year's venue). The two venues are about 1.5km apart. It will not be
   practical for people to move from one venue to another between talks
   (although the more enterprising ones can move during lunch break.)
   - We considered lots of other options, but nothing seems to fit the bill.
   - If anyone can think of a specific alternative, speak now, or forever
   hold your peace.

As far as I can see, here are the three possible options:

[Option 1 - Vishwabhavan]: same as last year, but with a little better
preparation, since we're forewarned
[Option 2 - Lavale]: with buses plying between University and the Venue
[Option 3 - Vishwabhavan + SICSR]: Beginners track in SICSR

Please indicate what options you like.

Answers to specific questions:

> I guess being free may not be a big advantage given the sponsors we have
(those who worked on the sponsorship are more qualified to say abt it than
me). The location is fine, but the facility should be better.

The only non-free options in Pune that satisfy the size requirements are
5-star hotels which are far too expensive.

> - We'll need dedicated sponsor space. There were complaints which we need
to address this time.

We believe we can address this the existing venue now that we're aware of
the issue.

> - We need bigger halls for the second and third tracks. We overstuffed
this time and the heat was oppressive.

This remains a problem for [Option 1 - Vishwabhavan] . This would totally
be addressed by [Option 2 - Lavale]. This would become much less of a
problem if we go with [Option 3 - Vishwabhavan + SICSR]





On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 6:25 PM, Navin Kabra <navin.kabra at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Any strong feelings about the venue for PyCon 2012. Basically, should we
> repeat the same venue or try for another one?
>
> The Pros and Cons for last year's venue (Symbiosis Vishwabhavan +
> Symbiosis Law College) are:
>
> Cons:
> - Infrastructure is a little old and inadequate - especially the power
> points
> - 2nd and 3rd hall are smaller than what we would ideally like (especially
> for tutorial days)
>
> Pros:
> - Free
> - Centrally Located
> - With Prof. Harshad Gune part of the PyCon organizing team, it becomes
> very easy to get things done in this venue. (This advantage is shared by a
> few other Symbiosis venues in Pune, but not all)
> - We know this venue - what works, what doesn't. Minimal energy will be
> spent on most venue related matters, and we can focus on things like
> speaker/talk quality, getting good wi-fi, sponsorships etc. For any other
> venue, there will be a new learning curve involved.
>
> Please respond to this thread with your thoughts. My personal feeling is
> that we should use the same venue - its the devil we know...
>
> navin.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/inpycon/attachments/20120313/775d27f1/attachment-0001.html>