[H-GEN] RE: LCA Bid Venue Update

[Russell Stuart]

On Fri, 2007-04-13 at 16:56 +1000, Clinton Roy wrote:
> I think having the main venues at qut but the accom at uq is quite
> workable. We could even have some things at uq, for example, the
> dinner, the proffessional night or the open day.

Clinton's reply made me realise I have not put QUT's bid in 
the best light.  Splitting the accommodation from the 
campus is not as bad as it might seem for several reasons:

1.  There is, as Clinton said, the green bridge.  This has
    had an amazing effect on the traffic flow around UQ. I 
    have just checked the timetables.  Buses leave this stop
    for the city every 10 minutes.

2.  The bus trip to the city takes of the order of 5 
    minutes (+ walking) if you get off at the Mater Hospital 
    and walk across the new foot bridge.

3.  The buses are actually a fairly pleasant form of
    transport nowadays, particularly compared to what they
    were like when I used them 20 years ago.  They are 
    air-conditioned, the seats are comfortable, and they 
    have provided most windows with custom hammers you can 
    use smash to your way out when the bus has an accident.

4.  As Clinton said, the buses will be going against peak
    hour traffic.  I am not sure how relevant this is, as
    during January there is no peak hour traffic to speak
    of.

5.  Going by this years figures, somewhat less than 35% of
    people attending LCA choose the cheap accommodation.  I
    had originally thought it was higher, but I was wrong.
    Yes, that 35% will have to put up with the buses.  The
    remaining 65% will be closer to QUT than they would be
    to another other Uni as the city has most of the
    accommodation.

6.  From what I have seen of todays bus tickets, they don't
    specify a destination nor the number of trips you are 
    take.  For example There is no "return ticket" any more.  
    There is a one way ticket, and there is a ticket that 
    gives you an unlimited number of trips between two 
    nominated zones for the day.  This means the tickets 
    aren't just useful to get to QUT.  They can be used to 
    explore the city for the duration of the stay.  So yes 
    the bus idea has hairs on it, but they are dammed useful 
    hairs.

The lack of a large venue is another challenge, but there seem 
to be a number of work arounds.  If QUT can provide outdoor 
seating with suitable seating and A/V, then perhaps we can do 
outside if the weather is good, and inside with a video linkup 
if it is bad. 

Given the footbridge linking Southbank and QUT, we can also 
hire venues in Southbank.  The Piazza seats 2000, the 
Performing Arts Centre seats 1800, there is a 20m2 daylight 
visible screen.  There is even a beach which they are happy 
to hire out.  Perhaps we give everybody a pair of togs and 
an inflatable penguin and have them float in the pool.  If 
nothing else that would cure the problem of people clicking 
on their laptops during the keynote speeches.  And I have 
not looked at possible venues in the City yet.

But the point is with respect to the keynote venue we don't 
lack options.  With a bit of imagination we could turn QUT's 
lack of a venue to our advantage - rather like the bus thing.

And finally one advantage QUT has is South Bank.  It is a
very unusual place - what other major city has a fake beach 
in its heart?  We should seriously consider making Southbank 
an inviting playground for geeks by flooding it with wireless 
during the event.  In fact I think all those alluring 
pictures Southbank floods us with would be a great thing to 
build the bid document around.