[H-GEN] Humbug bid to host LCA 2009

Thu Sep 27 22:34:24 EDT 2007

This is Humbug's [1] bid for LCA 2009.

It seems the tradition is to fill a bid document with fluffy
descriptions of the host city and promises of grand plans.
Well I imagine you have all seen Brisbane, and you
definitely all know what LCA is so this time its wham bam,
strictly the facts man.

Planning
--------

The number of attendees coming to lca has been steadily
increasing by about one hundred per year, we anticipate
between 800 and 1000 people wanting to come to Brisbane, and
we are going to pick this upper bound as our cap for
planning purposes.

So far we are leaning towards holding the conference at the
traditional time at the end of January. However, January
can be uncomfortably hot in Brisbane, so that may change.

The Venue
---------

The venue is Queensland University of Technology. QUT had
approached LA about LCA before we contacted them, and so
were already keen to host the event. They have undertaken
to:

  * Provide five days room hire (we are looking to extend
    this by half a day). This includes venues for the
    dinners, but currently we aren't planning to take them
    up on that.
  * Catering of refreshments between sessions.
  * AV support staff.
  * Room for Office and Registrations.
  * Phone and network access for Conference Admins.
  * Directional Signage.

In short, I suspect QUT has put more on the table than any
prior LCA venue.

QUT has a large number of rooms available and should have no
trouble hosting a 1000 person conference with one exception,
the keynotes. The largest room holds 600. QUT has offered to
network several rooms with AV links, or alternatively we can
outsource to larger venues in walking distance across the
river.

Location
--------

QUT lies on the Brisbane River, in a corner of the Brisbane
CBD adjacent to the botanic gardens. It is connected to the
Brisbane's playground, South Bank, via a foot bridge that
crosses the river. Thus it is surrounded by restaurants,
pubs, live entertainment and public transport (river cats,
busses and trains). Parking is available but expensive.

Accommodation
-------------

Being in the city means accommodation within a short walk of
QUT is plentiful. Traditionally approximately 35% of LCA
chooses to stay in cheaper accommodation provided by the on
campus colleges. Currently QUT has no on campus colleges.
They are planning to build a college nearby that should be
ready well before LCA 2009. However, being in the city I am
guessing the price will be higher than normal.

An alternative is the colleges at the University of
Queensland. They have already indicated their willingness
to accommodate LCA 2009, however distance is an issue -
they are approximately a 30 minute walk plus a 20 minute
bus trip. QUT has close contacts with Brisbane City Council,
so if this option was taken shuttle buses to and from the
venue would be included in the accommodation price. We are
looking at turning this negative into a positive by making
the shuttle ticket a weekly 2 zone ticket. This would allow
the delegates to explore greater Brisbane free for the week.

This means the price of the cheaper accommodation will rise
slightly, but we are hoping it will be below $80 per day.

Events
------

Quotes for the Penguin Dinner and the Professional
Networking Dinner have been obtained for various venues.
Currently we are planning to hold the Speakers Dinner at
QUT.

The Partners Program has been a wild success in previous
years and we are planning to do it again. Brisbane has a lot
of things to see and do (Steve Irwin's zoo, Dream World,
City Shopping next door or the popular DFO, Surfers
Paradise) so keeping all significant others happy &
distracted shouldn't be too difficult.

And of course we are hoping to repeat the staggering success
of Open Day, although this may be difficult sans Pia [2].
Believe it or not, Queensland does host have some
significant scientific development so it will be interesting
to see what we can attract.

Adding Colour
-------------

Every year each LCA team adds its own flavour to the
conference. LCA 2009 is no exception - starting with this
bid. It was put together on a wiki [3] so everyone could
participate. If Humbug wins expect things to continue along
those lines, and in particular we are looking for
suggestions for things new and different. The wiki will
continue, and ideas from all and sundry will be happily
stolen.

Including weekly public tickets that in the price that
allows attendees to explore Brisbane is one idea. You can
also expect the format of the Penguin Dinner to change. In
the choice of papers there will be a bias towards Humbugs
roots - home grown projects that tinker and play with open
source.

Promotion, Sponsorship and Budgets
----------------------------------

A budget accompanies this document. It is a best guess, of
course, but it is based on real figures - either from
previous LCA's for promotion and numbers or quotes from the
venues.

Regarding promotion, Andy Fitzsimon has stoked the fires
with some proposed logo's [4]. We have obtained letters of
support from various dignitaries [5]. Brisbane Marketing
(the promotional arm of Brisbane City [6]) has helped us to
find venues for bid and stands ready to help us with
promotion if we win.

Organisation
------------

Humbug has hosted several talks on this LCA bid. They were
always well attended, with lots of suggestions from the
floor. There are also a presentation to the Queensland
SAGE-AU branch which was well received.

At the last Humbug meeting on LCA we elected the team
managing the LCA committee, should we win. They are:

  * Russell Stuart
  * Clinton Roy
  * James Iseppi
  * Shaun Nykvist
  * Marco Ostini
  * Jared Ring
  * Mark Suter
  * Mark Ellem
  * Elspeth Thorne

They knew what they were getting into as a list of duties
had been posted onto the wiki prior to the election [7].
Besides, Humbug hosted LCA 2002.

Conclusion
----------

Queenslanders have a reputation for being a laid back lot,
we're sure this document will shed that image. We look
forward to continuing this level of planning right through
to the running of the conference so that the attendees can
concentrate on learning and contributing to the open source
movement.

Attachments
-----------

  QUT's undertakings
    http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/Venue?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=qut-letter-of-support.pdf.

  Bid Budget
    http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/Budget/Budget. It is not
    visible to all, mainly because that is how it was done
    in previous LCA's. If you want to see it please email
    http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/RussellStuart.

  Home page of this document
    http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/BidDocument/Bid2

Footnotes
---------

  1.  Brisbane's Unix group: http://humbug.org.au.

  2.  Assuming we can't steal Pia, of course.

  3.  Googling for LCA 2009 bid has Humbug's efforts to
      organise the bid as its first 6 hits. Most of them
      contain references to the wiki.

  4.  Andy's artwork:
      http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/ArtWork.

  5.  Letters of support:
      http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/BidDocument.

  6.  Brisbane Marketings home page:
      http://www.brisbanemarketing.com.au.

  7.  Duties for team members:
      http://www.stuart.id.au/lcawiki/Team.

--
The LCA 2009 Team