[Lcabid] Humbug Bid

[Shaun Nykvist]

Hi Raymond and others

Thanks for your comments below.  I think the dates need to change -  
hence my proposal to change them.  I have also been told how important  
it is to keep tradition (after a long phone call te other day), though  
I believe while some tradition is good - to move forward you must also  
change and bring in new ideas.  What are everyone's thoughts on moving  
the dates?

With regards to the school age students - I would hope that we could  
actually get some more of them to be part of our community - they will  
be our next experts in this field.

   In terms of accommodation we should definitely look at the  
possibilities in Brisbane itself.  We have been using some of the big  
hotels such as festival towers for students and international visitors  
and their pricing has been exceptional.  I also know that backpackers  
often stay in these lodgings now - so they can't be that expensive.  I  
stayed in an apartment room about 6 mths ago and we had a room under  
$200 that could sleep 6 (though we only had 4 staying in the room and  
about 45 in our pary altogether).  Again - I know the "tradition" for  
having some university lodging and all those things that go together,  
but from investigations that I have done for other projects the  
university lodging type places are sometimes more expensive than these  
other hotels (and we all still get to do our networking in them as  
well).

Cheers
Shaun


On 30/10/2009, at 11:28 AM, Raymond Smith wrote:

> Hi Shaun,
>
> 2009/10/30 Shaun Nykvist <ninja at kangawallafox.com>:
>> Russell - have you had anything to do with the Powerhouse (in terms  
>> of a
>> possible venue for 1 of the events) and has anyone had any  
>> experience or
>> attended events there.  It has become quite a popular location for  
>> some
>> events recently.
>
> I have been to a few functions there and it is a nice location. The
> food was pretty good too.
>
>> What are everyone's thoughts on holding the conference from the 7th  
>> February
>> 2011 rather then around the Australia day weekend like previous  
>> years.  It
>> is still holiday time at the local universities with most O'weeks not
>> starting till the end of the month or near then.
>
> Almost exactly when we did it last time (6 to 9 February).
>
> You will get some push back on this. First, we had three or four
> irrate teenage hackers who were outraged we would schedule things
> without reference to school holidays. One of those was a speaker, and
> he ended up getting a leave pass from school and came along with his
> Dad. Second, some people objected to the "tradition" being interfered
> with (this for something that had been going for all of two years
> prior). Definitely this is no reason to stick with Australia Day
> weekend, I mention this as a heads up.
>
> Nonetheless I would suggest the even more radical shift of holding the
> conference later in the year when the local climate is much more
> friendly to visitors: Canberra did their conference in April and my
> memory was that it was bigger-and-better than those which proceeded
> it. A number of European and North American speakers found the heat in
> Brisbane quite challenging when we did it in February.
>
> The other bit of feedback from the Brisbane conference, especially
> from international travellers, was that UQ was too far out from
> accomodation. This isn't a problem for your bid given QUT Gardens
> Point as the venue. But it is worth mentioning that having a number of
> accomodation solutions available is important.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Raymond