I am wondering about the timing of a 2012 bid. I have organized some conferences before, and in my recollection, getting the timing right -- being able to sign the contracts at the right times, when one is able to commit, but as early as possible -- is critical.

I am a little bit worried that a bid for 2012 is not going to happen until February 2011, and that we are not going to hear back until (likely) April 2011. This means that from the time we hear, to the meet-up, there is barely over one year. This is not much time for locking down space for 800 people. Especially, the earlier we are able to commit, the better conditions we may be able to extract. For other conferences I am involved in (academic-type conferences), the steering committees try to plan 2 years in advance at least.

Concretely, I talked with UCSC, and they told me that they would have lots of possibilities open for 2012, but time for 2011 is tighter; they would have more constraints for space and time available. We are asking for a lot of meet space (some place where to meet in 700 people or so, plus 8-10 separate break-out rooms for 80 people or so each, would be my guess), and a lot of space for attendees. So now we are in an ideal position to enter a committment for 2012, but if we wait until 2011... who knows?

Also, I am unsure about the logistics of a bid. We send a bid with what kind of agreement with the venue?

- If we send it after signing an agreement, and the bid is rejected, we are in trouble. - If we send the bid without agreement, and in the time before we hear, the space is sold to others, what do we do? We then retract the bid after we hear back it is accepted? - I am not sure if there are other options. We can maybe convince the universities to keep the space reserved to us, but without a financial commitment from our part, for the duration of the bid process. This would be a huge favor to us -- normally, venues never commit space without some down-payment or agreement -- and I suspect it would be much easier to ask now, for 2012, than in 2011. When there is only one year going to the meet-up, universities may be unwilling to reserve the space for us, unless we are ready to commit.

Other thoughts? This timing issue is, in my opinion, one of the hardest... When I organized my previous conference (hey, the site is still there: http://concur05.soe.ucsc.edu/), I at least knew it would surely happen in San Francisco, before I started signing contracts.

Luca