That's certainly better than nothing - though
it's definitely preferable to
allow for as many opportunities to bump into people as possible - which
diminishes when you have the social spaces removed from the presentation
spaces. And really, don't presume that people will be in lectures all day -
there is usually a lot of activity outside sessions with spill-over
discussions from previous sessions, press interviews, mini-presentations,
and many other impromptu pow-wows and chats. In fact (and this is the case
with most conferences), many people find the most interesting discussions
for them personally take place outside scheduled sessions. So - just how big
is that foyer? :-) It doesn't look so substantial from what I can see from
<http://www.oxford.gov.uk/leisure/Venuehire.cfm>. And that ice cream place
wouldn't be anything like what we need as a genuinely social, malleable
space. So this lack of convenient social space is still a concern for me
with this proposed venue - and I know other Wikimaniacs will be thinking
along the same lines.
The foyer might not work, but that gallery looks like it could be made
to function as a general social space. We don't need anything special,
just an open space we can put tea, coffee and some chairs in.