Ahh annoying. I presume UCL had been chosen in previous years because it did meet the criteria so that may be your best bet if you want to pursue London.
Your size restrictions are a little on the overly optimistic side though. I get the impression 500 now is the absolute minimum and I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being 700+.
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Gordon Joly Sent: 27 July 2008 20:16 To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimania 2010 (proposal to Queen Mary College)
Queen Mary, University of London, have written back to me. They said that they could not accommodate a conference of this size in July or August due to regular bookings (I believe that they take in Open University summer school bookings).
I sent them this specification:-
* Dates should be from the beginning of July to mid August and
should include a weekend. * The maximum number of participants should be 500 people, the minimum 300. * The venue must provide accommodation within walking distance of the conference grounds, preferably with lots of hanging out spaces where Wikimaniacs can get together informally. * The venue must have seminar/conference rooms that can hold up to 100 people and no less than 30 people at one time for the sessions. It should provide at least one main hall that can hold up to 500 people. Count on having around 5/6 simultaneous tracks in the program. (i.e. the venue must accommodate 500 people at any time in 5/6 rooms).
Regards,
Gordo