On 19/12/2007, Tom Holden <thomas.holden@gmail.com> wrote:

There's a small lecture theatre at the OII (around 40 people), a medium one
at Balliol next door (currently around 100 due to rows of tables, could
probably double this if they were taken out, health and safety regs
permitting) and assorted large to gigantic university lecture halls in
walking distance (no more than 15 mins). Other Balliol spaces we could use
include the hall (larger than the lecture theatre, but not ideally suited to
lectures due to benches and tables), assorted seminar rooms, the JCR (large
and informal space with sofas and coffee tables) and we could potentially
also have a marquee in the garden.

There are some details on the Balliol site here:
http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/conference/index.asp

And some details about one of the largest central lecture theatres here:
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/schools/conference/

There's also a centralised conference info site here:
http://www.conference-oxford.com/
(though given Balliol's close links to the OII I'd say our best bet for
discounted rates is sticking with then rather than another college.)

If we can arrange a deal with Balliol (we won't know until the New Year)
then most accommodation would be next door to the OII, right in the centre
of Oxford, with perhaps some 10 mins walk away in another set of Balliol
buildings. These are all single rooms, some of which are en suite. There's
also a dining hall in Balliol which would potentially provide catering.

There are some costs quoted on those sites for external conferences, but
potentially with the OII stamp we could reduce these rates. They are quoting
Ł500 a day for the large lecture rooms in Examination Schools (seating
around 500) and Balliol are quoting Ł315 a day for the Balliol lecture room
mentioned previously. Balliol are quoting a 24 hour delegate rate of Ł125 a
day, but this includes rather a lot of surplus luxury. For students
accommodation is under Ł100 a week and food is around Ł3 a meal. With
support from the college we could hope to get something closer to this.

Do we have any provisional dates btw?

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org ] On Behalf Of Cormac
Lawler
Sent: 19 December 2007 13:40
To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Oxford Wikimania

That's great Tom, thanks! The main things that we would need to know
about any bid is whether there is a suitable venue (ie with a variety
of big/small lecture theatres, collective spaces, organising rooms,
etc). We would then need to see what the accommodation situation would
be - is it close by, or would it require something like shuttle-buses,
and how many people would be accommodated (and in what kinds of
groupings - single rooms/dorms..)? Would catering be available
adjacent to the conference space? And finally, what would all of this
cost? :-) (See * below for more.)

I wouldn't say we need to restrain ourselves in terms of a single bid
at this stage, or even by what has failed in the past. If this bid can
be worked up with sufficient detail, we should submit it - if there's
an option in London, we can submit both, or decide which one looks
most viable and run with that one. But we would need more details
first...

Thanks again,
Cormac

* More details at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Official_requirements_for_bidd
ing_cities

On 12/19/07, Tom Holden <thomas.holden@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I have heard back from the director of the Oxford Internet Institute today
> and he seemed very positive about the idea, particularly if they could
host
> a parallel more academic conference. (There's got to be an economy of
scale
> since many speaker's would be appropriate for both.)
>
>
>
> The OII have fairly limited facilities so may not be of that great a
> financial benefit to us on their own. The importance of their interest
> though is in the still close ties they maintain with Balliol college
> (Jimmy's talk for example was introduced by the master of Balliol at his
> recent talk) who may be able to properly help us out on accommodation and
in
> the help their endorsement would provide in securing central university
> facilities. The master of Balliol expressed initial interest and said he
> would get back to me in the new year.
>
>
>
> What do people think to this possibility? We've had several failed London
> bids in a row, if this came together would people be behind an Oxford one?
>
>
>
> Tom
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>
>

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