2008/7/22 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>om>:
We need a lecture theatre that holds 500, so those
main halls wouldn't be
big enough. Given previous years experience, UCL seems the best bet for a
hypothetical London bid. But unless someone's prepared to take the lead on
it it's not going to happen.
There are several non-location specific tasks that need doing, such as
contacting large tech-savvy companies to try and get sponsorship, so there's
a job for someone if they want it.
Tom
I looked at UCL, but the closest they came in terms of room capacity
was 400 (
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/efd/roombooking/all-rooms/ )
There are two massive conference centres in London that I know:
* The Royal Horticultural Hall -
http://www.horticultural-halls.co.uk/
**
http://www.horticultural-halls.co.uk/venues/lawrence-hall/?capacity
- The Lawrence Hall has a maximum capacity of 1000
**
http://www.horticultural-halls.co.uk/venues/lindley-hall/?capacity
- The Lindley Hall could just about fit 500
*Westminster Central Hall -
http://www.c-h-w.com/roomhire/capacities.html - lists room capacities.
Sadly, the largest room has a capacity of 2160 in "theatre mode", and
the two other largest rooms have capacities only up to 450 in this
mode.
In terms of contacting large tech-savvy companies, wouldn't that best
be done from a wikimedia.org.uk address? Virgin have shown interest in
sponsoring Wikimedia in the past (though that was a bit of a mess). I
don't know if a company like IBM would have any interest in sponsoring
a Wikimedia event... (
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/ ) Their
website suggests they are interested in points of contact between
technology and education.
--
Oldak Quill (oldakquill(a)gmail.com)