The last two UK Wikimania bids have been for London. This is probably preferred, but I am throwing it open to you if you have a really good idea, and preferably you either live there or have good contacts there. If you think of somewhere but know nobody there, post here, as there may be people on this list who can help.
As I say London is where it's at as they say but it's not set in stone. We have more time until bidding than we did for Wikimania 2008 - since I first posted in late August anyway - so let's get going again.
Kind regards,
On 09/10/2007, Gary Kirk gary.kirk@gmail.com wrote:
The last two UK Wikimania bids have been for London. This is probably preferred, but I am throwing it open to you if you have a really good idea, and preferably you either live there or have good contacts there. If you think of somewhere but know nobody there, post here, as there may be people on this list who can help.
As I say London is where it's at as they say but it's not set in stone. We have more time until bidding than we did for Wikimania 2008 - since I first posted in late August anyway - so let's get going again.
My vote is for London (and that's not because I live there, since I don't) - it's the easiest place to get to, is extremely multicultural, and only occasionally gets blown up ;).
On 09/10/2007, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Gary Kirk gary.kirk@gmail.com wrote:
The last two UK Wikimania bids have been for London. This is probably preferred, but I am throwing it open to you if you have a really good
idea,
and preferably you either live there or have good contacts there. If you think of somewhere but know nobody there, post here, as there may be
people
on this list who can help.
As I say London is where it's at as they say but it's not set in stone.
We
have more time until bidding than we did for Wikimania 2008 - since I
first
posted in late August anyway - so let's get going again.
My vote is for London (and that's not because I live there, since I don't) - it's the easiest place to get to, is extremely multicultural, and only occasionally gets blown up ;).
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
And is also very expensive.
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Looking at UCAS we find
http://www.ucas.com/instit/se/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/e/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/gl/index.html
Although the numbers can be trimmed somewhat by removing all those cases where a College gets listed for having a handful of HE courses.
On 10/9/07, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Oxford! Oxford! Oxford! With this, I hand again over to you who actually have to organise it :)
Michael
On 09/10/2007, Michael Bimmler mbimmler@gmail.com wrote:
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Oxford! Oxford! Oxford! With this, I hand again over to you who actually have to organise it :)
The cheap accomodation is usually flooded well in advance by foreign students (summer schools, etc - the name sells very well) and the university is quite good at squeezing money out of visitors.
Mind you, we managed MIT, so...
The cheap accomodation is usually flooded well in advance by foreign students (summer schools, etc - the name sells very well) and the university is quite good at squeezing money out of visitors.
Mind you, we managed MIT, so...
Not that the person with the Dunelm email address is at all biased. ;)
I imagine Oxford is one of the most expensive unis for holding conferences in, simply because it's Oxford.
MIT has a strong interest in things like Wikipedia, so that probably helped there. Oxford has no such interest...
Thomas Dalton wrote:
The cheap accomodation is usually flooded well in advance by foreign students (summer schools, etc - the name sells very well) and the university is quite good at squeezing money out of visitors.
Mind you, we managed MIT, so...
Not that the person with the Dunelm email address is at all biased. ;)
I imagine Oxford is one of the most expensive unis for holding conferences in, simply because it's Oxford.
MIT has a strong interest in things like Wikipedia, so that probably helped there. Oxford has no such interest...
So actually it was Harvard, and that was helped along greatly by my association with the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School.
For Oxford, the equivalent organization is OII: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/
We have friends and fans there, as well, including most prominently Jonathan Zittrain.
It is quite possible that OII would jump at the chance to assist with a bid.
On 09/10/2007, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
The cheap accomodation is usually flooded well in advance by foreign students (summer schools, etc - the name sells very well) and the university is quite good at squeezing money out of visitors.
Mind you, we managed MIT, so...
Not that the person with the Dunelm email address is at all biased. ;)
Hmm? I live in south Oxford and work quite closely with the academic community here... I certainly wouldn't recommend a conference in Durham ;-)
I imagine Oxford is one of the most expensive unis for holding conferences in, simply because it's Oxford.
You might have a decent shot at Brookes, but they are likely to have the same summer-schools issue. (It's hard to realise the sheer scale of "Oxford language courses" and so on in academic off-season until you've seen the proliferation of summer students...)
MIT has a strong interest in things like Wikipedia, so that probably helped there. Oxford has no such interest...
You'd be surprised. It's not quite as staid a place as it seems, there's a couple of good specialist bodies around, and I've got v. good reactions to mentioning Wiki[p/m]edia in conversation with academics in the past. In fact, I've never met an academic who was immediately dismissive from a standing start.
Fundamentally, from the academic standpoint, we have a prominent name even if it has an asterisk next to it. People don't always like our end product, but they do usually respect what we're trying to do and get intrigued by the way and the scale we go about it.
On 09/10/2007, Michael Bimmler mbimmler@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/9/07, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Oxford! Oxford! Oxford! With this, I hand again over to you who actually have to organise it :)
Michael
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
Well if you want it at Oxford, perhaps you could help organise it.
On 10/9/07, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
Well if you want it at Oxford, perhaps you could help organise it.
You know...I'd love to. However, there is the issue of distance. I think I wouldn't be of great help working out of Switzerland and I don't have the spare money to fly over to Great Britain every second weekend.
That's the reason why I just shouted the word and backed down again.
Michael
I'm at Oxford so I could potentially be of some (limited) help if people were serious about Oxford. (But I don't have that much time so I'm afraid I'm not volunteering to be the sole Oxford coordinator...)
I'd also point out that choosing Oxford over London on cost grounds is probably a false economy. Oxford is very expensive these days. (I'm paying £115 a week for my single, non-en-suite room in student accommodation and conference guests can expect to pay a premium.) The conference market is one of the colleges' main sources of income as they're all so bad at pestering old members.
On the other hand, a few years I tried to arrange for Jimmy Wales to come and speak at the Oxford Internet Institute which both sides seemed keen on at the time, (though for one reason or another it never happened), so potentially there might be enough academic interest to get a few things for free.
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Michael Bimmler Sent: 09 October 2007 22:28 To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimania 2009 locations
On 10/9/07, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Oxford! Oxford! Oxford! With this, I hand again over to you who actually have to organise it :)
Michael
_______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
Tom Holden wrote:
On the other hand, a few years I tried to arrange for Jimmy Wales to come and speak at the Oxford Internet Institute which both sides seemed keen on at the time, (though for one reason or another it never happened), so potentially there might be enough academic interest to get a few things for free.
It did happen! And you were instrumental in arranging it!
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20050711_76
:)
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Well, Edinburgh can be a possibility if you go north.
The accommodation is a plenty whether one looking at university related or otherwise. Flights and trains available from London. Tourist demonstrably have no problem traveling there as seen from the numbers during the Edinburgh Festival. However, as because of the festival, August will be out, so one will be looking at mid-to-end July.
There's 3 local universities that might be interested in supporting.
Cost is only marginally cheaper than London (and Oxford?).
Not that I'm not biased at all being at university at Edinburgh....
KTC
On 09/10/2007, Kwan Ting Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Well, Edinburgh can be a possibility if you go north.
The accommodation is a plenty whether one looking at university related or otherwise. Flights and trains available from London. Tourist demonstrably have no problem traveling there as seen from the numbers during the Edinburgh Festival. However, as because of the festival, August will be out, so one will be looking at mid-to-end July.
(Disclaimer: I love Edinburgh dearly)
The problem with anywhere that isn't in the immediate vicinity of a major international airport (ie, London or the area; Manchester, etc) is that every attendee from abroad basically has to pay an extra leg compared to going to a city that is. (Oxford gets by on this consideration because it's relatively close to Heathrow, but Edinburgh isn't...)
This means that if you have two cities of equal expense, the one with the better transport is, well, better.
International travel into Edinburgh - at least from outside NW Europe - sucks; you need to go into London or Glasgow or Manchester and change. This means, oh, an extra £20-£100 per head in transport costs. With Edinburgh not being a very cheap city regardless - not up there with London, but pushing it - and with price being one of the major negative factors in a UK bid, this isn't a very good sign...
That said, it's not implausible a July bid might be workable. I'm just not sold we could keep the prices down enough to be in with a chance.
On 09/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Looking at UCAS we find
http://www.ucas.com/instit/se/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/e/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/gl/index.html
Although the numbers can be trimmed somewhat by removing all those cases where a College gets listed for having a handful of HE courses.
Okey outside of london the options appear to be:
The University of Kent The University of Reading University of Surrey University of Hertfordshire University of Bedfordshire in particular the University of Luton section
After that you really are getting too far from london.
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Looking at UCAS we find
http://www.ucas.com/instit/se/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/e/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/gl/index.html
Although the numbers can be trimmed somewhat by removing all those cases where a College gets listed for having a handful of HE courses.
Okey outside of london the options appear to be:
The University of Kent The University of Reading University of Surrey University of Hertfordshire University of Bedfordshire in particular the University of Luton section
After that you really are getting too far from london.
Aren't all of these too far from London to be practical? How about a University of London college?
This is what we are saying. It doesn't *have* to be in London.
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Looking at UCAS we find
http://www.ucas.com/instit/se/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/e/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/gl/index.html
Although the numbers can be trimmed somewhat by removing all those cases where a College gets listed for having a handful of HE courses.
Okey outside of london the options appear to be:
The University of Kent The University of Reading University of Surrey University of Hertfordshire University of Bedfordshire in particular the University of Luton section
After that you really are getting too far from london.
Aren't all of these too far from London to be practical? How about a University of London college?
-- Oldak Quill (oldakquill@gmail.com)
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
On 13/10/2007, Gary Kirk gary.kirk@gmail.com wrote:
This is what we are saying. It doesn't *have* to be in London.
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 09/10/2007, geni < geniice@gmail.com> wrote:
On 09/10/2007, Majorly axel9891@googlemail.com wrote:
And is also very expensive.
It is safe to assume the majority of the attendees from outside Europe will arrive in London and most of those from Europe will arrive in London or the southeast. As a result logistics mean that Scotland and northern england would be problematical. In terms of facilities people are generally looking at universities so in practice we are probably looking for universities within striking distance of London.
Looking at UCAS we find
http://www.ucas.com/instit/se/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/e/index.html http://www.ucas.com/instit/gl/index.html
Although the numbers can be trimmed somewhat by removing all those cases where a College gets listed for having a handful of HE courses.
Okey outside of london the options appear to be:
The University of Kent The University of Reading University of Surrey University of Hertfordshire University of Bedfordshire in particular the University of Luton section
After that you really are getting too far from london.
Aren't all of these too far from London to be practical? How about a University of London college?
-- Oldak Quill (oldakquill@gmail.com)
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
-- Gary Kirk
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
Mostly an issue of giving us more options. It is possible that some of those unis might have something of particular interest to us
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
Mostly an issue of giving us more options. It is possible that some of those unis might have something of particular interest to us
It might be worth a little investigation of alternatives, but unless there is a really good reason to go to a particular place, I think we should stick to London.
On 10/13/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
Mostly an issue of giving us more options. It is possible that some of those unis might have something of particular interest to us
It might be worth a little investigation of alternatives, but unless there is a really good reason to go to a particular place, I think we should stick to London.
The prime consideration for an international conference for me is proximity to a major airport (the second being trying to keep costs as low as possible). London is far and away the best connected city in the UK, but it has the disadvantage of being quite expensive. The only city in the UK which offers a reasonable connection point (without having to take a further mode of transport) is Manchester - see http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/ukairports/index.php. My previous attempt to find a good venue in Manchester didn't come to much, but I think there are now other options, which I will investigate and report back.
Cheers, Cormac
And of course Brighton is 30 minutes from London Gatwick!
Best wishes Jenny G
--On 15 October 2007 13:27 +0100 Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/13/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
Mostly an issue of giving us more options. It is possible that some of those unis might have something of particular interest to us
It might be worth a little investigation of alternatives, but unless there is a really good reason to go to a particular place, I think we should stick to London.
The prime consideration for an international conference for me is proximity to a major airport (the second being trying to keep costs as low as possible). London is far and away the best connected city in the UK, but it has the disadvantage of being quite expensive. The only city in the UK which offers a reasonable connection point (without having to take a further mode of transport) is Manchester - see http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/ukairports/index.php. My previous attempt to find a good venue in Manchester didn't come to much, but I think there are now other options, which I will investigate and report back.
Cheers, Cormac
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
On 10/15/07, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
My previous attempt to find a good venue in Manchester didn't come to much, but I think there are now other options, which I will investigate and report back.
There are good options in the University of Manchester, including the impressive University Place [1], which is under construction, but already booking up fast. University Place is being set up for bigger conferences (over 500 delegates), so it might be possible to do this within one of the smaller venue combinations, however Wikimania in the UK is likely to attract a lot of interest from academia in particular. I've posted details on the Meta page [2].
Cheers, Cormac
[1] http://www.conference.manchester.ac.uk/meetingmanchester/meetingandaccommoda... [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/UK
That's good how you have actual prices etc. I think it might be a good idea to pool and come up with some sort of standard greeting for these people explaining what we want and so on so we're all on the same hymn sheet, or all looking at the same edit box if you like :) (though of course that would cause an edit conflict!)
Kind regards,
Gary
On 15/10/2007, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/15/07, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
My previous attempt to find a good venue in Manchester didn't come to
much, but I
think there are now other options, which I will investigate and report
back.
There are good options in the University of Manchester, including the impressive University Place [1], which is under construction, but already booking up fast. University Place is being set up for bigger conferences (over 500 delegates), so it might be possible to do this within one of the smaller venue combinations, however Wikimania in the UK is likely to attract a lot of interest from academia in particular. I've posted details on the Meta page [2].
Cheers, Cormac
[1] http://www.conference.manchester.ac.uk/meetingmanchester/meetingandaccommoda... [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/UK
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
On 10/15/07, Gary Kirk gary.kirk@gmail.com wrote:
That's good how you have actual prices etc. I think it might be a good idea to pool and come up with some sort of standard greeting for these people explaining what we want and so on so we're all on the same hymn sheet, or all looking at the same edit box if you like :) (though of course that would cause an edit conflict!)
Thanks Gary - what were you thinking of in the way of "standard greeting"? Regarding what we need - typically, in past years, this has been: at least one major lecture theatre/hall for keynotes and plenaries (ie for all conference participants), one slightly smaller one (ie 200 ppl), and three or four smaller again (50-80 ppl) - though it is not a problem to have slightly too much space ;-). We need a space to hold exhibitions of posters and a space for informal gathering (ie hanging out) - this could very well be the same space. There are usually one or two rooms for the organising committee for stationery, conference supplies, technology, and lots of coffee. ;-) All that is for the three days of the main conference - we'll need a pared-down number of spaces for the hacking days, which normally run over the two previous days to the main conference. I might have underestimated extra rooms needed (eg. for speakers' lounge etc), but that's mostly it as regards the conference meeting spaces. After that we need a dining space for the majority (if not all) of the conference attendees, as well as accommodation for the bulk of people also. Food needs to be on-site; accommodation is also preferable to have as close to the site, but it may be possible to organise an alternative and use shuttle buses, for example. If we get prices for most if not all of the above, we'll be doing well. :-)
Cheers, Cormac
On 10/15/07, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
Regarding what we need - typically, in past years, this has been: at least one major lecture theatre/hall for keynotes and plenaries (ie for all conference participants), one slightly smaller one (ie 200 ppl), and three or four smaller again (50-80 ppl) - though it is not a problem to have slightly too much space ;-).
Hmm, let me slightly correct that - there are usually five sessions happening simultaneously, with keynotes taking up a whole time block for themselves (ie no other sessions at the same time). So, for conference sessions, we'll need (at least): one keynote space (5/600 ppl), *two* slightly smaller spaces (2/300), and three smaller again (50-80).
Cheers, Cormac
Okay. What I meant was, could we establish boilerplate-style text that can be adapted and tweaked to send out to various organisations, companies, universities and so on - based on what people have done in the past - contributions please - and what you, Cormac, used, to approach these Manchester places.
Kind regards,
Gary
On 15/10/2007, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/15/07, Cormac Lawler cormaggio@gmail.com wrote:
Regarding what we need - typically, in past years, this has been: at least one major lecture theatre/hall for keynotes and plenaries (ie for all conference participants), one slightly smaller one (ie 200 ppl), and three or four smaller again (50-80 ppl) - though it is not a problem to have slightly too much space ;-).
Hmm, let me slightly correct that - there are usually five sessions happening simultaneously, with keynotes taking up a whole time block for themselves (ie no other sessions at the same time). So, for conference sessions, we'll need (at least): one keynote space (5/600 ppl), *two* slightly smaller spaces (2/300), and three smaller again (50-80).
Cheers, Cormac
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
Why leave London for the sake of leaving London? The UK is a small country and is very much centred on London. London has the best connections to other places within the UK and is the most connected place on an international level (re. flights). The Greater London Area contains almost a quarter of the population of the UK.
Most UK cities other than London would require train journeys or internal flights within the UK for those flying into the country.
Change for change sake isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to making city bid like this.
Bidders get tired of submitting the same city again and again. Juries get tired of reviewing the same bid again and again. After a few times, whatever reasons they didn't select a city the last (few) time(s) is going to dominate over actual bid this time around.
Disclaimer: Not saying that necessarily applies here (yet)
KTC
Change for change sake isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to making city bid like this.
Bidders get tired of submitting the same city again and again. Juries get tired of reviewing the same bid again and again. After a few times, whatever reasons they didn't select a city the last (few) time(s) is going to dominate over actual bid this time around.
Disclaimer: Not saying that necessarily applies here (yet)
We withdrew out bid for 2008, though, so it's not an issue this time. If we're not successful next time, it might be worth considering another city, but London is the best bet for 2009.
Everyone please let's discuss this on the meta page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/UK
Thank you.
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Aren't all of these too far from London to be practical?
Most are a pretty trivial train journey. For Europeans Luton might be a cheaper flight than London.
On Sat, 2007-10-13 at 03:11 +0100, geni wrote:
On 13/10/2007, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
Aren't all of these too far from London to be practical?
Most are a pretty trivial train journey. For Europeans Luton might be a cheaper flight than London.
If we're starting to get into area where people would have to catch a train anyway after their flight, then one might as well consider the whole of the rest of the UK.
KTC
On 13/10/2007, Kwan Ting Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
If we're starting to get into area where people would have to catch a train anyway after their flight, then one might as well consider the whole of the rest of the UK.
You are free to draw up a list however I was aiming for under 2 hours.
On 13/10/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 13/10/2007, Kwan Ting Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
If we're starting to get into area where people would have to catch a train anyway after their flight, then one might as well consider the whole of the rest of the UK.
You are free to draw up a list however I was aiming for under 2 hours.
That would include Lille ;-)
Reading would be OK. I'm unconvinced by Canterbury - living in London with a mother in Canterbury, I don't consider it a "trivial train journey"...
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