FUDCon Fact-finding Trip

[Chris Tyler]

I stopped by the FUDCon candidate hotels and Dave & Buster's this
afternoon.

Hilton Garden Inn:
- More expensive than Marriott ($129/dbl occupancy)
+ A bit nicer (e.g., Herman Miller desk chair)
+ Adjacent to Viva station, 600m to D&B
+ Restaurant is breakfast/lunch/dinner, room service available
+ Reliable wireless signal
- 1.6 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload on wireless, carrier is Rogers
+ Has offered a king suite for hospitality ("hacking room"), discounted
breakfast vouchers

Marriott Courtyard:
+ Cheaper ($99/dbl occupancy)
- Slightly more basic decor
- 600m to Viva station (5-10 minute walk), adjacent to D&B
- Restaurant is breakfast-only
- Wireless only in lobby
+ 2.66 Mbps download, 2.66 Mbps upload, carrier is MTS Allstream

The hotels are otherwise basically equivalent (pool, hot tub, fitness
room (Hilton's is slightly larger), close to other restaurants for
Thursday/Sunday night, etc).

If the Hilton will drop their price a bit to better compete with the
Marriott, they would get my recommendation. I'll see what I can talk
them into.

Dave & Busters:
- We could easily spend over the budget, but there are some ways to do
it for $30.
- Best option appears to be an appetizer-style buffet in a room that has
9 pocket pool tables, 1 snooker table, and two shuffleboard tables.
- They're going to forward a proposed package for our review, I'll pass
it along when it arrives.

--
Chris

[Paul W. Frields]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 09:44:29AM -0400, Chris Tyler wrote:
> I stopped by the FUDCon candidate hotels and Dave & Buster's this
> afternoon.
>
> Hilton Garden Inn:
> More expensive than Marriott ($129/dbl occupancy)
> A bit nicer (e.g., Herman Miller desk chair)
> Adjacent to Viva station, 600m to D&B
> Restaurant is breakfast/lunch/dinner, room service available
> Reliable wireless signal
> 1.6 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload on wireless, carrier is Rogers
> Has offered a king suite for hospitality ("hacking room"), discounted
>
> breakfast vouchers
>
> Marriott Courtyard:
> Cheaper ($99/dbl occupancy)
> Slightly more basic decor
> 600m to Viva station (5-10 minute walk), adjacent to D&B
> Restaurant is breakfast-only
> Wireless only in lobby
> 2.66 Mbps download, 2.66 Mbps upload, carrier is MTS Allstream
>
> The hotels are otherwise basically equivalent (pool, hot tub, fitness
> room (Hilton's is slightly larger), close to other restaurants for
> Thursday/Sunday night, etc).
>
> If the Hilton will drop their price a bit to better compete with the
> Marriott, they would get my recommendation. I'll see what I can talk
> them into.

If the HGI came down to $109-119 I'd agree.  I'd love to finalize a
hotel by Monday if at all possible.
> Dave & Busters:
> We could easily spend over the budget, but there are some ways to do
>
> it for $30.
> Best option appears to be an appetizer-style buffet in a room that has
>
> 9 pocket pool tables, 1 snooker table, and two shuffleboard tables.
> They're going to forward a proposed package for our review, I'll pass
>
> it along when it arrives.

Sounds great, I look forward to it!  As always, Chris, thank you for
your time and the care you've taken in helping us plan the event.

[Chris Tyler]

On Fri, 2009-08-28 at 11:18 -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> If the HGI came down to $109-119 I'd agree.  I'd love to finalize a
> hotel by Monday if at all possible.

Woot! The Hilton has come back with an offer of $105/night double
occupancy (US$96.06 at current exchange rates). I've updated the wiki
and will add the booking code and reservation page link on Monday.

-Chris

[Paul W. Frields]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 9:16 PM, Chris Tyler wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-08-28 at 11:18 -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> > If the HGI came down to $109-119 I'd agree.  I'd love to finalize a
> > hotel by Monday if at all possible.
>
> Woot! The Hilton has come back with an offer of $105/night double
> occupancy (US$96.06 at current exchange rates). I've updated the wiki
> and will add the booking code and reservation page link on Monday.

PHENOMENAL!  This is great, Chris. I'm planning on doing another APB next week.

For now, as much as I'd like to have a conference planning system up,
we may need to start taking preregistration on the wiki, and
transferring that information into another system if/when needed. I
have a feeling people might otherwise feel that we're dragging feet on
getting things underway.

I'll set up the various tables for that stuff on the wiki.

Paul