Announcement imminent - Lodging

Paul W. Frields stickster at gmail.com
Tue Jul 27 13:39:34 UTC 2010


On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 04:54:49PM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> Robyn has forwarded a contract with the hotel for rooms.  We are
> trying to work out some details on that contract so that we're not
> stuck with a bill we can't pay, but (ironically?) one of the things we
> could use is a growing list of out of staters that tells us we can
> make a specific minimum (like 35, 40, or 50 rooms).
> 
> So I spent part of today working on the FUDCon namespace page for the
> event, and will continue to work on it tomorrow so we can announce the
> event quickly.
> 
> If we have to, we'll scale back the guaranteed rooms so that we can be
> certain to fill the minimum block.  Then we'll encourage people to
> pre-register on the wiki and register at the hotel, *as early as
> possible*.
> 
> What do you guys think?
> 
> By the way, if anyone wants to help fill in the wiki, the page is
> here.  I made a heading outline, to make filling in the page easier.
> Please feel free to expand but try and keep the ordering logical in
> terms of what people want to know early, and keep the pre-registration
> as close to the top as possible.  If anyone knows a cool trick with
> the "quick links" box to keep it onscreen, you're welcome to play with
> the CSS. :-)
> 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Tempe_2011

We need to be very cognizant of is the lodging costs for FUDCon Tempe
2011.  They're significantly higher than in previous FUDCon events.

Decent hotels (not luxurious, just decent) are not cheap in the
Phoenix area in winter.  Just as our own contributors really wanted to
go somewhere warmer for a winter FUDCon, so does everyone else in the
USA!  That means the hotel costs are higher.  Rooms at the hotel where
we're looking at a contract are $165/night + fees + taxes, which comes
to almost exactly $200/night total.

Even at that rate, we are getting a *significant* discount from
published rates (which start around $229), and this hotel has
advantages, such as proximity to our FUDCon location, and plentiful
transportation options on grounds.  All our other options would have
required transportation costs that would have eliminated any of the
cost savings.  Some of them would have been *more* expensive once you
counted those costs.

When we announce, we'll take great pains to let people know that we
want them to stay with the whole group at the hotel.  That helps us
achieve our minimum block.  If anyone needs subsidies to make that
happen, they should ask (privately is fine).  We will be *happy* to
make it possible for people to come to FUDCon!  We don't want to find
out later that someone "would have, could have, should have" come if
only they'd known we could help them make that happen.

No one should think they shouldn't ask for subsidies, or that they're
somehow taking money away from other people in doing so.  Everyone
who's involved in planning knows it's tough to break loose the full
costs for a FUDCon, on top of all the $REAL_LIFE expenses we all
have.  We want to help, and Max Spevack has already said he can commit
some extra funds to make sure we can do so.


-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
          Where open source multiplies: http://opensource.com


More information about the fudcon-planning mailing list