Subject: Re: Meeting Venue Preference Survey

From: Randall Gellens <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:07:52 -0700

At 4:23 PM -0400 8/27/10, Michael StJohns wrote:

>   I object to the way gateway/secondary cities are defined here and 
> specifically equating Maastricht with Minneapolis seems somewhat 
> stacking the deck.

I agree!  They are totally different in ease of access and 
availability of co-located hotel and meeting space.

>   What I'm looking for in a meeting location is a venue with both 
> formal and informal meeting spaces where I stand a good chance of 
> having a good technical discussion with random people at pretty 
> much any time of the day or night - that's my view of what has 
> contributed to the IETF's success over the years. (Although the 
> marathon session for the first draft of the Host Requirements 
> document was probably stretching it) That generally means a central 
> large hotel with attached conference space with access to non-hotel 
> food and drink  in close proximity.

Yes, very well put.  I attend an IETF for the work.  I'll vacation on my own.

I'll add to this that, to me, ability to breathe is extremely 
important.  That means a smoke-free venue and some chance of finding 
a smoke-free restaurant somewhere, plus air pollution that isn't too 
severe.

Although personally I detest going to cold places, and would never do 
so for vacation, I'm happy to go to an IETF in Minneapolis or 
Vancouver in the winter, because it's not hard to get to, the venue 
works well, and restaurants are smoke-free.

>   With respect to getting there - I'm finding the trend of getting 
> off an international plane in a gateway city and then getting onto 
> a train for 2-5 hours somewhat worrisome.  I spent more time online 
> for Maastricht trying to research how to get to Maastricht that I 
> did reading IDs

Me, too, and I enlisted others to help, so it can't all be blamed on 
me being stupid.

>   I don't know how to categorize Maastricht vs Minneapolis except to 
> say that air connectivity is better to Minneapolis and the meeting 
> venue has more of what I'm looking for in an IETF setup - and I 
> can't see any way to indicate that on your survey.

Yes.

--
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
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-- 
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
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There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them
                                                          --Heisenberg