[Van-pm] yapc 2006

[Helen Cook]

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 03:55:18PM -0700, Scott Rose wrote:
> as being tenable for something like this. Ford one thing, the only
> off-campus accomodations within several miles of which I am aware are a
> couple of B&Bs. There may be suitable accomodations on-campus, but I'm
> not sure of that-- possibly it's a strong function of whether school is
> in session. 

Yapc is traditionally in late June, so it's not going to conflict with
the winter session.

Gage appartments is what I had in mind for accomodations.  Ubc runs this
as a hotel during the summer for conference accomodations.  Rooms have
private bathrooms, though they are used as student housing during the
winter.

There is also dorm style housing available in the towers for people
wanting a cheaper option.  

As for off campus accomodations, you're right, people wanting to stay in
a posh hotel are out of luck if they want it to be convenient.  Keep in
mind, however, this is yapc -- it's not posh, it's an academic
conference.  

In 2003, yapc was at a university in Boca Raton, Florida and the hotel
was nowhere near the conference site.  People rented cars and drove; it
wasn't much of an issue.  

That said, I would prefer to have it downtown to show off our city and
to make getting to entertainment easier.  The problem is cost.  We are
constrained to charging around $100 per head, and that doesn't leave
much room for anything above the essentials.  

> There isn't much to eat on campus, and the off-campus
> commercial district is two miles away. Once there, it's okay, but lacks

Two miles (overestimate), but one bus stop.  

> the diversity of downtown. I think that if people travel to Vancouver to
> attend they may well feel cheated if they get stuck out here instead of
> downtown.

True.  People come here for a vacation, and want to see the city.  It
is also traditional at yapc to provide an evening of entertainment, and
we can do something awesome with this time to take people to another
area.  

So as I've said, downtown is better, but likely more expensive.  The
alternatives need to be priced out before we really know what's going to
be possible.

--h