[Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: questions after reading the bid

[Ana Guerrero <ana@debian.org>]

Hi,

I haven't read the first answers to other questions (I didn't want to get 
influenced) so sorry in advance for the overlap.


* Airport / Transport

Portland International Airport doesn't have too many international connections
so some attendees might land in the USA via Seattle Airport or even Vancouver 
(Canada), and then continue by land (because personal preference or price 
difference).
What are the transport possibilities from these cities to Portland?
How difficult and expensive is to go from the airport to PSU?


* Visas

I'm assuming we would send invitation letters to known people who want to 
attend DebConf as we do every year.
Can we count with the help of somebody specialized in visas and/or from the 
Government to help us in some of the difficult cases?

* Prices

You mention the following items:
* "(breakfast, lunch, dinner) at the conference is $20/person/day"
* "Our target package is USD 7200/week" (conference facilities)
* dorm "USD 28/person/night" up to 250 person and then 270 people in 
The Broadway at a higher rate of USD 33/person/night. 
So 48USD/person/day up to 250 person and then 52USD/person/day for the remaining 
full board places.
I understand that the conference facilities can scale with the size of the 
conference and be rented only for hours, which is a plus. But I'm curious about 
how much extra cost in security there might be to have the hacklabs open 24h.

* Accommodation

You mention a place named "University Place Hotel" 800m away from the conference 
facilities. what we can expect there? Is this a dorm? The "Hotel" part has me 
wondering.
Later, you mention "The Ondine" 250m away from the facilities and The Broadway, 
how far is that? What room capacity can we expect in these dorms? 

You mention hotels at an easy walking distance. How much is that? 200m? 500m? 
1km? :)

* Food

I would appreciate more details about the food.
When you say cafeteria in the residence hall, is this place the same that was 
mentioned  under dorms (University Place Hotel)? 

* Children

Does the hotel/university or some other place in the city provide childcare 
services?  (At a fee, of course)

* Backup plan

Imagine a bad scenario, where we don't decide until mid-April and the University 
is not available any more. What is your backup plan? Or what are the possibilities 
that you would look at?

* Dates

Would the prices change substantially if we did the conference on dates not 
in mid-late August?