With that said, and before the sprints are more than just starting, I thought I would try to whet your appetite for next year's conference, which will be at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. In October of last year I added an extra day to the beginning of a business trip to Atlanta to meet Ewa Jadlowska of CTE (the conference organizers who help the PyCon organizers to organize) in Atlanta and inspect four possible venues. I sent in a report to David Goodger, and CTE continued to negotiate with the venues. Ultimately the Hyatt bid was successful, and so I thought these snapshots I took at the time of my visit might be of interest to those who like to see where they are going in advance.
The 22-story lobby greets you at ground level and draws you in. The general flavor is somewhat similar to that in the Hyatt Regency O'Hare we just occupied, but the extra height and larger area makes it even more impressive, though the elevators don't have fancy colored lights underneath them. The view of this space from about halfway up gives you an impression of its size.
There's a purpose-built registration office that should come in useful, and the audio-visual guys will be interested to hear that the main ballroom area has a balcony (from whence I shot this picture) for their use so that they can view the session without intruding on it. The height of the ballroom leaves nobody feeling claustrophobic.
The room I stayed in (which might have been rather up-market because I wasn't a secret shopper and they wanted to impress me) was large, clean and comfortable. Rather than show that I photographed a regular room, which is likely to give you a better idea of how comfortable you will be.All in all I think PyCon will have a great time in Atlanta, and I am already looking forward to it. See you there?
4 comments:
What do conference hosting negotiations say about the cost of in room internet access?
@gpshead: I just called the hotel, who told me the daily charge for in-room wi-fi is $9.95 or $12.95 (though I didn't inquire as to the differences in service). Of course one does have the option of only using the (free) PyCon wi-fi, but that wouldn't be likely to be available in your room.
I don't know whether those rates are negotiable, but I do know that CTE are very good at negotiating.
Since I was the guy that pushed the proposal to have PyCon in Atlanta to start with, I am very excited about for next year :)
Of course, I now live in New Zealand, so it is going to be quite a journey to get all the way back to Atlanta, but we have family in the area. The cool thing about that particular area is that it is a TRUE city experience, and will be awesome. I can't wait!
Thanks for the legwork and the write-up photos. Looking forward to only hours after getting back from Chicago.
I also like that it is "in-city" so that non-con co-attendees have some places to wander about it.
Time to start saving up! :)
Post a Comment