US Nationals 2011 planning thread

[PhillipEspinoza]

If you all are still looking at San Diego as an option, the Convention Center is right in the middle of everything in downtown.

San Diego Convention Center Even Management Team:
http://www.visitsandiego.com/meetingplanners/meettheteam-em.cfm

Convention Services:
http://www.visitsandiego.com/meetingplanners/conventionservices.cfm

 

[Tyson]

If you all are still looking at San Diego as an option, the Convention Center is right in the middle of everything in downtown.

San Diego Convention Center Even Management Team:
http://www.visitsandiego.com/meetingplanners/meettheteam-em.cfm

Convention Services:
http://www.visitsandiego.com/meetingplanners/conventionservices.cfm

My guess is that renting a room of the appropriate size for three days in August will likely run is about $10k a day for a total of $30k. Unless someone has a connection or knows a bit more about pricing... convention centers are generally not cheap.

I think $5k total for the room rental could be done. But it would be preferable to avoid this.

Just look at the page you sent me. Look at all those staff! All that staff in nice suits? Those suits don't pay for themselves. They have to get the money from somewhere...

Does UC Berkeley have good space for this? Or would booking the necessary rooms be a bureaucratic nightmare? Also, there are no real hotels in the UC Berkeley area right? Or at least as far as I know...

 

[Vincents]

UC Berkeley has good space...I can think of 4 different venues that would be suitable, 1 of which would be FREE for student groups to book (but that one is luck of the draw, unless I start talking to people...) the other two are booked through Cal Performances.

The three rooms I'm thinking about are:
- 155 Dwinelle. Large lecture hall; nice white lighting that's bright, seats 400-500. Fits maybe 6-8 timers across the stage in one row though. This is the free one. Think 145 Dwinelle (where Berkeley Summer was held), but bigger. And as far as I know, no automatic lighting problem.
- Wheeler Auditorium: Seats 705-760. Lighting is white, but a bit dimmer. Largest lecture hall on campus. Specs/more info at http://facilities.calperfs.berkeley.edu/wheeler/. This is probably the most common "convention" type hall they rent out; TEDxBerkeley was here.
- Zellerbach Auditorium (seats 2014). This is basically a concert hall. Wayy too big.

The second two are booked through Cal Performances. (http://facilities.calperfs.berkeley.edu/rental.php); we'd be getting it as On-campus users (student group).

- Hertz Hall: Seats somewhere between 300-600 (yeah, descriptive, I know); haven't had class here since freshman year. Nice lighting. This has the largest stage (regular orchestra concerts here during the school year) and is probably the most ideal location. I don't actually know how to book this hall, but I'm 99% sure it would be through the music department for booking. Actually, -edit- it's probably Cal Performances too, because I can find technical specs on their facilities page...



As for hotels: All those parents here for graduation have to stay somewhere, right? =P

Off the top of my head, there's (within 5-10 minutes of campus):
- Hotel Durant
- Bancroft Hotel
- Hotel Shattuck Plaza (they actually approached us before Berkeley Summer to see if we wanted to do a package room deal with them... so something could definitely work here).
- Downtown Berkeley Inn

A 5-15 minute bus ride away (I think these are all on University Ave., so you'd take the 51B up to campus...)
- DoubleTree (Berkeley Marina)
- Holiday Inn Express
- Travelodge

Luckily, BART (aka subway/train) is a block from campus, so you could conceivably stay at any hotel in San Francisco or in the East Bay and take a 15-30 minute BART ride over, depending on how far away you live.

Lastly, most of the dorms are rented out to random camps and conferences over the summer. That's probably through Cal Housing or RSSP.

 

[Mitch15]

Don't forget it should be free at the Ohio State Union as well through Cube Club

 

[puzzlemaster]

What about having it in Philly? Drexel or UPenn? Do they have an auditorium that we could use? Hotels also shouldn't be too much of an issue there.

 

[Tim Reynolds]

What about having it in Philly? Drexel or UPenn? Do they have an auditorium that we could use? Hotels also shouldn't be too much of an issue there.

Is there someone at one of those schools who could reserve rooms? An established club? Someone needs to be there to deal with the red tape. Woner's not at UPenn, and I can't think of anyone else who is; as for Drexel, I don't know whether Stanley Wong is still there or not, or if he isn't, if there's someone else who knows the ropes.

That's the big thing about universities: they can be very cheap and easy as venues, as long as there's an established student group and a knowledgeable person there willing to deal with crap.

 

[Owen]

What about having it in Philly? Drexel or UPenn? Do they have an auditorium that we could use? Hotels also shouldn't be too much of an issue there.

I think Pennsylvania would be a great place to have Nationals. I lot of cubers could make it, and It would be awesome.

 

[puzzlemaster]

What about having it in Philly? Drexel or UPenn? Do they have an auditorium that we could use? Hotels also shouldn't be too much of an issue there.

Is there someone at one of those schools who could reserve rooms? An established club? Someone needs to be there to deal with the red tape. Woner's not at UPenn, and I can't think of anyone else who is; as for Drexel, I don't know whether Stanley Wong is still there or not, or if he isn't, if there's someone else who knows the ropes.

That's the big thing about universities: they can be very cheap and easy as venues, as long as there's an established student group and a knowledgeable person there willing to deal with crap.

Hm. How about the guy who organized Drexel Winter this year? I'm sure that he could reserve rooms. We would have to help a lot with organization however. But as he has already organized a competition, I'm sure that he would be able to possibly say that he's hosting the national competition and he could get a decent amount of support. There are cubers in drexel to my knowledge.

I think Pennsylvania would be a great place to have Nationals. I lot of cubers could make it, and It would be awesome.

I'm not saying PA because of that. I'm proposing a decent area. Anybody could make it anywhere in the country provided that there's an airport in the vicinity. Philly also does have an airport so it's definitely a plus.

 

[DavidWoner]

Hm. How about the guy who organized Drexel Winter this year? I'm sure that he could reserve rooms. We would have to help a lot with organization however. But as he has already organized a competition, I'm sure that he would be able to possibly say that he's hosting the national competition and he could get a decent amount of support. There are cubers in drexel to my knowledge.

Stan graduated. I don't think the remaining cubers at Drexel would be willing to take on organizing Nationals.

 

[puzzlemaster]

Hm. How about the guy who organized Drexel Winter this year? I'm sure that he could reserve rooms. We would have to help a lot with organization however. But as he has already organized a competition, I'm sure that he would be able to possibly say that he's hosting the national competition and he could get a decent amount of support. There are cubers in drexel to my knowledge.

Stan graduated. I don't think the remaining cubers at Drexel would be willing to take on organizing Nationals.

Well there are a lot of cubers in the vicinity. I personally live about an hour away. If they needed help I could help them. But naturally it's a daunting task to plan nationals lol.

Offtopic: David: I'm trying to find a box to put your clocks in...I don't want them to be damaged when I send them. Should hopefully be shipped tomorrow. They come in a box but I'd rather play it safe and make sure that they can't really be damaged.

 

[Tyson]

Well there are a lot of cubers in the vicinity. I personally live about an hour away. If they needed help I could help them. But naturally it's a daunting task to plan nationals lol.

It's more than just helping them. Basically, you'd have to be willing to take the lead on the project.

 

[puzzlemaster]

Well there are a lot of cubers in the vicinity. I personally live about an hour away. If they needed help I could help them. But naturally it's a daunting task to plan nationals lol.

It's more than just helping them. Basically, you'd have to be willing to take the lead on the project.

Well I've never even organized a competition to date. So that'd be a big ambitious .

 

[StachuK1992]

~stuff

~stuff

Well I've never even organized a competition to date. So that'd be a big ambitious .

That's why it was a silly suggestion.

I'll look into any chance of something local (at college, basically).
Should I be estimating...400-500 people there? (I'm guessing ~300+ competitors next year)

Chances are slim, but a chance is a chance.

 

[puzzlemaster]

~stuff

~stuff

Well I've never even organized a competition to date. So that'd be a big ambitious .

That's why it was a silly suggestion.

I'll look into any chance of something local (at college, basically).
Should I be estimating...400-500 people there? (I'm guessing ~300+ competitors next year)

Chances are slim, but a chance is a chance.

Wouldn't say that. I suggested that it was a venue and I could look into them organizing it. I could assist them. Not organize it myself.

 

[metgo]

I'm a long time speedcuber that recently started cubing again. I think I'm a little late to compete in the 2010 US nationals but I definitely will compete next year. I think somewhere in the mid west would be awesome, there's more speedcubers out here than most people think.

 

[JackJ]

I think Ohio State would be awesome! The venue for Ohio Open 2009 could hold Nationals, but I think Jim graduated.

Mall of America would be really good too, sponsors would rather sponsor a competition in a public place rather then at a university where hardly any non-cuber spectators would watch, and when hardly anyone knows about it. Also as Bryan said, it pretty easy for transportation around the Minneapolis. And KOII has a large cubing base and I'm sure they would help organize.

 

[cincyaviation]

I think Ohio State would be awesome! The venue for Ohio Open 2009 could hold Nationals, but I think Jim graduated.

Mall of America would be really good too, sponsors would rather sponsor a competition in a public place rather then at a university where hardly any non-cuber spectators would watch, and when hardly anyone knows about it. Also as Bryan said, it pretty easy for transportation around the Minneapolis. And KOII has a large cubing base and I'm sure they would help organize.

If it is in the MOA, i think everyone needs to go to A.C.E.S and have a very large dogfight, which i would win

 

[Kian]

Don't forget it should be free at the Ohio State Union as well through Cube Club

I feel like it bears repeating, but this makes a ton of sense. The venue is ludicrously awesome and free, and we have people at OSU and Jim is still in the state of Ohio to help us out. It's in a large city with a good airport to fly into and it's in a part of the country that isn't near a recent Nats (since Chicago). As long as Mitch and the rest of the club are there still, I would say Ohio State is a perfect place for Nats in the future, whether that's 2011 or another year.

Obviously a number of other places will also have a great case, but having been to OSU and seen what sort of infrastructure and venue we can have, I would be remiss if I didn't do my best to suggest it.

 

[Carson]

Don't forget it should be free at the Ohio State Union as well through Cube Club

I feel like it bears repeating, but this makes a ton of sense. The venue is ludicrously awesome and free, and we have people at OSU and Jim is still in the state of Ohio to help us out. It's in a large city with a good airport to fly into and it's in a part of the country that isn't near a recent Nats (since Chicago). As long as Mitch and the rest of the club are there still, I would say Ohio State is a perfect place for Nats in the future, whether that's 2011 or another year.

Obviously a number of other places will also have a great case, but having been to OSU and seen what sort of infrastructure and venue we can have, I would be remiss if I didn't do my best to suggest it.

Snapped this pic when I was there. Forgive the quality, was taken with my phone.

Spoiler

 

[ShadenSmith]

I'd like to point out that Carson's picture really doesn't do the venue justice, that room really is spectacular. It's also surrounded by many smaller rooms that we'd be able to receive (for free) that we could use for side events.