Hello all,
During the Nanjing Interim Session, we had a few discussions
on the process of site selection and Sponsorship, and how members of
802.11 could help in that process. I thought I would try to capture the process in
order to address the transparency question and to set the expectation of
how you might be able to help.
While this is not an exhaustive list, this summary should provide a feel for the task of locating and
securing venues for our sessions.
1. Selecting Possible Venue Sites:
Potential venue sites are identified by a couple
different means. Some venues we have traveled to before, and are
familiar with, and so we obviously have potential good price alternatives
with these venues. Some of these venues are more popular than
others, so we do look at the potential of reusing venues that worked
well.
New Sites - New Sites are found by either the Meeting
Planner getting approached by their contacts, or by members of the 802
community having some knowledge of the potential venue, and informing the
leadership of the possibility. Please see more on
this later. It is important we do not waste meeting planner time on
obvious blind leads. New Sites are then contacted by the meeting
planner to determine the viability of the site (did it have the dates
available, is it large enough for our delegation, does it have enough
meeting space -- number of break-out rooms and size of the break-out
rooms are critical consideration, can it support
our networking requirements, etc) and to become the primary
contact with the venue.
Evaluation and selection is done through filtering out those
possibilities that do not meet the basic requirements and then those that
are still viable are asked to respond to an RFP (Request for
Proposal). Some venues do not respond to RFP as they do not believe
that they want to deal with our group (sometimes we are too small,
sometimes we are too large, other times we are not providing enough sleeping
beds to justify to the hotel for the meeting space requirements).
Break-out rooms that are used by the 802 Wireless are
usually a minimum of 20, but that is
often felt to be limiting, and so we have used as many as
20-25 in some of the recent 802
Wireless Interim venues. For the Plenaries, the need is on the
order of 35-45 or more rooms. The rooms
need to be a variety of sizes..some need to be large enough to hold the
entire group (300-400) and then a 2-3 that can handle 75%, 60%, 50%, and
then several more that cover 30%, 20%, 10%, 5% of the total group. The
specific numbers are hard to guarantee, but a rough idea can be found
here where we have the meeting specs.
The actual selection of locations and venues is done by the leadership. For the
Plenaries, there is a "Future Meetings" meeting each plenary
session, where different options and choices are discussed. Then
the 802 EC discussion on Monday and Friday of each session is conducted
prior to a motion for approval. For the 802 Wireless Interim
Sessions, the 802 Wireless Chairs meeting is held on Sunday prior to each
plenary and interim session where the future options are discussed, and
the choices made.
2. Contracts and Bids
The only one that should contact venues
for actual bids on behalf of IEEE 802 or the 802 Wireless groups is the
Meeting Planners as authorized by the leadership of 802/802 Wireless
chairs. While it is fine to have help in locating possible venues,
once identified as a potential, the contacting of the property for use by
our groups should only be done by those properly authorized. It is
been seen in the past that getting individuals involved at the wrong
level has caused problems, and so to avoid that going forward, I would
ask that no one try to represent the IEEE 802 or 802 Wireless group
without proper prior written authorization.
3. Criteria for Hotel selection
Hotel properties have proven in the past to be
the better choice for our meeting style and the way we have become
accustom to meeting. We have also found that while not ideal, we do
find convention center or multiple meeting hall spaces that have worked
out to provide a good meeting. Criteria for Hotel selection is not
just the cost of the sleeping room (however, rooms over $250-$300
per night tend to be an immediate show stopper). We also look at
the number of rooms in the hotel, what is the Food and Beverage
facilities, is the hotel located where it can reasonably be
reached. The quality of the hotel is also considered and used in
the evaluations of potential venues.
4. How can someone help.
1. When you see a venue that might work notify a
member of the leadership (802 ExSec for Plenaries, or a Wireless 802
Chair for the 802 Wireless Interim possibilities). Let the meeting
planner initiate the contact and bid processes, and be willing to assist
as requested. Remember that meeting planner time is
valuable and that even an initial assessment can be a lot of work for
both the meeting planner and our network service providers. These
services are not free. We can not go chasing suggestions where you
have no personal knowledge of the venue. Before making a suggestion,
please make sure the hotel has at least 16-20 meeting rooms. Ideally you
would suggest a venue where you may have attended some other meeting and
have a sense that it is big enough and good value for money, not just
some venue that you think is in a nice place but otherwise have no
knowledge. That way we are not spending valuable resources chasing
blind leads.
2. Share the Sponsor invitation letter
with your employer or other contacts you may have
in the target venue area and encourage Sponsorship of
meetings. Some Meeting Venues are cost prohibitive, but with the
right sponsor(s), we can make the session work just fine. Please use the
letter found here:
https://mentor.ieee.org/802-ec/dcn/12/ec-12-0046-02-00EC-plenary-sponsor-invitation-letter.pdf
3. Assist in local information -- if a Venue is in
your hometown, or an area that you are very familiar with, share
information on where to eat, things to see etc. Sharing this
information with the Meeting Planners allows them to include it in the
information packets that are prepared for each of the sessions.
Please remember that finding venues is a non-trivial activity. Input on where we may go in the future is welcome, but not every suggestion is going to be workable. We have a lot of commitments already in place, and hopefully by the March 2014 Plenary, the calendar through 2018 will be completely filled in.
Regards,
Jon
IEEE 802 Exec Secretary
IEEE 802.11 1st Vice Chair
--
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Jon
Rosdahl Standards
Architect
hm:801-756-1496
CSR Technologies Inc.
cell:801-376-6435
10871 North 5750 West
office:
801-492-4023
Highland, UT 84003
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