Hi Jon,****
** **
Thanks for the update. This is helpful information for everyone especially
for those who have just starting to get involved in 802.11. As you know,
selecting venues, defining requirements, selection criteria, and
determining cost and plan budgets has a been never ending subject for
debate for the past 20 years. ****
** **
The links you provided are very useful as well, however It would be
helpful for the ExCom to agree to and publish a document covering the
points you highlighted and any other details that are requirements and
policy for selecting a new venues. This would be beneficial not only to
802.11 participants but to every 802 working group. ****
** **
This then would become an ExCom policy document that could be reviewed and
updated annually and make a great go to document for everyone.****
** **
Al ****
** **
*From:* *** IEEE stds-802-11 List *** [mailto:STDS-802-11@xxxxxxxx] *On
Behalf Of *Jon Rosdahl
*Sent:* Saturday, September 28, 2013 9:39 AM
*To:* STDS-802-11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [STDS-802-11]****
** **
--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Reflector --- ***
*
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.****
4. Be aware of where we have commitments and where we are looking in
the future.
There are several sites that provide information for where we are
planning to be in the future:
802.11: http://www.ieee802.org/11/Meetings/Meeting_Plan.html
802.15:
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/15/pub/Meeting_Plan.html****
802 EC: http://802world.org/plenary/future-plenary-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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