[pydata-outreach-staff] Venue visit and/or wifi details

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2012, Asheesh Laroia wrote:

> I think I'll try to get a visit done this afternoon, just so I can be 
> sure to have done it, but I will also try to join you tomorrow, 
> scheduling willing. I don't mind visiting twice, though my tomorrow 
> schedule is in some flux. (Naturally, Sunday all day is blocked out for 
> the event!)

I'm here! Here's what I've found:

* Wifi is super easy to use, and on the files I've cached, provides very 
enjoyable speed:

100%[=======================================>] 115,581,288 2.46MB/s in 49s

* If we want, we can use a local mirror for those files during the event 
to make things even speedier, but we don't particularly have to.  Hosts 
seem to be mutually accessible on the wifi.

* The person who gave me a tour said it should happily serve 60-70 people. 
I haven't tested how many DHCP leases it gives out, but I believe at 
~15-30 people, we'll do fine.

* It is super easy to drop in and get someone to show me around; props to 
them for being so nice.

* The projector is already set up physically, and there is a camera 
waiting there too.

* We'll probably want to rearrange chairs and tables; vid, whenever you 
get here, I would be happy to get here at the same time and help move 
stuff around. (My feeling would be 8:30am; of course it depends on our 
host here and your schedule.) Right now, the projection area is very 
lounge-y in its layout, and I think we'll want to move tables and chairs 
around so we can comfortably seat 30-31 people with laptops. For the 
lecture part of the day, we'll have to get creative to make the layout 
seat 30-31, but it should be possible. For small group/solo work there's 
plenty of space.

* From what I understood, there are two probable people who you've 
arranged to let us in on Sunday; we'll need someone with a key to open up 
the place, but after that, people can stroll in. The two probable people 
are the event coordinator and an IT engineer, from what I gathered.

* I think we'll need more power strips for those tables; the person who 
opens up the place can help us find those.

* There is a box of smaller random cords etc. that we can borrow from, as 
needed.

* They told me they are happy to let us drink their drinks. The kitchen 
space is spacious for lunch, though we'll have to rearrange the setup 
again for there to be truly space. We can do something like while lunch 
food arrives and one person lays it out, another 2-3 people are moving 
tables and chairs.

* It looks like they have a coffee machine here, though I will need to 
fill+start the machine when I arrive, I believe; that's fine. w/r/t 
breakfast pastries I'll bring some with me and keep receipts.

* There are smaller conference room areas that seat about 8 each, but I 
don't particularly think we'll need to use them.

* We're not supposed to go into the main office work area, but we are free 
to roam around the event/dining area.

* The wifi doesn't seem to do any port blocking; for example, connecting 
to IRC and SSH servers works fine, which is nice.

* The building is well-signed if you know its street address, although I 
walked around the block once looking for it because I forgot its street 
address.

That's all I can think to check up on at the moment.

I'll stay here for a little bit longer, so if people have questions, let 
me know and I can work on getting them answered.

-- Asheesh.