Rich,
I'm planning on attending, subject to available travel funds.
Bill
On Nov 20, 2007, at 9:21 AM, Richard Graham wrote:
I need input from people as soon as possible on this. It turns out
that we
can get a block of 35 rooms at the Courtyard O'Hare for $119 per
night, in
both Jan and March, which is $20 lower than the government rate.
The kicker
is that the meeting room is $400 per day, or $1200 for the two half
days,
and the full day. The rate is the same at the other hotels in the
area. On
top of that there is the cost of snacks and drinks (which I don't
mind
picking up, to keep the cost down). It has been suggested that we
hold the
meeting a bit away from the airport, where meeting rooms may be
cheaper,
what is people's opinion ? Several of us are looking to see if we
can find
sponsors to pay for the meeting room, so it may end up not being as
big of
an issue. (Actually, are there organizations that would be willing
to pay
for one meeting ?)
Also, to get the lower rate, we basically have to commit to fill
the 35
rooms. In Reno there were about 25 people that indicated they
would need a
hotel room, and I know that there were several people that did not
come to
the meeting, who do intend to participate. Can we get a "show of
hands" on
how many people will actually attend ?
Finally, rates will go up as we get into the "high season". In the
previous
e-mail I posted about logistics, I listed potential meeting dates
for the
rest of the year. If we can go ahead and firm these up, we can
include
these in the hotel contract, for better rates. What do people
think about
this ? Also, if we go ahead with this, what do people think about
having
the August meeting in early Sept in Europe, in conjunction with the
Euro
PVM/MPI conference, to ease travel on the Europeans, while many of
us are
already in Europe for this meeting ?
Thanks,
Rich
William Gropp
Paul and Cynthia Saylor Professor of Computer Science
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign