Project:UK Hack Camp/Minutes/2012-01-16

Agenda:

Present:

Venues

Moreton in Marsh Fire College - Beeny
- need update from Beeny
Mersea Youth Camp - Martin (Crypt)
- ruled out
- too small
- they're not keen
Newbury racecourse - Martin (Crypt)
- still pending (visit this week)
Long Marston Airfield - Beeny
- need update from Beeny
Debden House - Martin (Crypt)
- visited today, looks good
- can get any combination of fields
- three fields (#5-7) probably enough for 500 people
- cost tbd
- advantages:
  - scalable (more fields)
  - some power (will need to add more)
  - some showers and toilets (not sure how many)
- best time for them: early Sept
Donington (Jasper)
- probably too expensive (tbc)
- atm waiting for full quote
- their hall is too big for us
- but: good location travel-wise

Royal Welsh Show Ground
- disadvantage: transport is a problem; we may saturate the trains
- advantage: nearby school with 2 * 100MBit lines
Hainault (Mark)
- very good location
- they're interested
- need to get quote, few more venue details
Charvil (Mark)
- 250 people, residential -> not interested
Newbury West (Mark)
- 20 acres, just along A34
- barely any facilities
- need quote
Merton Farm (Naxxfish)

target dates: mid-August to Sept (after Olympics and Paralympics)
have 3-5 good and suitable candidate sites by the end of the month
- Need info: size, quote, deposit, cancellation fees (atm most of that is still unknowns)
- Need to establish some assurance that we'll have Internet
then pick one
if we don't have anything by Valentine's day then we'll move the event to 2013

Finances:

Russ sorting out bank account this week
expecting venue cost of £10-30k
no indication of expected deposit value yet; expecting 10% non-refundable
so: need at least 1k in starting funds
- presale? loans? donations?
- shall we try Indy-gogo? (UK kickstarter-style funding site)
problem: need to set clear expectations when we ask people for funds.
- should we decide on a particular venue once we start funding drive?
- we may lose deposit money if we need to cancel a venue.
- actual ticket sales may go through different payment provider -> how do we reconcile upfront payments?

Presales

need to get people ready to assess Internet situation once we have a shortlist
- let's start a team this week
- Jasper is well-placed to coordinate, if he's interested
FTTC in area? microwave links to other areas?
minimum: 50 MBit/s (could live with 10 in the worst case)

Mark to contact Beeny for more info on Moreton, Long Martson
Mark to follow up with Hainault, Newbury West
Jonty to contact Naxxfish regarding Merton Farm
jonty: need to pursue a venue lead in Leeds (who?)
???: need new owner for Matterley (currently Charles)
Jasper to update Donington status (get full quote, as discussed. Mark knows details)
Jasper to start Internet group and determine coordinator
Mark to ensure we have basic Internet connectivity info for all current venues
Jonty to kick off funding project (IndieGogo)
martind to update venue listings, then send to list