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

Agenda:

• Review of venues
• Finance and Presales
• Internet

Present:

• Russ
• Jonty
• Paul2
• Mark (ms7821)
• martind

Venues

Current Top 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

New venues

• 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)

Needs new owner

• Matterley (currently Charles)

Goal

• 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

Finance

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

• how can we get people to buy presale tickets?
• shall we start a dedicated team?

Internet

• 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)

TODOs

• 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