GLADCamp Site Visit #3 at the Pasadena Convention Center on May 30, 2013

This just came from our contact at the convention center:

Our Parking garage is behind the Conference Center off of Euclid (between Green and Cordova) and is shared with the Sheraton. When you come in through the Conference Center, come in to the Visitor’s Center, and Nora will call me when you arrive.

See you all at 4pm!

Good news, everyone! This is a long report for GLADCamp 2014 so bare with me. Thanks in advance.

Before the San Gabriel Valley Drupal meetup on Thursday, Allen and I went to the Pasadena Convention Center for a tour of their available spaces. Here's a not-so-quick report for everyone who's following along. I'll also be presenting this information at the Downtown Drupal meetup at Sensis Agency on Tuesday, June 4th:

   https://groups.drupal.org/node/300243

Pasadena Convention Center

First off, there isn't much availability at the convention center in January, February or March. We're penciled in for a conference there during their (currently) only available weekend in late January. It's possible that March 7-9 will open up.

To have a 5 track conference at the convention center for two days (Saturday and Sunday) with one large common area and a sponsor area, it will cost around $7,800 — and that's just for the space. WiFi, security, event coordination fees and the fire marshal inspection fees add up to a considerably higher amount.

We would not be able to take in our own WiFi (if it would even work — I didn't get 3G/4G signal in several spaces in the convention center) and there are no restaurants or coffee shops on-site.

Although we were very impressed by the physical spaces, the prices aren't very competitive for the area. Allen suggested that we consider the Hilton Pasadena. That's where most of the conferences in Pasadena were before the Pasadena Convention Center moved in and Allen said that they're hurting for events, so I went there the following day to check it out.

Hotel Pasadena

For a conference at the Hilton Pasadena with 5 tracks over two days (Saturday and Sunday) with a large common room for 350 people, a sponsor area and a more rooms for third day (Friday) for pre-conference activities for up to 120 people (pre-registration, job fair, business summit, trainings, etc.), it comes out to an even $7,000. In the hotel is a restaurant (breakfast and lunch only), a bar, a convenience store and a coffee shop serving Starbucks coffee.

We also can bring in our own WiFi, but it appears that the prices for wireless access at the Hilton is only an additional $250-400 per day. I didn't check 3G/4G signal while I was at the hotel so this may be a superior option. In addition, as the the Hilton is a hotel with 24/7 staff, we would not need to pay for additional security over the weekend. To plug into the sound system is just $35 per room per day.

The dates that the hotel's event manager currently penciled us in for is Valentine's Day weekend. I'm working to get that moved to later in the month. That way we'd avoid Valentine's Day and be somewhere between SANDCamp (San Diego's DrupalCamp) and DrupalCamp Sacramento.

As soon as all this passes our community's approval, we can raise the funds to put down a down payment, get contracts to reserve the space and then beginning our DrupalCamp planning in earnest.