Quotes
The Brisbane Convention Centre. Around $117 pp = $80 food + $20 wine + $17 AV. Request for Quote. Venu + Food Quote. Turns out wine prices are on their web site. AV Quote.
The Greek Club. $103 pp. Doesn't seem to include wine. Request for Quote. Quote.
Random Thoughts
The Penguin Dinner is a chance to have fun with friends and enjoy good tucker. This makes it perfect for being the last Dinner held at the lca.
- The Penguin Dinner should be also the closing ceremony for lca. So that while food is being readied awards are handed out etc.
We would therefore need to make the Penguin Dinner a mandatory part of the cost of attending the lca. The cost should be included as part of the normal attendance cost and not as a separate item. This really shouldn't be an issue since nearly all delegates come to the dinner. (We can arrange to refund the difference for the dinner to any delegate who does not wish to attend - MarkEllem)
- We should still hold the dinner at the convention center as planned for previous years. This is a great venue and it means that we have virtually no transportation costs.
- The dinner should begin at 7pm as with all the dinners. Since the talks end at 5:30pm this gives the attendees one and half hours to get to the dinner.
No more auctions. Pass around a bucket asking for cash for the charity. That's it. (We should still allow the charity of choice to give a little informative talk during the dinner - MarkEllem)
- Perfect time for the next lca bid winners to be announced.
- Friday night.
- People might argue that this interferes with Google's party but we feel that can happen on any other night. Also we should not include a Google party as part of our costings but rather take that money out of what they give us for the conference or they organise the party themselves.
Maybe another venue is the Brisbane City Hall. According to this link on the Brisbane City Council website, we could seat 800 people for dinner at this venue. I believe this has been suggested earlier and would be worth getting a fresh quote. Be aware this quote would be for the venue, the furniture hire and catering as the Brisbane City Council can not help with the latter two themselves. One issue with this option is if the restoration works on City Hall, which are commence in 2010, will be finshed before the proposed date of the conference.
- Sofitel Brisbane (the hotel above Central Station) has a ballroom that can accommodate up to 650 people in a banquet style configuration. Maybe it would be an idea to get a quote from Sofitel.
- Most other venues such as the Hilton, Sebel Citigate, etc. seem to average about 500 people max in banquet configuration in their ballrooms.
- Would a buffet reduce costs over table service?
- The AV costs for this event can be rolled into the main AV quote as we can re-use equipment from the main conference here.