Re: IETF Meeting Venue Selection Criteria

Ole Jacobsen wrote:

>On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:
>
>  
>
>>How about adding that the mean outdoor temperature at the time of the
>>year the meeting is being held should be above 0 degrees Centigrade? 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Why?
>
There is some logic in this.. Participants need to be able to get from 
airport to hotel to venue on foot/public transport without needing to 
bring excessive personal protection gear that they might not otherwise 
own, or experiencing heat stroke because they aren't used to the 
temperature/humidity (oh, and touristing before/after isn't much fun 
either).

Another related criterion is that the expected weather is not going to 
produce a high risk of transport disruption.. southern USA in the 
hurricane season???  continental Canada in December???  Asia in the 
monsoon season??? whereever in the peak holiday influx season for that 
region???

More importantly, the venue must be able to maintain a sensible 
temperature/humidity in the conference rooms (20-23 deg  C, 50% Relative 
Humidity).  Remember that the side effect of allowing 80% of people to 
plug in their laptops is that each of them may be dissipating an extra 
150-200 watts of heat into the room over and above what the human body 
does.  This is actually more than doubling the heat load into the room, 
and cooling systems may not be able to cope - the IETF is an unusual 
body and it imposes cruel and unusual punishment on cooling systems.  
Sitting for a week in excessively warm and humid rooms is not pleasant 
(working efficiency falls off even at 26C).  For example, the Paris 
meeting turned out ok because the outside temperature dropped right 
about when the actual conference began, but I was at an Interop event in 
the same building the previous week when the temperatures were much 
higher, and being in one of the smaller rooms with lots of bodies and 
more computers was unpleasant.. the cooling just wasn't coping.   My 
mind has blanked out the location, but we had a very unpleasant week in 
a US venue two or three years ago when the cooling couldn't cope.
Reference:
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/studentdownloads/DEA350notes/Thermal/thcomnotes1.html
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/studentdownloads/DEA350notes/Thermal/thcomnotes2.html
http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/studentdownloads/DEA350notes/Thermal/thcondnotes.html

Other health risks: Would participants need vaccinations before 
attending?  Is it in a malaria risk area?  Are there other infectious 
disease hazards or nuisances - e.g., West Nile fever, Lyme disease, 
Scottish Highland midges.  Even if visas are not required are there any 
health checks at immigration?

The airport (and/or other wide area transport links) need to have 
adequate capacity and decent connections.. probably not an issue if the 
venue is sufficiently large but worth checking.

The criteria say nothing about accessibility for the differently able.

There is also the matter of break time refreshment provision.. 
succouring 1300 thirsty, half-starved nerds (sorry, IETFers) two or 
three times a day at a reasonable cost can be a challenge.

You need to differentiate the technical requirements of the venue from 
what the network providers need to do.... there are some fuzzy edges 
here e.g., the WAN links

Editorial note: You should flag up that continental European conventions 
are in use for numbers.

Regards,
Elwyn

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