Venues

The ideal venue for an event depends on what sort of an event it is. For a list of known venues, see Category:Venues.

Conferences
A seminar or conference (or even unconference) features a single speaker or panel at the centre of attention. This sort of event should be held in an auditorium.

Workshops
Workshops and hack days place emphasis on the individual participant. Auditoriums don't work at all for this. Technical workshops should be conducted in a space where each individual has personal space -- a table or a beanbag and space on the floor, with a power socket and internet access.

Hotels
Many events prefer four or five star hotels because they tend to have large halls and provide integrated logistical support for venue, food and facilities. However, hotels are almost always a poor choice for participants:


 * Hotel halls aren't designed for spoken word events. They often have poor acoustics. The picture at right is from the Lalit Ashok in Bangalore, where the speaker was unintelligible because of the echo and added noise from the air conditioning vents.
 * Hotel halls have flat floors. The bottom half of the projector screen is usually obscured by someone's head and whoever is on stage appears as a floating head.
 * Hotel chairs don't have armrests. They get uncomfortable after an hour. In a full day event, participants will more likely be fidgeting in their seats to find a comfortable position than paying attention to the proceedings.
 * Hotel chairs aren't permanently fixed. Hotels will often pack in chairs to increase the hall's capacity, reducing leg room to the level of an economy aircraft seat. Few people enjoy spending a full day in an aircraft.
 * Hotel floors are typically carpeted, but carpets don't make sense in India's tropical climate. Participants with dust allergies will have a hard time.
 * Some hotels like the Lalit Ashok have false flooring which vibrates when someone walks over it. This is very distracting when a participant is trying to pay attention over the echo and ambient noise.
 * Tea and coffee at hotels always tastes terrible. No one knows why.
 * Hotels typically offer the hall free but charge per head for food. To justify the price, the spread at lunch is elaborate, with multiple curries and desserts. Participants will tend to overeating, and combined with the overall discomfort of the hall, will get drowsy and stop paying attention. Nodding heads are a common sight.