Going Solo

A little while ago, I shouted out “it’s an event site!” because, frankly, it wasn’t really obvious that this was indeed an event site.

I’ve added a few more pages which should help dissolve any lingering doubts:

• Registration, which will soon lead you to our first partner’s service, Expectnation, where you will be able to register for the conference (plan: opening of ticket sales at the beginning of LIFT08, and very special pricing while the conference lasts)
• Programme, to give you a handy place to keep up with new topics, new speakers, and things taking shape
• Practical, with information on the venue, getting to Lausanne, accommodation, and all that kind of stuff
• Support Going Solo, because without you, Going Solo will be way too solo (this is where you head to get nifty sidebar badges to help us promote the event!)

We’ll soon have a Partners page with information about sponsorships and partnerships as well as a presentation of our existing partners. (And wondering, just this second: is there a difference between a “partner” and a “sponsor”?)

Things always take longer than expected. In this case, it wasn’t actually finding the venue (which was done in 4 days from start to finish), but sitting down in front of this computer long enough to blog about. (Well, I’ve been sitting many long hours in front of this computer, dealing with things like budgets, designers, partners, and registration — just not blogging.)

So, the venue? We’ll be holding Going Solo in the conference halls of the hotel Albatros-Navigation, right by the lake in Ouchy. The main conference hall has a whole side made of windows overlooking the lake (very pretty sunsets from there, I can tell you, though it’s not really relevant to the conference). We’ll be able to fit 150 people in it, and add a small stage so that the speakers are slightly higher than the ground.

The secondary hall, just below the main one, is a little smaller: I’m planning to set it up as a break-out room with drinks and snacks for breaks, bean bags (if you have any to lend us, let me know), pedestals for our partners, and (fingers crossed) a screen/beamer to allow people to keep an eye on what’s going on in the main room.

We even have a third smaller room, a “carnotzet” — we’re still thinking about how to use it. If you have suggestions, you’re welcome to make them.

This week is venue week. It’s venue week because I want to be able to tell the world that “yes, it’s certain, it is the 16th” — and also because I’ve heard you: you want to know how much Going Solo will cost (I don’t blame you) and I can only really fix that and point you to where you can sign up once we’ve settled a few details like The Venue. All sorts of things depend on the venue: what kind of visibility we’ll be able to provide sponsors (booths), exactly how many people we’re going to be able to accommodate, which of lunch or dinner will be organized, what colour bean-bags we need to find… and that’s just the start.

So, here’s a little summary of the venues visited today. (I’m not giving any names, to protect the innocent, though if you’re from Lausanne you can probably guess. Just guess in private, thanks.)

Venue #1 is the place at which I’d “pre-decided” to hold Going Solo. (Not sure if that was good English.) Somebody had told me about it, the location is ideal, so I thought — OK, we’ll do it there. All that without visiting or making sure it was free on the date (I just know their food is good because I’ve eaten there a couple of times.

Well, we had an appointment with the woman in charge of conferences. She showed us around but wasn’t overly friendly, I have to say (she seemed very much in a hurry, to the point that after 30 minutes she left with little ceremony saying she really had to go) — overall it didn’t really make me feel as they valued my business. Aside from that, the big hall is not free on our date, but they could accommodate us in a long seminar room. Unfortunately, no really nice break-out place and definitely nowhere to put booths for our sponsors and partners.

Other than that, it’s a modern hotel which looks really good, and it’s just a minute from the station.

The big hall is nice, and would be big enough for us to put a few sponsor booths inside the conference hall itself — but I’m not sure it’s the best solution. Add to that the rather cold “welcome”, we decided to pass.

Venue #2 was a much nicer experience. It’s also right next to the station, and though it’s slighly darker and older (in a stylish way) and not non-smoking (!), we were positively impressed with the very professional and friendly welcome we got. The woman who showed us around didn’t make us feel like we were using her time (although we just walked in without an appointment).

We could have a large enough conference room, a breakout area outside of it, and an extra, smaller room to extend the (rather too small) breakout area. With open doors and if we put thought into how we place booths and break tables, it could work. Their prices are competitive, too, with a “per head” seminar arrangement including sitting lunch with a choice of menus as well as the breaks. (As I discovered by going from hotel to hotel, this kind of arrangement is pretty standard, at least around here.)

Downside: to be honest, the slightly musty smell (carpets and smoke do not mix well, particularly after a certain number of years) — but I guess that could be taken care of with some ambient perfume 😉

Wifi is not included in the arrangement (also seems pretty standard). For a geeky conference like Going Solo (all those bloggers and podcasters and WoWers and Sypers — aware that Skype is P2P? — with iPhones and Palms and rabbits and Kindles) we clearly need to look for an external partner to deal with these matters. (Another headache looming up, I can feel it.)

Venue #3 made me go “wow”. They have a beautiful conference room, great food (I’ve eaten there before), a garden (May 16th could very well be warm and sunny here), and enough space surrounding the conference room to place 2-3 booths, maybe 4 — though there is not enough of this space as I would ideally wish for. I got a very friendly welcome, got a chance to discuss internet connectivity stuff with the tech guy who happened to be dealing with a stubborn window while I was talking with the events man.

I was also shown the hotel rooms — pretty posh, with a great view on the lake for some of them. They even have family rooms (a large room and bathroom with an extra smaller children’s room attached). Downside: a little more pricey (and the slightly tight “lounge space”, though if the weather is good we get the garden).

Choosing this venue would also mean that lunch would have to take place outside the hotel, for logistical questions, but we’d have dinner there (in the conference hall which doubles as a dining hall). It could be a nice arrangement too — I was planning to have one “meal out” (the evening one) anyway, Reboot-style.

Venue #4 I didn’t get to visit, but I’m putting it on the list because it could be an option. It’s not a hotel, but a kind of city hall (“Maison de Quartier”) just beneath the station. The local parish rents and uses part of it — the issue here is clearly one of standing, for a commercial conference. But I remember from attending a show there that there is a stage and a huge room, and that there is a dining hall just outside of it which would be perfect as a break-out area. I’d have to re-visit to make sure my memories aren’t toying with me — and if dates and all were OK, we’d still have to figure out if the “type of venue” would be a big issue or not.

Venue #5 is a little further away from the station (oh, what, a 5-minute walk). It’s a really beautiful hotel (the view of Lausanne from the 7th floor is just breathtaking).

Unfortunately, the large conference room is not that exciting. It’s big enough, that isn’t the issue. However, it’s a long-rectangle format rather than square, which means people sitting in the back would be really far from the speakers. It has quite a low ceiling, so that limits screen size (for the beamer). There is a nice big balcony with a beautiful view, but no space near the room to have a break-out area or booths — they usually serve the break drinks in the hotel lobby. If we wanted to place sponsor booths in that area, we would have to rent the hotel lobby too, which is not exactly cheap. (But it’s feasible.)

I was shown around by the hotel director, who was very nice and accommodating, even charming (it seems the quality of service I got this afternoon just increased as the day went along). This would probably be the priciest venue, particularly if we rent out the lobby too.

Venue #6 is not in a hotel either — it’s in the station building. So, location is fine — the windows are sound-proof, so you barely hear the trains (sound so faint the noise of fingers tapping on keyboards will drown it). I was shown two rooms (both pretty historical). The first is a little small, though it could probably hold us (but again, no break-out area or booths). The second is huge. We could most certainly place partner booths inside the conference room — but the problem would be that there isn’t really anywhere to go if somebody wants to flee the conference room. (Nowhere quiet to blog or chat in peace, for example — of course, I hope you’ll be listening to the great speakers I’m lining up with open eyes and ears, but I know that one sometimes needs a break.)

The restaurant would cover the breaks and probably lunch. As the person in charge wasn’t there I’m not sure if it’s available on the date, or exactly how much it would cost, but the approximate prices uttered sounded quite reasonable.

Venue #7 was a bit of a surprise. It’s a privately-owned hotel by the lake, and it doesn’t look too impressive from the outside (or from the reception area, which honestly, is a little dark). The owner came to show me around. They have a big hall (long-rectangle, sadly) with a hole wall of glass windows opening on the lake (that probably isn’t good English; what I’m trying to say is that there is a view straight on the lake, and the lake is 25m away). The view is absolutely stunning. I know we won’t be staring out of the windows during the talks, but it’s still a nice thing to have (I also brought you to Lausanne for the scenery…)

We could have the breaks in the café area outside the hall. However, no way to put sponsor booths there. We’d have to use the second, separate room a floor below for the breaks and place the booths there. Not ideal, again, but doable. (These booths keep coming up, don’t they? They are really important for sponsors/partners, right? It makes sense to me that they are, but I have to admit some confirmation at this point would be welcome.)

The pricing there is very competitive (both for the event and the rooms), and I have to say I personally like the touch of dealing directly with the owner. The conference hall is really very nice, and I think it should be possible to arrange the second room so that it’s a nice place to be during breaks.

I won’t tell you about venue #8, because I didn’t get to see the person in charge of events (he was busy), and I learnt afterwards from my logistics partner that she’d already called and were fully booked on our date. I also found the reception a little chilly, but maybe we were simply reaching busy check-in time.

So, there we are. Choices we have, but nothing obvious, for me. I thought afterwards that I should probably have taken my camera and snapped photos of all these places to show you :-). If you have any insight/input you’d like to share, the comment space below is yours.

I found myself wondering about a couple of things (things I thought were obvious, but which after visiting all these venues I’m questioning again):

• is it a nice thing for the speakers to be put up in the same hotel as where we hold the conference?
• is lunch at the venue good, or would people rather go out to eat? And in that case, eat at the venue in the evening?
• are booths really that important for sponsors? (As I said above, I guess they are, but I could be mistaken…)
• is having sponsor booths and break tables inside the conference hall itself an option?
• is it nicer to sit down for lunch or have a standing buffet?

There, you’re more or less up-to-date with what’s going on in my head on the topic. If you think I’m slipping into “excessive transparency” (as a few of you have hinted), feel free to let me know.

When you decide to organise an event, other than having a good idea for the content/audience (ie, “what’s it about? what kind of event?”), two things you need to figure out quite quickly are when and where it’ll happen. This post is about the “where?” question.

My initial reaction when I took the decision to go ahead with this wacky “organising events” idea was somewhere along the line of “great! I’ll do it in Lausanne!”. A bit of a selfish reaction, as it makes things easier for me, and I really love Lausanne.

Next, I started thinking. Who is this event going to be for? Where is the highest number of people likely to come for my event? Maybe Lausanne is my favourite personal choice, but it doesn’t necessarily make business sense. From the start, I’ve thought of my event as European, with the idea to attract people from all over the continent. So of course, I expect attendees to travel — but there is always a high local population at events, as the absence of travel lowers the barrier to entry (cost, travel time, stress).

Well, quite possibly, the answer to that question (where is the highest concentration of freelancers in the tech industry in Europe?) would be “London”. On the other hand, London is horrendously expensive (isn’t it?), so, why not something nearby, like… Brighton? Cheaper, but still rather easy to get to.

At that point, I decided we needed a choice of cities, and we should check them out for venue options and hotel pricing, to see if anything stood out. Obviously, we’d need to pick cities which are easy to get to from other places in Europe. So, for starters… let’s look at London/Brighton, Paris, and Berlin. Paris is very close to London with the Eurostar, and Berlin (Germany) is cheaper than both London and Paris, but it’s still an Easyjet city. Because, if you’re in Europe, chances are you’re going to be flying Easyjet or some other low-cost airline. (I should think about asking them to sponsor the event, actually…)

So, armed with those three options (London, Paris, Berlin), I set off to Le Web 3 to start talking with possible sponsors, and also to bounce ideas off my friends and peers. To my surprise, quite a few people said “but why don’t you do it in Lausanne?” when I mentioned the location wasn’t set yet. So, I started thinking. Because even if Lausanne is a personal, almost emotional choice for me, it doesn’t mean it cannot also be a good business decision.

Let’s look at Lausanne as a possible city to host my event, with a cool business mind:

• First and foremost, it’s actually really easy to access: get off your plane in Geneva airport, walk 200m from customs, hop on the train (yes, the train station is inside the airport), and 30-40 minutes later you’re in central Lausanne. (You’re in for at least the same kind of ride to get to central London from LGW or LHR, or central Paris from CDG.) Geneva airport is an international airport which is easily reached from all over Europe, with Easyjet for example. However, it’s way less busy than CDG, LHR, LGW, which makes the arrival/departure experience much more pleasant.
• I live in Lausanne, and so do my two main partners-in-crime: holding the event in Lausanne will make organisation much smoother for us, and allow us to ensure we don’t bump into any issues with the venue due to managing things remotely. Not to mention opportunities for sponsorships by local businesses — being locals, we know who they are and have existing connections we can use. There are also many important companies settled in the Lausanne area, like Nestle, Philip Morris, or Orange Switzerland. And it’s the Olympic Capital. (OK, drifting off-topic here…)
• Lausanne is a beautiful city, in the midst of a beautiful region: it’s on Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), but as opposed to Geneva which is at the end of the lake, Lausanne is in the middle. The view over the lake and mountains is just breath-taking. If you’re coming for a one-day conference and plan to spend a nice week-end somewhere while you’re at it, Lausanne is ideal. The city is lovely and walkable, France is 20 minutes away by boat (just across the lake), and the surrounding countryside and lakeshore is also worth a visit (for example, Le Lavaux, Unesco world heritage site, is just to the east of Lausanne). I’ll be digging out photos to convince you to come if you’re not sold yet ;-).
• Even though Switzerland is a rather expensive country (by European standards), holding an event in Lausanne is going to be more affordable than London, Paris, or Geneva.
• Lausanne is a human-sized city: it’s the fifth most important city in Switzerland with 120′000 inhabitants in the city itself. It has everything one needs, but it’s not so large that you can get very lost in it or spend insane amounts of time commuting from one part of the city to the other. Public transport is very efficient.
• Finally, Lausanne will be a welcome change for all of us on the “2.0 conference circuit”, as it’s not one of the usual “conference cities”, and probably a city you haven’t visited before much (which is a pity! you should!).

Check out:

• Official Lausanne website
• Official Lausanne tourism website
• Lausanne on WikiTravel
• Lausanne on Wikipedia
• Lausanne Flickr Pool (photographs)

So, here we go. Going Solo will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland — I’m looking forward to welcoming you all here in a few months.

Now tell me — did I do a good job of selling you Lausanne as a conference-city?

This was originally posted on Climb to the Stars. View comments on the original post.