Re: timing for venue contracting

On 26. 07. 26 2:17, Geoff Huston wrote:
>> On 26 Jul 2026, at 02:56, Bob Hinden <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> On Jul 24, 2026, at 9:37 PM, John Levine <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> It appears that Michael Richardson  <[email protected]> said:
>>>> I personally don't have a problem with
>>>> Bangkok/Singapore/Bangkok/Singapore/Brisbane/Bangkok/Singapore/...
>>>
>>> Me neither but experience tells us that after we go back to the same
>>> place three times, they often crank up the rate.  That's why we aren't
>>> likely to be in Prague any time soon.
>>>
>>> I would also like as much notice as possible but I understand that
>>> venue negotiations are astonishingly complicated.  We have the further
>>> problem of not being large enough to be a big meeting, while too big
>>> to be a small meeting, which limits the range of venues we can use.
>>> I mean, would we keep going to the Metropole if there were anywhere
>>> else in London that would work?
>>
>> Well said.
>>
>> In this case, given that IETF 128 is only ~8 months away, I expect that the choices were limited.
>>
>> Bob
>>
> 
> Poor conclusion.
> 
> Given that we knew this was going to happen for the past five years (or more), then there was essentially unlimited choice!

Adding to that, I find the argument of not being big enough or too big 
at the same time weird. Every other university has suitable rooms and 
equipment.

 From my experience universities in Europe do host meetings of all sizes 
on their premises, they usually have a darn good networks in place 
already, and they are much *much* cheaper than a Hilton or other hotel 
chains.

Conferences of all sizes are already using university premises.
Examples just from top of my head:
- FOSDEM ~ 10 k ppl, Brussels
- LinuxDays 2026 ~ 1 200 ppl, Prague
- DevConf ~ 800 ppl, Brno, CZ
- CSNOG ~ 150 ppl, Ostrava, CZ

This is just to show the spectrum from big to small, by no means 
exhaustive list.

It would require some will to not repeat things exactly the way we are 
used to, but hey, I don't think change is a bad thing. Most importantly 
universities cannot offer random dates in calendar, but at the same time 
they almost always have significant downtime in summer when students are 
out and the campus is deserted.

-- 
Petr Špaček