Re: Meeting "lounges" at IETF meetings

[Mary Barnes <mary.ietf.barnes@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't like this idea at all.  For people that aren't staying at the meeting hotel, the terminal room is often the only place where it is quiet.  Ear plugs only partially address the problem for those of us with really sensitive hearing and some folks cannot use those ear plugs (e.g., when you have an ear infection, which I often get from the air conditioning in these venues).

Instead, I think we should ensure that future venues have adequate space for both circulating between meeting rooms and for side conversations.  This hotel was really bad in that respect.  The corridor outside the Regency rooms was always packed between sessions and getting from B to E was impossible without bumping into people.  One problem was that people stopped in the corridor for discussions, which is a normal thing to do at IETF meetings, but it totally clogged up the hallways and often blocked the access to the coffee.  This makes me wonder if the folks that choose the venue discuss the nature of our meetings - i.e., almost everyone is moving between meeting rooms multiple times a day.  Also, at least half the people have backpacks and the majority are men.  Thus, the footprint for each of us is larger than the average conference attendee.   I would suggest for this next meeting at this hotel to put the refreshments in the open space on the 3rd floor and put some chairs or tables in the alcoves and along the wall where they put the refreshments.  Or better yet, reserve one of the rooms for the refreshments and/or meeting space.  We had that at one of the recent meetings and it worked extremely well.    I suggest that you could cut the cookie budget if funds really are the only reason this wouldn't be done. 

Mary. 

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Greetings again. Some meeting venues have had insufficient places where five or so people could comfortably gather for informal meetings, while other venues did this just fine. One proposal has been that the Secretariat reserve large rooms for this. Unfortunately, that adds significant cost to the meetings.

Instead, I propose that we simply designate the terminal room (which is already reserved for future meetings) be designated as meeting areas where talking is allowed / encouraged. Earplugs could be provided for people who really want a quiet Ethernet connection; the cost of those for the Secretariat will be about $25/meeting.

--Paul Hoffman