I was curious ... how does the group feel about alternating venue locations month-to-month (assume Motley Fool as common and default location). There has been some interests from several potential sponsors to not only fund the group with food/refreshments but also with a venue as well (a hotel conference room for example).
We are all over the place -- VA, MD, DC and it might good to have some meetings in DC -- perhaps ideally right around the MCI center or another place where multiple lines meet. However, is change good or bad? Would we rather go for consistency for our venue? I know The Motley Fool has been kind enough to offer us their space as long as we need it.
Since I'm coming from the Greenbelt Metro station, I'd enjoy attending some meetings near Gallery Place/Chinatown/Verizon Center. If meetings are held around there, I could get there early and help set up as well if needed.
If I recall correctly, there has been some interest in hosting a meeting from at least one other company. I think the interest and potential is out there. At the next meeting we should bring this up.
With enough notice, I could get us the downstairs space of Ebenezers Coffeehouse on the Hill (one block east of Union Station.) It's an excellent space designed for meetings that can seat 110+. There is wi-fi available and a sweet coffeehouse upstairs. For more information, visit http://ebenezerscoffeehouse.com.
I think trying a new place could be fun as well -- go somewhere I've never been! Does the Coffeehoue have something in place for a project screen? I see that being the only limitation.
I took a look at the coffee house's site, and it looks like an impressive space. The only thing I see as being a potential issue are the fees for the place (see Rental Information. Of course, if we had an "in" at the place, that might be different. Dave, what sort of relationship do you have with the coffee house?
I think it'd be a really cool place to meet, very hip looking and looks like they've got good facilities.
mringlein: We have a screen and projector and four HD televisions all rigged into a switcher. Our presentations are done using ProPresenter on a Dual G5 with HD output to the screen and TVs. I would need any presentation ahead of time so that I could adapt it to HD and the ProPresenter setup. Theoretically, we could rig in a laptop running PowerPoint or some other presentation software, but I can't be certain that the final signal would look good. (It's also not my forte, but I could get some more technical details from our media guy.)
Yeah! That sounds like a sweet set-up. See if you can get any kind of hook up on the rental rate -- we will all promise to order lots and lots of coffee
Update on this: My apologies for the delay in getting this information out. Looks like the best I can do is getting us 20% off the normal accommodations fee of $500. So it would be $400 for the evening. So if everyone would chip in $4 or $5 for the night, or if we have one very nice sponsor :) , we could meet at Ebenezers.
I'm not sure how that will be received. I know I wouldn't mind chipping in a few bucks for location costs (at Ebenezers, or anywhere else) but I don't know if the sentiment of the group is the same.
David --> Awesome! We will talk with some of our sponsors lined up and see if they might be willing to cover that cost or at least partial. Do you know, can we bring in our own food (cheap pizza/soda) or do we have to buy from there?
What do people value more, free pizza/soda or location? Definitely too late for the March event, but maybe we can set this up for the April event.
I was wondering what the group thought about Adams Morgan? I met with a guy today that has space right on 18th street that can accommodate the group. I live in Adams Morgan, so I don't want to make suggestions that are only convenient to me -- but might be a nice alternative for a meeting here and there.
We can still have food, even beer if we want it and there are more than enough after meeting locations for us to grab a beer continue talking.