FUDCon:Bid for Lawrence 2013

Dates
This bid is for the dates of Friday–Sunday, January 18–20, 2013.

Classes at KU start Tuesday, January 22, 2013.

About Lawrence
Props to Rikki Kite for the information in this section. &mdash;Ed.

Lawrence has a rich history, filled with civil war stories, art, music, academics, and information technology advances. Lawrence is a college town, so it's pedestrian friendly. The college campus is a short walk from downtown Lawrence. Downtown offers a variety of restaurants, from world-famous bar-b-que to vegetarian and vegan offerings. You'll find live music every night downtown, fun local pubs and breweries, and plenty of shopping.


 * Lawrence, Kansas in wikipedia: "While Kansas is a heavily Republican state, Lawrence is reliably Democratic.[56] Douglas County, where Lawrence is situated, was one of only two counties in Kansas whose majority voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and one of only three that voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election."
 * Lawrence again named a top 10 college town
 * Lawrence named one of the best places to retire:

If you have questions about Lawrence, you can email Rikki: rendsley AT gmail DOT com or Ian: ianweller AT fedoraproject DOT org.

Geek Cred

 * Birthplace of the Django Project:
 * Birthplace of Sys Admin Magazine, C/C++ User's Journal, Ubuntu User Magazine, Admin Magazine
 * Birthplace of Google Earth and its original Center of the Universe:
 * Home of Linux New Media USA LLC
 * The Day After was shot here:
 * Carnival of Souls (1962 independent horror movie) shot here
 * Author of ''Sams Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 Hours, 5th Edition", Joe Casad, lives here
 * "Linux in a Nutshell" author Stephen Figgins lives here:
 * Jacob Kaplan-Moss, President of the Django Software Foundation, lives here
 * Home of Atipa Technologies
 * Frank Wiles, author of Instant Perl Modules, lives here
 * Gantry::Conf was written in Lawrence
 * IdentiGEN, a provider of DNA-based solutions to the agri-food industry, has its US office here (its only other office world-wide is in Dublin)
 * Greg DiVilbiss, COO of Saavi Accountability (accounting software), lives in Lawrence

Other History

 * Lawrence was known as the "Free State Capital" during the Civil War:
 * Location of Quantrill's Raid
 * Dr. James Naismith, inventor of basketball, was the University of Kansas' first basketball coach:
 * Poet Langston Hughes grew up here:
 * Beat writer William Burroughs called Lawrence home and lived here until he died:
 * Punk rock music lovers will have heard of The Outhouse: []
 * Home of the world-famous Free State Brewing Company: "In 1989 the Free State Brewery in Lawrence opened its doors as the first licensed brewery in Kansas since 1881"
 * Printpop.com started in Lawrence

Major Local Airports

 * Kansas City International Airport
 * IATA: MCI
 * Approximately 1 hour away from Lawrence
 * Airlines: Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, SeaPort Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways


 * Lawrence Municipal Airport
 * IATA: LWC
 * General aviation

Local Mass Transit

 * Lawrence Transit System / KU on Wheels
 * Bus routes in Lawrence and through the KU campus

Hotels

 * SpringHill Suites
 * One Riverfront Plaza, Lawrence, Kansas
 * Approx $124 USD/night
 * Reference to actual streets: 6th and New Hampshire (one block from Mass St)
 * Three blocks north of bus stop for routes 10 and 11 (unsure if they will actually run during FUDCon dates or how often as routing has not been finalized for the 2012-2013 academic year)


 * The Oread
 * 1200 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas
 * Anywhere from $220-$340 USD/night
 * Just north of the Kansas Union and other buildings on east campus
 * Walking distance to KU engineering buildings (15-minute walk)
 * Very small, probably can't very many people there


 * Best Western
 * 2309 Iowa Street, Lawrence, Kansas, 66046
 * Aprpox $86-$96 USD/night
 * Close to 23rd St Brewery but not much else (campus is 8 blocks north)

Meeting venues

 * Eaton and Learned Halls, The University of Kansas
 * engr.ku.edu
 * Okayed by School of Engineering Dean
 * Pending University Events Committee approval
 * No cost from the engineering school's end, no cost expected from UEC provost's office told me that there may be some cost involved but it won't be too bad
 * UEC requires a sponsoring student organization through SILC, will talk with a few relevant organizations wait we can just have a department sponsor it

FUDPub options

 * Free State Brewery
 * 636 Massachusetts Street Lawrence, KS 66044
 * At the north of Massachusetts Street, the heart of downtown Lawrence
 * Within walking distance from both proposed hotels (SpringHill Suites and The Oread)
 * Will likely be just the right size (we would definitely have to reserve the entire location)


 * 23rd Street Brewery
 * 3512 Clinton Parkway Lawrence, Kansas 66047
 * Comparatively larger than Free State
 * Would require some sort of transportation as it's not really within walking distance of campus or proposed hotel locations

From everywhere to KCI
Some basic pricing of flights as of Tue Mar 13 2012. Round trip, Thu Jan 17 / Mon Jan 20, 1 person, prices in USD, 1-stop unless otherwise noted. Data from KAYAK (therefore does not include Southwest Airlines).


 * RDU: $327-$353
 * BOS: nonstop on Delta $218, others $249-$419
 * SJC: $485-$569
 * PHX: nonstop on US Airways $379, others $292-$444
 * IAD: nonstop on United $305, others $261-423
 * ORD: nonstops $235-$244
 * LAX: nonstops $378-$464, others $379-$499
 * PRG: $1102 and up
 * VIE: $1043 and up

From KCI to Lawrence
We will probably need people to run cars back and forth between the hotel and KCI.

Airport shuttles that go to Lawrence:


 * GTI shuttle between KCI and Lawrence
 * KCI RoadRunner shuttle between KCI and Lawrence

In theory you can get from KCI to Lawrence using a mixture of public transit and possibly Amtrak. Google suggests it will take anywhere between 4 and 5 hours. This is not recommended.

Between event locations
Transit matrix for various hotel and FUDPub choices:

We will definitely need to talk to the local transit agency and see if we can pull some strings, because otherwise we will definitely be overloading a few routes. Or we can try and get people to go to events at different times.

Transit information based on current routes which may change in August.

Local weather patterns
Unpredictable, at best. In January 2011 there was a snowstorm that cancelled classes for two days in a row (unprecedented for KU), and in January 2012 there was little to no snow, and some days were even jacket weather.

The average high during the month of January is 29 &deg;F (4 &deg;C). It is most likely for snow to occur during the month of January, but snow is usually light and generally does not cause travel issues.