Notes from Thusday, 2/18 Friday Center walk through

Here are my notes from the Logistics Committee point of view on the Friday Center walkthrough.

Sean, Leandra, Judy, Tani and I met with Donna Fitzgerald from the Friday Center.

• For now, Judy is the primary contact with Donna for all directions from our group that affect the work of the Friday Center staff -- but Donna is willing to answer questions from others.

We decided this would be the "NCTech4Good Conference" -- tagline TBD

• Judy will let Donna know that we're calling this an NCTec4Good conference, not an "RTPnet" conference (though PIN, Inc., is the fiscal agent)
• Judy will talk to Warren Fuson about the accounting setup to make sure that he, the organization's treasurer, has this on his radar.
• Judy has scanned the contract and event plan. Find those at http://nccommunities.org/content/budget (in the resources section of this site). The Event Plan, in particular, is an outline of the day.

Things for the participants' packets

• Map of the area of the center we'll be using
• An agenda with times that takes into account the Friday center times for shared breaks and lunch (http://www.fridaycenter.unc.edu/fc/fcfood.htm)
  • Morning break: 30 minutes from 7:30 - 11:00 (drinks and food)
  • Afternoon break: 30 minutes from 1:30 - 4:30 beverages, 2-4 food
  • Lunch option to start 11:30 - 1:15 in the shared dining room.

Registration forms -- I think we'll need 3

• One for the main, all-day conference
  • Needs a question about dietary restrictions (Donna can work with about anything; special plates can be prepared for vegans and those with specific allergies (e.g. gluten). Very specific requests can be handled by allowing the person to bring their own food.
  • Needs a question about whether they plan to stay for the reception
• One for the reception (for those joining us "after work")
• One for the sponsors/exhibitors
  • Friday Center charges for exhibit table: $30 to nonprofits, $100 commercial. No money can change hands, in any event.
  • Whether they'll need electric. [This was more of an issue when we thought the sponsors were going to be in the Willow Lounge. I didn't note whether all the locations that we're now talking about -- in the atrium near the main door and our registration table have electric.]
  • Time frame. [They may set up as early as 7:00. We talked about having them out by 6:00 - maybe earlier? We vacate the main rooms 5:00 - 5:30, and the reception is 5:00 - 7:00]
  • Let them know the table is 3x6
• We talked about setting up small groups to go to dinner later -- if this seems feasible, perhaps all three forms need that checkoff.

Signs (the Center has easels for the signs in the building)

• Tani has had good experience with VistaPrint -- ordering one offs (free) and paying only shipping and handling
• Signs for parking to help people skip the first right into the park-and-ride and take the right *after* the Friday Center into the main parking lot. NCTech4Good branding means we can order those now.
• Pointing the way to the reception in the Willow Room (to the right). We'll probably need people to help those arriving for the reception find us because there will be a much larger reception in the main atrium starting at about the same time.
• Directions to breakout rooms
• Titles of the break out sessions

Other things we'll need the day of or otherwise affect what we do the day of

• If we have at least 75 registrants, they'll supply a "day office" at no additional charge
• We can request easels (for signs) and to hold flip charts. If we want PostIT flip charts, we need to bring our own. They can supply regular flip charts ($7/each), but we'd need to bring painter's tape to put it up on the wall.
• They have wifi in all the rooms. They'll set up one of our laptops in the main room on the smart podium. If we need laptops connected to the room projectors in the breakout rooms, we need to let them know that. If we use one of their laptops, it's a $150 charge.
• We may move chairs, but moving tables is their job -- $100 reset fee. We should plan to avoid this.
• Lunch will be at tables of 8. We may want to set some up as "lunch with ... " as they do at the NC Center for Nonprofits. We can't, though, break things up into different sized groups.
• Layout for the reception area -- 3 each of 3x6 and 2x5 tables.