Venue update: Duke Ellington School of the Arts is a go!

[maxine]

Hi everyone

First, I want to thank you so much for noodling our venue challenge
this week. So many of you made lots of calls and provided many
suggestions.

I am pleased -- and relieved -- to let you know that I have secured
the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC for Government
2.0 Camp, 3/27-28. Duke Ellington is located in Burleith (North
Georgetown) at 3500 R Street (35th St b/w R & Reservoir), just a few
blocks in from Wisconsin Avenue. The school is a very large venue:
wide hallways and places to congregate. In fact, the auditorium's
capacity is ~800.

To build expectations, the Duke Ellington space is not as shiny or
polished as GW's space that hosted TransparencyCamp. The classrooms
are traditional, not lecture-hall style. However, it's an arts school
with a number of large rehearsal rooms that will beautifully transform
into spaces with seating for 100 people, 200 people, etc. There are
also plenty of smaller classrooms that hold 40-50.

The COO of Duke Ellington has been very helpful, responsive and
understanding. We spoke a number of times yesterday, but he had to
get approval from the school administrator. He left me a voice
message last night at 8:30pm saying that we have the space and that
we'll work out the details on Monday. So, I think we should be all
set.

Some of the topics that we'll address with him on Monday include:
1. Cost: the auditorium's standard non-profit rate is $2,800/day, but
we're negotiating. I think we'll be able to work out something that
will accomodate our budget
2. Food: need to speak with their caterer to see what's possible. It
IS spring break in DC that week/weekend, so not sure if the caterer
will be available for our event
3. Classroom specifics: how many classrooms, which classrooms, etc.
4. Parking & transport: not sure if there is a teachers parking lot
that we could use; need to get public transport details. School is
not on a Metro, but is very bus-accessible.

Special thanks to Peter who's made lots of calls and to Wayne Burke
who has been a great source of ideas and support throughout the past
week.

I'll keep you posted once I speak with my contact on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

[Steve Ressler]

Strong work rockstars.  We can at least advertise that's where Dave Chapelle went to school.  And the Duke is on the D.C quarter.

[Jed Sundwall]

Well done guys! Thank you for your hard work!

[patrick svenburg]

Job well done! I know how much work went into this one!
Cheers,
Patrick

[Wayne Moses Burke]

Here here. Kudos to Maxine and everyone else's input and efforts.

Best,
Wayne

--

---
Wayne Moses Burke
Executive Director
Open Forum Foundation
http://openforumfoundation.org
202.640.1787
LinkedIn.com/in/wmburke

"Giving you a voice in the decisions that shape your world"

[Lovisa]

Great job! I'll call off my people now. :)

-Lovisa

On Mar 7, 10:06 am, Wayne Moses Burke <wa...@openforumfoundation.org>
wrote:

> Here here. Kudos to Maxine and everyone else's input and efforts.
>
> Best,
> Wayne
>

> On 3/7/09, patrick svenburg <svenb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Job well done! I know how much work went into this one!
> > Cheers,
> > Patrick
>

> Open Forum Foundationhttp://openforumfoundation.org