FirstAnnualConferencePlanning

The page for conference participants is FirstAnnualConference

Details

• October 10th, 2008
• Embassy Suites in Burlingame, CA.

Logistics

Registration

• Main conference: On meetup.com.
• Optional Saturday kayaking
• Optional Saturday dinner on Forbes Island

Hotel

We have conference rooms booked at the Embassy Suites Hotel SFO, with space for up to 200 people. We can expand that if we get more (which seems unlikely). The hotel is really nice, it's right on the bay with a view of the SFO runways across the water, and has a nice atrium / bar / restaurant area. It is walking distance from a couple of other hotels that are probably cheaper, for budget-conscious attendees. There is also a park (Anza Lagoon right next to the hotel.)

Hotel	Rates	Discount Code	SFO Shuttle
Embassy Suites Hotel SFO	$130-$290	60Z (~15%)	Yes
Red Roof Inn	$90-$110	No	Yes
Doubletree Hotel SFO	$140-390	No	Yes

Note: For the discount code, it is called a "group code" or "convention code" on the Embassy Suites Hotel Reservation page. 25 rooms are currently blocked off. These rooms are automatically returned to the room pool 14 days before the event. If you have any troubles, please call your local Embassy Suites reservation line and let them figure it all out. In the US, the Embassy Suites reservation line is 1-800-362-2779.

Food

The hotel will supply food - hors d' oeuvres for a reception on Thu. night, then on Friday snacks & caffeine (morning, midmorning, midafternoon), lunch, and dinner. Post-reception thu night, and post-dinner friday night we can hang out at the hotel bar. The food is expensive, but that's how they make their money, so I don't think we have much choice about using their food (the conference rooms are fairly cheap). The food schedule is:

• Thursday
  • Hors d' oevres in the evening (reception)
• Friday
  • Morning break
  • Lunch - Embassy Deli Buffet
  • Afternoon break
  • Dinner- Embassy Royale
• Saturday
  • On your own

A/V equipment

Mike Doty will bring two projectors, as rental is expensive. The hotel will supply WiFi.

General Format

An opening talk by Patri, and a bunch of workshops.

Workshops

Each workshop has a topic, like "How do we transport people and stuff between seasteads and land?". One person serves as the facilitator, there is a brief presentation on the topic, why it is hard, maybe some standard solutions, and then participants break up into small groups to brainstorm and research their solutions. Then they take turns presenting their solutions, and put together a final set of recommendations. The workshops will run concurrently two at a time. Here's the currently planned workshop schedule:

Morning Workshop Set #1

• Business Plan : Coaststead off SF (top business model)
• Government/Constitution/Organization: Note this is *meta-government*, not specific government!

Morning Workshop Set #2

• Marketing: How do we refine our message to give it a broad appeal?
• Ephemerisle Planning/Meta-Planning: Burning Man on the sea, but with fewer rules, and more commercialism

Afternoon Workshop Set #1

• Low Road Designs: Ball houses, refurbished cruise ships, calm-water platforms. How to build a seastead without $50 million?
• TBD

Afternoon Workshop Set #2

• TBD
• TBD

Schedule

• Thursday
  • 6:30pm - 11:30pm. Evening reception (will move to the bar at some point). No other formal events.
• Friday
  • 8am - 9:00am. Morning snacks & registration.
  • 9:00am - 9:30am. Opening Talk (Patri. Outline VISION, background story, goals, progress, initiatives, challenges)
  • 9:30am - 10:45am. Morning workshop set #1
  • 10:45am - 11:00am. Morning break.
  • 11:00am - 12:15am. Morning workshop set #2
  • 12:15pm - 1:30pm. Lunch (possibly a talk).  ? Present summaries of morning workshops during lunch.
  • 1:30pm - 3:00pm. Afternoon workshop set #1
  • 3:00pm - 3:30pm. Afternoon break / mingling (playtime outside on the water?).
  • 3:30pm - 5:00pm. Afternoon workshop set #2.
  • 5:00pm - 6:00pm. Summaries of afternoon workshops.
  • 6pm - 7pm. Break
  • 7pm - 9pm. Dinner. Possibly one or more short talks during dinner (ie Peter if we can get him).
  • 9pm - ?. Drinks & Mingling.
• Saturday
  •  ? Do stuff on the water in the AM (play w/ R/C boats, seastead models...)
  • Brunch (not at hotel)
  • 1PM - 3PM. Kayaking around Waldo Point
  • 6PM - 9PM: Dinner at Forbes Island Restaurant

Todo

See Google Spreadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/seasteading.org/ccc?key=pxQIdumbCC4jWgs-TwVywGQ&hl=en

Ideas

• Post flyers on local college campuses (Stanford, Berkeley, SCU, UCSF...)
• Bring a library of related books, so people can read/learn during the conference. (Patri has many such books)
• Have a useful basic set of tools/materials for experimenting with physical designs.
• Have ocean sounds playing quietly in the background entire time, to set theme.

Press Releases

• Vote with your house
• Beat high housing costs: homestead the high seas!

Where to send releases

Mark when sent. Add your name for ones you will take on.

• Standard media PR sources
  • PR Newswire
• Blogs (that we can post on)
  • Seasteading.org blog (Patri)
  • Patri's personal blog (Patri)
  • Crasch's blog (Chris)
• Blogs (to notify)
  • Instapundit (Chris)
  • Marginal Revolution (Chris)
  • Flutterby.com (Chris)
  • Cafe Hayek (Chris)
  • Econlog (Chris)
  • Slashdot (Chris)
  • Free State Project forums (Chris)
  • Newmark's Door
  • BldgBlog (Chris)
• Mailing lists
  • nation-builders@yahoo (Patri)
  • libertarian-nation@yahoo (Patri)
  • libertarian-island@yahoo (Patri)
  • transtopia@yahoo (Patri)
  • FOME (Patri)
  • floatingman island tribe http://www.floatingman.org/index.php?page=Home
  • BA Futurists (Chris)
  • LA Futurists (Chris)
  • ferrocement (Chris)
  • vandwelling (Chris)
  • Bay Area boating lists/meetups
  • Craigslist Events (Chris)
  • http://www.sfsailing.com Calendar (Chris)
  • Yahoo Upcoming (Chris)
  • Ron Paul Forums (Chris)
  • ca-liberty (mailing list for California libertarians (Chris)
  • ba-liberty (mailing list Bay Area libertarians (Chris)
  • Boat design forum
  • College libertarians
  • Free State Project forums (Chris)
  • Free State Project Regional lists
  • regional Burning Man lists
  • Mechanical, Aeronautical, Ocean engineering departments at Stanford, Berkeley, SJ State
  • Golden Gate Objectivists (Chris)
  • libertarians (college libertarians at Stanford, Berkeley, SJ State, etc)
  • Regional Ron Paul supporters (for this group ask permission before posting, as they may not want anything other than ** Ron Paul
  • extropy-chat (Chris)
  • Spiral Island forums
  • Freedomfest
  • Maker Faire lists/forums

• Magazines (lead time is too long, I think, for them to be useful). Lead time is too long for publicity, but maybe we should invite them for subsequent publicity, following conference.)
• Radio shows?
• TV shows?