Could we host a CoTech gathering in Sheffield?

#1

There was a feeling at the CoTech hack last week in London that having the next event further up North would be good and also that it should take place sooner rather than later in 2019 — could we host an event in Sheffield in the spring?

A Thursday and Friday, with the party on the Friday night appears to be the consensus for the format with people staying at people houses or cheap Air B&B or hotels and eating out — not a huge amount of central logistics needed.

My initial though was, could we hire the Abbeydale Picture House for the two days? There are plenty of cheap places to eat and no doubt accommodation…

#2

This is an exciting idea to maintain momentum - I’d be there…
Saving ourselves for the party on the Friday might increase the productivity of some of us (me) on the Friday!

#3

alternate venue…

DINA cambridge street; very central and easy to access

http://dinavenue.com/

#4

I’ve made informal enquiries about price of hiring DINA or Old Cinema in Sheffield … more news soon. Any more ideas of venues?

#5

If there was only 30/40ish people then AccessSpace plus the upstairs room at the Rutland Arms would be an affordable option.

#6

Access space is OK, but would be quite rammed with 30 people, and does it have space for breakout groups ?
The Rutland Arms upstairs is not an accessible space.

#7

There is a poll for dates on the CoTech Discourse forum:

#8

Do all the rooms at DINA have level access?

#9

Upstairs at DINA has two large rooms, that could easily be broken into many separate spaces.

  1. Is perhaps twice as big as Access space - Jara room
  2. Is larger than the big space at Wortley Hall - Stardust Bar

They are both accessible from the back of DINA ( as far as I can remember, would need to confirm - EDIT I looked last night. There is a ramp from on the corner to Backfields and Bethel Walk) with level access.

Downstairs has a large room, which is accessible too - however one would need to go outside and in from the front if it was not possible to use stairs, Also downstairs there is a cafe, however the Cafe is a slightly different level to the rest of downstairs.

DINA is much larger than Access Space, and has many more options, depending on the numbers.

Hope that helps.

#10

I think Kate’s right about Access Space; even the one break out space is up stairs, not ideal.

Having seen DINA prices at https://community.coops.tech/t/cotech-spring-2019-gathering/1166/3 it’s cheaper as well

I think (when the Dates Poll results are in) we should move to Webarch proposing to be involved in running it at DINA

#11

It is looking like Thursday 24th April — Friday 25th April — @Jonathan would you like to contact DINA to check on availability and costs?