This is a draft proposal for holding Flock 2015 in Colorado Springs, CO.
Colorado Springs
Situated on the front range of the rocky mountains and near the base of Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs is the second largest city in the state of Colorado, and the 41st largest city in the USA. It is home to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), Colorado College, the US Olympic Committee, the US Olympic training center and provides easy access to many outdoor activities and historical locations. Colorado Springs is not a small city but also isn't so big as to be overwhelming.
Staff
UCCS Faculty Liaisons
- Professor Jugal Kalita
- Assistant Professor Jia Rao
Special thanks to UCCS for help in organizing Flock 2015!
Transportation
- Major local airport(s)
- Colorado Springs (COS) and Denver (DEN)
- Distance from airport(s) to proposed lodging
- exact distance TBD - waiting on venue. COS is ~ 20 miles south, DEN is ~ 60 miles north
Transportation from Airports to Venue
There are no public transportation options available from either COS or DEN to the venue.
Estimate from shuttle company for transportation of 250 people
- from DEN - $25/person each way (after talking to companies about COS shuttle, I'm not 100% confident of this quote)
- from COS - $175 per trip for 14-passenger, $90 per trip for 10 passenger
- from COS - $790 for 5 hours of a 56 person bus, $133/hour after 5 hours
Given my memories of previous Fedora events in the US, I suspect that a 15 passenger van rental would be useful, if not required. A quote for that was ~ $150/day not including fuel.
Flight Estimates
| Origin | To DEN | To COS |
|---|---|---|
| BOS | 400 | 650 |
| RDU | 350 | 500 |
| BOM | 1250 | 1450 |
| CDG | 1100 | 1500 |
| PRG | 1550 | 1450 |
| VIE | 1400 | 1500 |
All flights found through orbitz, rounded up to the nearest USD 50; departing Aug 4 and returning Aug 9.
Local Transportation
Colorado Springs does have a bus system but it can be difficult to get from place to place in a timely fashion. The bus schedule is also somewhat limited at night.
There are taxis and Lyft does run in Colorado Springs.
Venue
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) is part of the University of Colorado system, located in northern Colorado Springs. With 11,000 undergraduate and 1,700 graduate students in Fall 2014 (ref) UCCS is a well-ranked school with a beautiful campus.
The entire UCCS campus has wireless internet access.
Rooms
University Center is in the middle of campus, containing a dining facility, cafe with coffee and snacks, the main campus library and student union. The venue is about a 10 minute walk from the lodging option listed below.
Update: New housing option highlighted on campus map
Cost
With the help of the UCCS CS department, there is no cost for the venue.
Lodging
To keep everything convenient and reduce daily transportation costs, lodging would be co-located on the UCCS campus. Yes, this would involve dorm rooms but before you run away screaming, keep in mind that UCCS is a newer campus and the student housing is also relatively new and it's less than a 5 minute walk away from the venue.
Update
There has been a change in the housing option for our proposal - it turns out that the previous housing option was 100% dry (no alcohol allowed in any rooms or common spaces). Since going forward with that would be setting ourselves up for failure, we've been able to work out a different option for housing.
The new option is in a set of furnished apartments on campus. While they are farther away from the classrooms that we'd be using (closer to a 10 minute walk instead of 5), it's still not very far away and is a better option.
Also, a meal plan is not required for the new housing option but is still available.
Notes and Caveats
It's possible that we could negotiate rates with UCCS but with the above change to how the classrooms are being reserved, it isn't as likely as it was before.
Breakfast is something that we'll have to figure out - there aren't any non-food-service options within reasonable walking distance of campus but whether we want to encourage/require purchase of breakfast through a meal plan, cater breakfast or leave folks to fend for themselves (assuming that the on-campus options will still be open and accept generic payment methods like credit cards or cash) is up for discussion.
This quote assumes that housing would be paid for as a lump sum instead of each person being responsible for their own housing. With this setup, we'd have to collect money from each attendee paying for their stay. I don't know if it's possible for people to pay UCCS directly for their lodging or if so, what that would do to the cost.
Update: UCCS has confirmed that we can request a block of rooms to be reserved and attendees can call and reserve the rooms from the requested block. UCCS would handle all of the transactions for the rooms directly.
Floor Plan
4 Bedroom, 2 bathroom floor plan in Alpine Village.
Cost
The quote for housing and meals for 250 people is $48 per person per night before tax.
| Meal | Cost Per Person per meal |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | $9.22 |
| Breakfast Dinner | $19.56 |
| Lunch | $11.46 |
| Lunch Dinner | $20.96 |
| Dinner | $13.69 |
| Brunch | $11.46 |
| Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner | $ 27.95 |
Evening Events
We've listed several options - some of them are going to depend on events out of our control and thus, we've listed more than 2 or 3.
Transportation Costs
With the exception of a catered event (no transportation cost) and Cripple Creek (different arrangement), the other events would require some form of transportation to get folks from lodging to the event.
The quote we got is for 56 passenger buses and those are billed on an hourly basis ($789 for the first 5 hours, $133/hour after) so the most efficient method would be to have 2 or 3 buses make trips back and forth between the event and the lodging instead of trying to get all 250 people to the event at the same time.
Assuming that 5 hours would be enough, that would be a transportation cost of $1578 for 2 buses or $2367 for 3 buses.
Sky Sox Game
The Coors Picnic Terrace can be rented for Sky Sox (minor league baseball team in Colorado Springs) games. Assuming that there is a home game during Flock and the terrace has not already been reserved, they quote $25 per person for ticket, full bar (drinks from the bar are not included) and "All you can eat buffet of: BBQ pulled pork, fried chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, potato salad, chips, cookies and Pepsi products".
Transportation Costs: see above
Brunswick Zone XL (bowling, laser tag etc.)
Brunswick Zone XL has bowling, video games, laser tag, billiards. They also advertise "teambuilding event" options which might be interesting.
Event Cost:
There are a couple options
- Bowling Bash ($19.99/pp - $4997.50 for 250)
- 90 Min. of Bowling & Shoe Rental
- $5 game card
- Unlimited Soft Drinks
- 2 Appetizers; you receive Fried Ravioli and a choice between Chips and Queso, Salsa or Spinach Dip
- Gamerz Fest ($19.99/pp - $4997.50 for 250)
- NO BOWLING!
- $10 Game Card
- Choose One:
- 1 Round of Laser Tag – min. 44” tall
- 1 Hour of Billiards
- 2 Appetizers; you receive Fried Ravioli and a choice between Chips and Queso, Salsa or Spinach Dip
- Unlimited Soft Drinks
- 2 Hour Reserved Section in Strikerz or on the Concourse
- Thrill of The Games ($24.99/pp - $6247.50 for 250)
- Available M-F, 9am to 5pm
- 2 Hours of Bowling & Shoe Rental
- Breakfast or Lunch Buffet served on the Lanes
- Choose One:
- $10 Game Card
- 2 Rounds of Laser Tag–min. 44” tall
- Party at the Lanes ($29.99/pp - $7497.50 for 250)
- 90 Minutes of Bowling & Shoe Rental
- $10 Game Card
- Unlimited Soft Drinks
- Theme Buffet served at the Lanes (5 Themed Buffets to choose from)
- Choose One:
- 1 Round of Laser Tag – min. 44” tall
- 1 Hour of Billiards
- Ultimate XL Party ($39.99/pp - $9997.50 for 250)
- 90 Minutes of Bowling & Shoe Rental
- $10 Arcade card
- Unlimited Soft Drinks
- Theme Buffet served at the Lanes (5 Themed Buffets to choose from)
- 2 Rounds of Laser Tag – min. 44” tall
- 1 Hour of Billiards
- 1 Alcohol Drink Ticket ($5 value); can upgrade to $7 Premium Tickets or $9 Super Premium Tickets
There are also additional upgrades that can be applied to any of these packages. Mike can provide these upon request.
Transportation Cost: see above
Catered Event in Lodging
Since any offsite event would require transportation, reserving a room nearby lodging is a good way to have an evening event while keeping costs down. Instead of traveling to an event, rent out a large room within walking distance of lodging and have food brought in.
In order to use campus facilities for an event, we'd have to use catering on campus instead of hiring an outside vendor. Additionally, there is some complication if we chose to have alcohol available at the event - university policy requires that we hire security (off duty UCCS police officers) if alcohol is available in addition to a $500 deposit.
Event Cost: $160/hour, $500 alcohol deposit, food costs Transportation Cost: $0
Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek is home to several historical sites as well as Casinos. It hosts several community events throughout the summer which may be at the same time as Flock.
Food Options:
- Food would have to be handled by the individual (however, as this is a casino town, they tend to price food cheaply)
Transportation:
- Transportation costs include:
- Bus (~50 people at a time): $400
- 5 Buses (assuming 250 people go): $2000
- Each person on the bus would be given a $25 token to use at the Midnight Rose Casino.
Flying W Ranch
The Flying W Ranch (warning, autoplay audio on website) is/was a working cattle ranch in Colorado Springs that hosts old west style chuckwagon dinners.
While this would be a great event, the ranch was destroyed in the Waldo Canyon wildfire in 2012. The ranch is being rebuilt but at this time, there is no way of knowing whether reconstruction would be complete before Flock 2015. There was hope that the ranch would re-open for the summer of 2014 and it is possible that it would start hosting the chuckwagon dinners in the summer of 2015 but we'd have to wait to see if that actually happens.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- In the Mountains
- Colorado Springs is surrounded by wonderful scenery in clean, mountain air
- Lodging close to Venue
- Lodging is only a 5 minute walk (pedestrian only, not roads) from venue
Cons
- Altitude (6250ft/1839m)
- With 250 people, it's not unlikely that someone would suffer from altitude sickness even though it is usually associated with higher elevation (over 8000 ft). While it would probably not be a severe case given the altitude here, it would still be unplesant.
- Public Transportation
- With few public transportation options, costs in general can be higher and getting to/from airports is a bit more difficult
Other Notes
Since this will come up at some point, it's worth mentioning the fact that recreational marijuana use is mostly legal in the state of Colorado. There are no recreational dispensaries in El Paso county (where Colorado Springs is) and the available venues do not allow the use of marijuana on their premises (at least partially due to federal laws, the details of which are out of scope for the discussion here).