Government 2.0 Club

[...] Karen’s Opinion put an intriguing blog post on Government 2.0 Camp Travel GuideHere’s a quick excerptGovernment 2.0 Camp (#gov20camp) will be located at the Duke Ellington School of Arts and is NOT metro accessible and parking is scarce (we had to go… [...]

The Circulator bus’s Georgetown/Union Station route seems to have a stop at Wisconsin Ave and R St, about 2 blocks from Ellington. This route passes by several Metro stations, with buses running every 10 minutes. http://www.dccirculator.com/

I appreciate the efforts of the organizers and think this event has great potential. But I doubt I’m alone in feeling that the venue is prohibitive for a lot of attendees, especially for those of us who would have to drive from outside of DC and who aren’t familiar with downtown. Is there really no parking garage within walking distance? (Even a long walking distance?) If the only parking available is residential street parking, I’m not sure how carpooling will solve this problem — it sounds like there simply won’t be any parking spots available.

It seems like the organizers were forced into a less-than-ideal venue by picking the dates first without having a venue lined up. I gladly would have accepted a delay if it resulted in a more accessible venue. (And perhaps the venue didn’t need to be in downtown DC? I’m not sure if that made it more difficult. A hotel ballroom anywhere in MD or VA would have been fine with me. All we really need are chairs.)

Not trying to be critical, since I know how much work it is to organize a conference (or unconference) and that many variables must be balanced. But I’m trying to offer some candid suggestions for how this can be improved in the future. If the venue is this complicated to get to, a lot of people will arrive exhausted, or may end up not going at all.

@scott your points are well taken. At the end of the day this is a free conference for most attendees. Even worst case scenario if folks take a cab from the nearest metro station (Dupont Circle) and it costs them ~$24 for two round trips over the course of the weekend….we’ll you can see my point.

I doubt anyone would be exhausted by that.

If there is parking issue I’ll be riding my bike. Problem Solved!

@Scott: This is just the first Government 2.0 Club event, so I look forward to your volunteering to find a venue to seat 500+ people, provide them food, ample breakouts, etc.

BTW, there is a parking garage at Georgetown Hospital at about 38th and Reservoir. We’ll add that above.

I wondered about the parking at Georgetown Hospital, which appeared to be within walking distance. Their web site seemed to imply the parking garage was limited to patients and hospital visitors, so I wasn’t sure.

Please take my feedback in the constructive manner it was intended; there is no need to get defensive. When the venue announcement itself is apologetic in its first sentence, I realize I’m just vocalizing concerns that were clearly anticipated.

We all appreciate the effort necessary to organize such events, and candid feedback will only allow these events to improve in the future. It’s clear the demand for this event took the organizers by surprise, and limited the venue options available on such short notice. Perhaps participants can suggest venue options for the future, and you can survey participants to see if they would have been willing to pay a small fee to expand options for the organizers. If all participants chipped in $20 or $40, would that have expanded options, or would that have made little difference?

For those of us outside of DC, deftly maneuvering through multiple modes of public transportation and arriving by 8 am will be a challenge, but hey, no pain, no gain!

@Scott: Your feedback is valid, most definitely. I was quite sincere about you helping us find a venue for the next event. There just aren’t many, esp. since we were trying to find a free venue. Ultimately, we did decide to pay for one because the 50 Maxine Teller investigated didn’t work out. Yes: 50.

The level of interest has been incredibly high; we have something like 200 on the waiting list who we had to say no to. At EPA, we ran a free webinar just as an overview of Web 2.0 tools, and we had more than 500 people sign up.

So it might be that we have to do the next one differently, with a venue choice being the first item and going with the dates available.

Anyway, can you be at the Rosslyn Metro at 6:30 each day? I have to be there at 7, but I’d be happy to give you a ride from there.

There is paid parking at the Levy center (under the building) as well (Just a few blocks away), which is right next to the Georgetown hospital. I use it every week, but it will cost you typical DC parking rates.

If you must drive, and don’t mind walking up Wisconsin Ave a few blocks, there’s also a parking garage at the Shops at Georgetown Park (Wisc and M Street). Their site says it’s $18/day parking http://www.shopsatgeorgetownpark.com/html/malldirections.asp

Re venues and dates, it may be worth considering a date when universities are on break, at which point they *might* be more willing to make space available.

Alternately, a year from now, this tribe may have grown to a point where it can tap conference resources of a gov agency…

It looks like Friday will be a pretty nice day, weather wise. If one doesn’t mind getting some exercise, is there any reason not to walk from Dupont Circle to the Duke Ellington School of Arts? New Hampshire Ave to M St to Wisconsin Ave to R St looks to be about a 2-mile, 40-minute walk:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=1+dupont+circle,+washington+dc&daddr=38.905461,-77.056088+to:1698+35th+St+NW+Washington,+DC+20007&geocode=&hl=en&gl=us&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&via=1&dirflg=w&sll=38.90987,-77.054586&sspn=0.033294,0.040727&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=15

I’m not familiar with that part of DC — would that be a safe route for walking during the day/evening? Anything else to watch out for?

I plan on walking, Scott. I walked quite a bit today and it seems to be pretty easy, even in the rain. I’m staying at the DC Hostel.

I’ll be huffing it from Foggy Bottom metro. Looks like a reasonable walk.