TOP 2012 5th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics

Meeting of LOC on 8th February 2012

Latest info related with hotel/excursion/finances

Hotel contract is signed, RHUL not responsible for no-shows/late cancellations as long as provide the hotel with credit card number. The registration form will need to request this. If people feel uncomfortable they will need to call the hotel to give the info.

Payment of conference fee will be done prior to start of conf. via bank transfer. If not possible for some, cash on first day.

Excursion: guided tour:Julie Berry, Information Assistant at Winchester Tourist Information Centre. She is on 01962 840 500 or JABerry@WINCHESTER.GOV.UK. I have attached the documents that also may help you.

• How_to_book_a_guided_tour_April_2011.doc: How_to_book_a_guided_tour_April_2011.doc

• Guided_Tour_Booking_form_2011.doc: Guided_Tour_Booking_form_2011.doc

Coach hire: Coach Company on 01264 781 283 and speak to Kevin.

Stefano gave update on catering for the Great Hall reception, cost is now at £15pp but that if for 8 canapes/p so possibility of going down to 4.

Finances still stand at:

24h rate: £165

Conference fee is still:

• proceedings: £25
• bag + stationery + gift: £15
• publicity poster: £5 (overkill?)
• contingency: £10

• private dinners: 500 x 5 = 2500
• wine: £5 x 5 x 150 = £3,750
• transport on Sunday and Friday: £200 x2 = £400
• excursion to Winchester: coach transport is £400, and guided tour is £300 total (based on numbers that the hotel had given me, but needs confirmation of course) = £700
• Great Hall reception: £1230 for room hire + £15 pp (drink+canapes) x 150 = £3,480

total: 25+15+5+10+72 = £127

Sponsorship

We now have £500 from IoP and £500 from SEPnet. Leverhulme no, STFC no. still need to hear from Royal Society (CS).

Poster

Need to get this going asap (CS).

Web page:

http://pprc.qmul.ac.uk/top2012/Fifth_International_Workshop_on_Top_Quark_Physics/Home.html

Proceedings:

GS working on this. Now heard from Cimento Nuovo and also had contact with PoS (only online options though).

Proposed Venue information

Norton Park Hotel near Winchester

So the venue that we have settled on and would like your final approval for is the Norton Park Hotel near Winchester. The web site is here: http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/norton-park-winchester.aspx

In terms of location it is great because it is accessible by train from both Heathrow and Gatwick, but it is not walking distance from Winchester. So far our thinking is that delegates will reach the Winchester train station by themselves and the hotel will run a shuttle between that train station and the hotel (about 15 minutes).

The resort is 4* and very nice. It is a mix of a modern hotel with a period house and a stunning barn. There are grounds and a lake to do outdoors activities and they have horses on site. They have an indoor pool and a gym and 10 Spa treatment rooms. They will have 25 bicycles for the duration of the conference.

From the Sunday afternoon to Friday after lunch corresponds to 5 periods of 24h.

Each 24h period will be at a rate of:

£168.33 (about 188 euros) for normal delegate and £128.33 (144 euros) for delegates sharing a twin bedroom. I also have the rates for partners, etc if you need them.

As for the excursion there is obviously Winchester itself and its famous cathedral which would end up being not very costly, but there is also the possibility of going to the Isle of Wight, since the ferry is only 1h away and the ferry journey is quick and there are nice periods houses that one can visit on the Isle of Wight.

We still need to finalize whether to have the dinner back at the hotel on the Wednesday or part of the excursion and also what to do about the Conference Dinner on the Thursday evening (at the resort or somewhere else). The resort will charge us a lower rate if we don't have dinner on site (I have those numbers if you want them).

More details

From the Sunday afternoon to Friday after lunch corresponds to 5 periods of 24h.

Sorry I don't write the £ everywhere, it's just to go quicker.

Rates:

• 24h rate: 165
• Private dining is 500 supplement per day, so that adds 500/150 = 3.33 to the 24h rate
• 24h rate for delegates sharing a twin bedroom: 125
• Transport from Winchester station to hotel using hotel mini-vans: complimentary
• Pre-dinner cocktail (1 glass of sparkling + canapes): complimentary
• Conference Dinner: complimentary
• Partner supplement: 31
• Children: free for room, but meals as charged
• 10 complimentary upgrade bedrooms

For days with no dinner:

• 24h rate: 149
• 24h rate for twin: 117

25 bikes available for the week: complimentary

Excursion to Winchester:

• return coach trip: 400
• 11/2h guided tour (of the cathedral I assume): 300
• Total: 700/150 = 4.67

In summary:

• 24h rate for normal delegate: 165 + 3.33 = 168.33
• 24h rate for twin delegate: 125 + 3.33 = 128.33

One way to figure out if we can afford a dinner out for the conference dinner for example: 165 - 149 = 16 .... this is a bit low as a dinner per person if we go outside, I would assume at least double this, let's say 40 per head, + transport, so say 400 for that. 400/150 = 2.67, so 42.67 so 168.33 x 4 + 149 + 42.67 = 865 / 5 = 173 that would be the new 24h rate for normal delegate if we had a dinner out.

The 24h rate includes:

Main Meeting Room: Norton Suite Max Capacity: 300 theatre style

Includes:

• Main meeting room hire
• Unlimited servings of tea and coffee
• Flexible Lunch options
• LCD Projector and screen
• Flipchart
• Parking
• Mineral water and sweets
• Wi-Fi
• The 24 Hour Rate includes all the above plus
• Dinner
• Bed & Breakfast

More info:

The resort has a maximum of 185 rooms, I don't know if they would be all available for our dates as we have been negotiating with them on the basis of requesting a maximum of 150 rooms. It is likely to be less than that in case the PhD students want to share a room.

There is plenty of space to have informal discussions and there are also small conference rooms in case people want to meet together, or join a phone meeting with their laptop.

Breakfast and lunch is in their restaurant and they claim they can fit 200. For dinners, this is in a bigger room so they can accommodate even more.