Philadelphia is well known for its important role in US history, but it is also a dynamic and modern city, with a vibrant art scene, incredible food, and great public transit, as well as hundreds of libraries, museums and universities. The New York Times recently ranked Philly as the #3 place in the world to visit, and we couldn't agree with them more. Plus Philly packs it all into a fairly small and compact Center City that is easy to get around, so all of it will be at your fingertips. So many of us are a part of the code4lib community — we're excited to take our turn in hosting the national code4lib conference and continue the tradition of making it as welcoming as possible.
Based on the Raleigh hosting team's experience, we plan to engage a conference planning organization to negotiate all of our contracts, including venue, hotel, wireless, catering, and AV. We have done our research and know that Philly has plenty of venues & hotels that can accommodate a conference of our size, but we know that letting a professional planner request the bid will keep prices as low as possible. We therefore have a projected budget based on previous years since we do not have exact quotes. We expect:
We are committed to working hard towards strong fundraising goals to help keep the cost as low as possible for attendees.
A target range of dates has been narrowed down to February through March. Exact dates will be determined by venue and hotel availability and price.
Philadelphia has great links from all over the country.
Philly's food scene has exploded in the past decade with so many great options. Soul food, tapas, BYO, farm-to-table, renowned chefs, vegetarian / vegan, and more. Some highlights include:
Philly also has great delis everywhere, awesome donuts, a handful of local coffee roasters, and of course, The Cheesesteak!
Plus great bars like Barcade for craft beers and classic video games, Monk's Cafe for all things Belgian, Village Whiskey for fine spirits, and many more. Pennsylvania also boasts arcane liquor laws which always blow newcomers' minds!
A small but lively Tech scene:
Multiple members of the committee have previous experience organizing good-sized, multi-day events, such as Villanova University Library's annual VuFind Summit and GLAM Hack Philly, so we know what to expect and are up for the challenge. We also have experience with fundraising which we hope to leverage to keep costs down.