XPA U2005
|
XPAUEndorsementsAndComments
Please add your comments & suggestions under the relevant titles below....
Profile of San Diego and San Diego County
California's second largest city and the United States' seventh largest, San Diego boasts a citywide population of nearly 1.3 million residents and more than 2.8 million residents countywide. Within its borders of 4,200 sq. miles, San Diego County, known for it's near-idyllic climate and 70 miles of pristine beaches, offers a wide variety of things to see and do, appealing to guests from around the world.
While most of the population is centered along the Pacific Coast, in East County (what the locals prefer to call the unincorporated regions east of the city), the terrain varies from gentle foothills to mile-high mountains to the 600,000-acre Anza Borrego Desert State Park. In North County (areas north of La Jolla and Del Mar), the land produces quantities of flowers as well as quality grapes that become excellent wines, which are served at some of the most elegant restaurants and resorts in the region. Both North and East County offer outdoor enthusiasts endless opportunities to hike, camp, fish, bike, observe wildlife and much more. To the south, it's a whole different country, Mexico, featuring its own cultural offerings in various towns along the border and coastline, including Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada and the rest of Baja California.
If there is anytime to come to San Diego, it would be the summer. San Diego summer weather is the quintessential Southern California stereotype - bright sunny afternoons and mornings, comfortable temperatures through out the day followed by pleasant cool evenings. During the summer we never think of bringing an umbrella (but we always bring our sunglasses) and it is very unusual to need a light jacket at night.
Places lectures/meetings could be held (should handle ~400 people):
- La Jolla/Torrey Pines/Sorrento Valley -- La Jolla is considered "the jewel" of San Diego and home of UCSD, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and many other educational centers. It would not be likely that the village of La Jolla can host a conference of about 400 people, but up the hill in Torrey Pines, what we call "Biotech Beach", is the home of the Salk Institute and many of our biotech companies. Qualcomm and Kysera Wireless are right across the freeway from "Biotech Beach" and Sorrento Valley is just a few short miles up the freeway, so this is the heart of high tech San Diego. While having a conference here is close to much of high tech industries in San Diego, it can be a bit sterile. People work here, but they do not live here.
- Mission Bay Park -- just north of the downtown is over 4,600 acres of public park, half of which are open water. This area is called Mission Bay Park. It was built in the 1950's and serves as the recreational epicenter for the city. There are a variety of resorts and hotels in and around the Mission Bay Park (a Hilton, a Hyatt, the Bahia, and the Catamaran) and all of them built on the water. If location is consideration and relaxation are considered in the selection process, then this area should be given high marks. Mission Bay Park is simply quite lovely. Mission Bay Park is centrally located all the coastal sections of San Diego - 10 minutes from La Jolla/Sorrento Valley, 5 minutes from Downtown and 5 minutes from Mission Valley - and just short hop from the San Diego International Airport in downtown. Unfortunately, there are no trolley lines that run to Mission Bay Park and it is shuttle ride away from anything. Attendees will need rental cars or have to rely on bus service to get around.
- Coronado/Hotel Del -- Coronado is a compact town across the bay from downtown San Diego and is the home to a naval air station, retired admirals and training grounds for the US Navy SEALS. It is quiet, peaceful community and easy to get around after crossing the landmark Coronado Bay Bridge. Most of the facilities are small on Coronado with the striking exception of the Hotel del Coronado (http://www.hoteldel.com), a 115 year old resort and a National Historic Landmark. There is not much one can say about the Hotel Del; it is a stupendous venue - unique, classic and the set for the 1958 move "Some Like It Hot" starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
- Mission Valley -- is centrally located along one of the main freeways in San Diego, the Interstate 8 (or as we say "the 8"), and a very short drive from the San Diego International Airport, downtown and La Jolla/Torrey Pines/Sorrento Valley. In San Diego, Mission Valley is known for its strip malls, hotels and motels, most of which are found in an area called Hotel Circle. Hotel Circle has plenty of conference facilities right off Interstate 8 and hosts conferences year round. Its advantages are that it is centrally located in the city, well connected to the trolley system and offers wide variety of places to host a professional meeting. However, it sits both outside the high tech and cultural centers of San Diego and has and has a bad reputation of being difficult to get in and out during rush hour. The high concentration of strip malls and national chain stores gives you the feeling this could be any strip of hotels in any big American city.
- Downtown/Gaslamp District -- downtown San Diego has been experiencing a second renaissance with the development of the new baseball stadium for the San Diego Padres. There is palatable feeling energy and vitality to our downtown. Downtown San Diego is immediately adjacent to the San Diego International Airport and well connected to our trolley network and other forms of public transportation. While this is California and EVERYONE drives, a conference held in downtown San Diego would not require the participants to rent a car since you can walk to most attractions. There are many facilities that could host a conference in downtown San Diego, either close to the newly built ballpark or along the waterfront, the largest being the San Diego Convention Center. Unfortunately, there is not much software development going on in downtown, since downtown is the home to the legal and financial communities of the city.
List locations that you have attended for conferences
- Manchester Grand Hyatt (downtown) - this is a really good venue with a trolley stop close by so access to the Gaslamp, etc. is readily available. Hosted Winter Simulation Conference 2002 with ~550 attendees.
- San Diego Convention Center (downtown) - quite a beautiful, massive building along the harbor. The view from the terraces of San Diego Bay are awesome. Hosts the ComicCon? yearly.
- The Hilton at Mission Bay (across from Balboa Park, around the corner from Sea World) hosted the Beyond Genome 2002 conference, in June of 2002, with 50 exhibits and 1,100 attendees. (http://www.silicoinsights.com/html/Beyondfinal.pdf) The Hilton is in a wide-open secluded stretch of Mission Bay, with a tranquil Mediterranean ambiance, lots of parking, and none of the high-density crud of downtown SD. The Hilton has restaurants overlooking the bay, and many of the hotel rooms have sun decks.
Fun stuff to do:
- World Famous San Diego Zoo (http://www.sandiegozoo.org) - cute pandas
- Wild Animal Park (http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap)- large game animals allowed to roam freely
- Sea World (http://www.seaworld.com/seaworld/ca/default.aspx)
- USS Midway museum - air craft carrier museum on the waterfront.
- Old Town San Diego (http://www.oldtownsandiego.org) - state park and yummy Mexican food!!
- Balboa Park (http://www.balboapark.org) - 13 museums, Old Globe theater, summer Shakespeare in the park, world's largest outdoor organ, Frisbee golf field, San Diego Zoo plus many other attractions.
- Baja California and Tijuana, Mexico
- Lego Land (http://www.legolandca.com) - amazing that you can build a whole amusement park out of legos!
- Julian and the Julian gold mine
- Anza-Borrego State Park (http://www.anzaborrego.statepark.org/aboutthepark.html) - unique desert habitat found no where else in the world and the largest desert park in the United States
- Torrey Pines Golf Course (http://www.torreypinesgolfcourse.com) - annual host of the PGA Buick Invitational
- Variety of public beaches (http://www.sddirect.com/beaches.htm) - Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla Shores, Coronado, Del Mar, Carlsbad, Oceanside
- Gaslamp district - home to variety of downtown theaters, restaurants and variety of other types of nightlife.
- Petco Park (http://www.padres.com) - brand new home of the San Diego Padres
- Mission Beach Aquatic Center (http://www.mbac.nu/) - lessons and equipment rentals for sailing, surfing, kayaking, etc
- Mission Bay Park - 4,600 acres of public park land at the beach
Profile of XpSanDiego?:
eXtreme Programming San Diego is a non-profit organization which aims to promote, expose and educate the software community about the practices and values of agile softare methodologies, focussing on eXtreme Programming. Our membership consists of 140 software industry professionals working in San Diego county who advocate Agile Development and Extreme Programming. We meet once a month for presentations on the XP practices, new technologies to help with agile development or shared experiences. After the presentation, interested members meet at a nearby bar to informally share advice and knowledge relating to our field of work. Our membership ranges in experience level; from college graduates to software industry veterans. We are an enthusiastic and fun group of people who enjoy the chance to learn from each other and have a good time doing it.
Help available in organizing XPAU
This XPAU proposal wiki has been contributed to by at least 20 different XPSD members. All these people were willing to anonymously donate their time to this proposal in the hope that the conference will be held in San Diego.
At our last meeting on June 3rd there was a very positive reaction as soon as the conference was mentioned. Several members have separately offered to help with conference logistics like hotel booking and social event planning even though an official request for volunteers has not yet been sent out.
As shown by the volume of conversation regarding the conference on our mailing list, the organizers of XPAU/AD need not look far if they require assistance with any aspect of holding a conference in San Diego.
Size and enthusiasm of the local community of developers:
San Diego in 2004 is a very different city as San Diego in 1984. Twenty years ago, San Diego was primarily a Navy town with major defense contractors (Titan, SAIC, Cubic, etc.) and tourism as the main industries. The end of the Cold War and base realignment over the past twenty years pushed San Diego to diversify its economy. Today, San Diego is known not only as a city defined by its defense and tourism industries, but a center of cutting edge biotechnology, new wireless technologies, life saving pharmaceuticals, software and telecommunications.
California houses the sixth largest economy in the world and a conference in San Diego would offer attendees in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the rest of Silicon Valley to participate. Los Angeles is approximately a two hour drive from San Diego and we have commuter rail service that links the two cities. Regional airlines, such as Southwest, and major airline shuttle services, United Shuttle and others, offer low-fare flights from San Francisco/Bay Area frequently during the day. Attendees can leave their homes early in the morning and set down in San Diego in less than two hours.
There are many active user groups in San Diego and we have a long tradition of men and women taking time from their work to improve their professional skills, learn from one another and contribute to improving the development of software. In fact, the San Diego Chapter of the Association for Information Technology Professionals celebrated its Fiftieth year anniversary last year. We have listed just some of the usergroups we have become associated with and their active membership numbers when available.
Finally, our excellence as a vibrant, growing community of creative professionals was recently noted by Richard Florida, author of the "Rise of the Creative Class". He ranked San Diego as the third most creative city in the United States (http://www.creativeclass.org/regall.shtml), behind San Francisco and Austin. We are honored that our creativity and diversity were recognized.
Nearby technology centers
In choosing San Diego as the conference location, XPAU/AD will also likely attract attendees from San Diego's nearby technology centers. Orange County and Los Angeles are driving distance away and San Jose (Silicon Valley) attendees can get here on a short & cheap SouthWest? flight.
Local agile-friendly companies:
Local educational institutions:
- San Diego State University ~33,000 students
- University of San Diego ~7,200 students
- University of California San Diego ~25,000 students
- San Diego City College
- Scripps Institute of Oceanography
- Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics
- San Diego Supercomputer Center
- Salk Institute
Local agile consultancies:
Other big conferences held here:
- Microsoft Tech Ed
- BEA eWorld
- San Diego Software Symposium - "No Fluff, Just Stuff" Java Conference (http://www.nofluffjuststuff.com)
- Design Automation Conference ~ 10000ppl
- NACDS ANNUAL MARKETPLACE CONFERENCE ~5000 attendees
- WORLD FITNESS IDEA ~ 5000 attendees
- SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2004 ~ 82000 attendees
- BRIAN BUFFINI'S MASTERMIND SUMMIT ~6000 attendees
- Beyond Genome 2002 conference
- Winter Simulation Conference 2002 ~550 attendees
Any miscellaneous reasons why XPAU should come here:
- San Diego International Airport is in downtown San Diego - the majority of conference facilities are less than 20 minute drive from the airport.
- Do NOT schedule a conference in San Diego during May or June - the weather is gray and depressing, no sun for days along the coast.
- July, August and September are the best months to visit San Diego
- December, January, February and March are the rainy season, but we only get about 8 inches of rain a year, so it does not rain often.
- You know you want to take your family here on vacation anyways.
