Philippe taught me the French tradition of bounded
consensus. Two traders take a candle, cut it short and light it. As it burns
they negotiate a deal. When the candle goes out, the last offer is the final
offer. The candle has gone out and no one has expressed strong preferences or
objections and we need to make a decision about the hotel. The best option we
have for the non IBMers is the Metropolitan; it is a very nice full service
hotel located in the heart of Vancouver’s
downtown and is central to everything. You should be able to book a room at 185
CDN or less a night. I can just see Bruce feeling rather smug about booking a
110.00 rate. J For the IBMer’s the
Four Seasons is apparently an option (verrry verrry nice) and is across the
street from the Metropolitan. The next option is the Crowne
Plaza on Georgia which is next door to the
Metropolitan. I did negotiate a better rate at the Metropolitan (175/night,
free internet and five car parks) but I cannot guarantee that at least 10
people will stay at the Metropolitan.
Transportation wise, there is parking at the hotels. As an
option you may want to consider just using taxis. It is about a $25-30 trip
from the airport to downtown and probably a little less (say 20 to 25) from the
hotels to UBC. Unless you want to play tourist and visit the North Shore
mountains on Sunday or one of the evenings you will not generally need a
car to get around the city.
I will send out maps and directions to UBC and the room
locations next week.
Looking forward to a great working session.
Steve