
Why San Francisco keeps losing tech conferences - prostoalex
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Why-San-Francisco-keeps-losing-tech-conferences-10939025.php
======
PaulHoule
They don't mention the fact that you might walk out of a conference hotel and
find there is a soup kitchen across the corner with a line of patrons that
wraps around the block.

Also that SFO has the worst car rental system of any airport I have ever seen.
(It is not so bad, however, if you take the BART. Oddly, most Americans won't
do that, so I always end up riding back with conference goers who came from
Europe or Asia)

As for the hotel rates I am used to New York City so the rates don't seem
entirely out of line for a "big city". To me Los Angeles looks cheap in that
you can find a place to crash under $100, a stylish place to crash around
$150-$170, and a really posh and special experience in the $200-$250 a night
range. Contrast that to $300 a night at the Doubletree in Boston.

~~~
DrScump

      Oddly, most Americans won't (take BART)
    

Actually, BART is fine if your only venture outside of your destination inside
SF proper is the airport (which is actually in the next county). But most
visitors here with any optional time will want to venture out and will often
get a rental vehicle because of that (beach, redwoods, wine country are all
within an hour's drive, good camping within 2 hours, and skiing within 4
hours).

Also, BART doesn't go to/from the SF airport all hours.

------
i386
> San Francisco was perceived as very trendy at one time. It just isn’t
> anymore

Companies are certainly not moving their conferences to San Jose because it's
a more trendy city. San Jose is nice but it's not San Francisco. I fly in to
San Jose regularly from Australia but San Francisco is hands down where I'd
want to be given the choice.

With Moscone out of action and the San Francisco Design Concourse a block of
Luxury apartments there just simply isn't the venues to hold conferences of
different sizes in San Francisco.

Even when Moscone was an option, event organisers from moderate sized
companies consider the space too large and potentially awkward if they don't
hit attendance numbers. Going south for medium-to-large events is now the only
option.

------
true_tuna
Because sf is full? Conferences fuck the already overloaded streets and there
aren't enough hotel rooms and the public transit is bullshit (it's literally
quicker for me to walk for 55 minutes than take the bus to work) and being
here is unpleasant because homeless people strew garbage and human waste
everywhere. Not blaming the homeless here. If I didn't have a place to shit
I'd damn well do it on the street too. We just suck at basically everything a
city needs to do to be a pleasant place.

------
fred_is_fred
Here's one that's interesting. At the last conference I went to in SF several
folks at one of the evening events had to leave early. They worked for a large
Fortune 100 company but were unable to find a hotel in SF that was company
approved and cheap enough to allow them to stay in. They had to BART back to
Oakland. I don't know how many people are affected by that but I'm sure it's
annoying.

