The GNOME Marketing Hackfest will take place in Chicago, IL USA November 10th and 11th, 2009.

1. Location

Google has kindly offered to host us at their Chicago offices:

20 West Kinzie St. Chicago, IL 60610 Phone: +1 312-840-4100

Information about Chicago can be found at the City of Chicago website.

2. Hackfest Goals

2.1. Primary Goals

• Conference Materials (GNOME Event box such as the brochures, banners & more)

• GNOME presentation materials (GNOME presentations, how to run a GNOME booth FAQ for volunteers, FAQ from users at conferences and more)
• GNOME Marketing Wiki re-organization (organize current content and make it easier to find content and add the new content above)
• Review and edit the new GNOME.org website pages that have been drafted on live.gnome.org
• Determine the functional requirements the GNOME Marketing view as necessary to release GNOME 3.0 (learn from the mistakes of others)

2.2. Secondary Goals

• Friends of GNOME (10 / month)

• GNOME 3.0 Marketing Brainstorm / Discussion (Downstream adoption & marketing impact)

• GNOME 3.0 Marketing Campaign
• GNOME Store
• GNOME Success Stories / Case Studies

3. Attendees

4. Agenda

4.1. Tuesday November 10th

9:00 a.m. Kickoff @ Google

6:30 p.m. GNOME Meetup / Dinner

4.2. Wednesday November 11th

9:00 a.m. Day 2 Start

5. Travel Accommodations

* Hotels

GNOME Sponsored Attendees are staying at the Hard Rock Hotel:

230 North Michigan Avenue , Chicago, IL 60601

Chicago has three international airports: O'Hare, Midway, and the Gary-Chicago International Airport.

For public transportation, you have options for each airport. You can take the CTA blue line train between O'Hare and downtown, you can take the CTA orange line train between Midway and downtown, or you can take the South Shore Metra train between the Gary-Chicago International Airport and downtown.

* Chicago CTA

The Chicago CTA train system costs $2.25 per ride. It is much cheaper to take the train between downtown and either airport. For example, a taxi from O'Hare would be about $35-40, and from Midway $25-30. The train is often just as fast, or faster, since traffic can make taxis take longer, especially during rush hours. The Google office is very accessible via the CTA train system. If taking the Red line, the closest stop is the "Grand" station. If taking the Brown/Purple line, the closest stop is the "Merchandise Mart" station. If taking the Blue line, the closest stop is the "Clark/Lake" station. The "State/Lake" station is the closest stop for the Green, Orange, and Pink lines (it is also a transfer station and a stop for the Brown, and Purple lines as well). Maps and other information can be found at the CTA website.

* Chicago Metra

If taking the train from the suburbs, or from a different city, then you will be taking the Metra. There are 3 train stations in downtown Chicago: Union Station, the Randolph/Michigan station, and the Ogilvie station. All three are downtown and pretty close to the event, though perhaps a bit far to walk. You might consider taking a short taxi ride after arriving at the train station. Short trips like this of a mile or so are not too expensive when taking the taxi. Maps and other information can be found at the Metra website.

* Sponsoring Travel

Thanks to Novell, GNOME can help sponsor travel. This includes hotel and airfare, but does not cover food (and Google is providing lunch both days). For details, please see GNOME Travel Policy and please fill out the application ASAP and turn in to the travel committee. When filling out the application the hotel is $85 a night and we will be sharing rooms if you are sponsored. Once the travel committee approves your application, then book your travel.