Tamil Internet Conference, 2011 - Frequently Asked Questions

1) Will I have Wi-fi in the hotel?

Best Western Center City hotel has free Wi-Fi access: Refer to the page: http://bestwesternpa.com/hotels/best-western-center-city-hotel for the message: "Each valued guest will experience thoughtfully-appointed guest rooms, complete with cable satellite television and free high-speed Internet access. Guests can relax at the onsite restaurant and lively sports bar. "

We are not sure about the other hotel where Cox & Kings customers will be staying, but most of the US hotels have Wi-Fi these days. In some hotels, you will need to get a password to access their network. Ask the front desk customer representative when you check in.

2) I am local and I plan to drive to conference venue. Is there a parking lot nearby?

We made some arrangement with PENN parking officials and they agreed to let us use the Parking lot # 7 which is close to the venue. However, this is only for Saturday and Sunday, but not Friday though. This parking lot is very close to the Route 76 and most of the participants will come through route 76. There is going to be $10/per entry, which is a discount rate. For Friday, the only option is to meter park on the side of the road, either on the 33rd South Street or on Walnut street.

The address for parking lot is:
Penn Parking lot #7
South St. & Convention Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Our Conference venue:
David Rittenhouse Labs
Corner of 33rd and Walnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104
3) How can I contact my family during my stay? Can I avail public telephones? How much will they charge if I make an International call for 15 minutes?

Unfortunately, the public telephones and telephones that are available in hotels are very expensive. If you give your family the phone number of the hotel and your room number and if they call you, you won't have to spend any money. The incoming calls in land lines are free. If you have Wi-Fi in hotels, it would be better if you use Skype or other IM services to contact your relatives in Tamil Nadu. The hotel number of the Bestwestern Center City hotel is 215/568-8300. (I think from India, you would dial 001215688300). Check with your Cox and Kings representative for the phone number of the hotel you will be staying. Sim cards to make international calls are outrageously expensive here. Also, you would need a phone that can take such Sim cards and not all phones can take the sim cards you purchase from some of the stores here. You can actually buy a "Pay as you go" phones which can be used to make international calls as well as domestic calls. Again, they are very expensive as well - about $20 for the phone and $2.00 per minute for international calls.

4) How much money in dollars I have to carry to the conference (apart from $50 for registration)?

When you are in the conference, your registration fee will take care of your snacks, coffee, lunch and dinner on Friday; lunch and snacks on Saturday and Sunday. So, you won't need to spend anything when you are in the conference venue. But, you will need to buy breakfast and dinner, which usually cost about $15 each day. McDonalds, Burger King etc., may not cost more than $7 for each meal. You can also order pizzas from your hotel room. If a few of you order together and share the cost, you can get a good deal. Each large pizza would cost around $8 to $10. So, the bottomline is how would you want to spend your time here in the US? Are you planning to just make an inexpensive living here while you are here or whether you would want to make use of your presence here in a lavish way? This would determine whether you would need $30 or $100 per day! I imagine if you have $40 extra per day, that would be sufficient.

5) Tour and Sight seeing?

If you plan to go around the places, the taxi would cost about $10 to $50 depending upon where you go. There are some tour packages in Philadelphia and New York that you may want to make use of. They usually cost about $30 to $40. You can get more information from here: http://www.phillytours.us/ for Philadelphia tour and http://www.newyorksightseeing.com/ for New York tour. Of course, you can walk around the downtown where some of the important places such as Independence Hall, Art Museum etc., are located. These places are in a walkable distance form the Best Western Center City hotel. Please avoid walking around on the streets of Philadelphia after about 7PM, unless you have someone who accompanies you from local area.

If you plan to go to New York or Washington DC, you can take a bus or train - which usually cost about $80 roundtrip. Check out: http://www.staticleap.com/chinatownbus/

6) I have my flight booked only upto New York. How do I come to Philadelphia?

You can come either by train or bus. See the link http://www.jfk-airport.net/bus.html for how to take a buse to come to Philadelphia for a $10 to $15 one way fare. Trains run from New York - Penn Station, NY (NYP)
To: Philadelphia - 30th Street Station, PA (PHL). Take a taxi (for about $20) from JFK airport and go to Penn Station and take a train for ($49 one way) to come to Philadelphia. See the schedule at: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

7) How much time would be allocated for a presentation?

Each presenter is given 30 minutes for presentation, which can be used for both presentation as well as question/answers. Please submit your presentations ahead of time as soon as you arrive, so we can load them into our computers and get them ready for you to present. For some of the presenters, we gave 45minutes as they would be summarizing their department projects, that may be of significant to others. Check out the conference website: http://www.tamilinternetconference.org frequently for any updated information about the conference.

8) How is the climate there? Should I bring thermal wears etc?

This is summer here in the US, and June is the most beautiful and pleasant month when compared to other months here. So, you won't need any thermal wears at all. Even if it rains during June, the weather won't be cold at all. If you have any slim jackets, keep them just in case if you won't like even the slightest cold and breeze. We have just thrown away our big jackets into the basements, and we hope not to be reminded of them at least for another four months :)

9) What is the address of the conference venue? Is it very far from the conference hotel?

Conference venue is located at the center of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The address is shown as below.
David Rittenhouse Laboratory (A1) (http://www.facilities.upenn.edu/map.php?id=105)
209 South 33rd Street . Philadelphia . PA . 19104

It is about ten minutes drive from the hotel, and will be very far to walk. We will try to communte the participants from hotel and conference venue. Please get ready at 8AM on 17th, 18th and 19th morning to pick you up from the hotel.

10) Where is the link for the conference program and list of papers to be presented?

Conference program is at: http://www.thetamillanguage.com/ti2011/TI2011.htm and list of papers is at: http://www.thetamillanguage.com/ti2011/ti2011_papers.html

These links are provided at our conference webpage: http://www.tamilinternetconference.org