2019 Berkeley GOC Meeting Logistics

GOC Meeting, Berkeley, October 7-10, 2019

• Location: 717 Potter Street, Berkeley, CA

Registration

• Via Eventbrite--pay online with credit or debit card or Paypal
• $130 registration fee covers coffee & snacks for the 2.5-day GOC meeting, as well as 2 lunches and the Consortium dinner on Oct 9 (not including alcoholic beverages)
• Please also fill in the fields in the Attendees list at the bottom of this page. If you don't have edit permission, you can instead fill out this signup form.

Overall schedule

• Monday, October 7: User Meeting (8:30am-5pm)
• Tuesday-Thursday October 8-10: GOC Meeting (8:30am-5pm first 2 days, 9am-12:30pm third day)
• Friday, October 11 (time TBA): SAB Meeting, UC Berkeley campus (Stanley Hall). (SAB dinner will be Thursday, Oct 10)

Consortium dinner

• Wednesday, Oct 9, 6pm, in Berkeley
• More details coming soon

User Meeting

• Monday, October 7 at the same location as the main meeting (717 Potter St., Berkeley). More details soon.

SAB Meeting

• SAB Meeting: Friday, October 11 (time TBA) in Stanley Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Logistics here.
• SAB dinner: Thursday, October 10, 7pm: place TBD

Arriving

The closest airports are San Francisco (SFO) and Oakland (OAK). From either of those, you can take BART to Berkeley and get a taxi/Lyft/Uber from the Ashby BART station.

Scroll down to the "Getting around" section for more info.

Hotels

These are listed in increasing order by price. The Four Points by Sheraton is the only one that's walking distance (1.4 miles) from the meeting location; the others are downtown, a short drive away. This map shows the relative locations of the hotels.

For travel to our building, we will arrange for attendees to have access to the LBNL Potter St. shuttle to our building from downtown Berkeley.

Downtown Berkeley Inn

• Address: 2001 Bancroft Way, Berkeley (2.4 miles from the meeting location)
• Phone: (510) 843-4043
• Rate: LBNL rate is $129/night (normal rate $139/night).
• How to book: Phone (don't book online) and ask for “LBL” or “Gene Ontology” room block.
  • 10 rooms reserved--we may be able to get more if needed.
  • Check in as early as Oct 6; check out as late as Oct 12.
  • Last day to get the group rate: September 6, 2019.
• Description: Very basic, but adequate.
• Advantages: Cheapest option. Fairly close to downtown Berkeley.

Four Points by Sheraton Bay Bridge

• Address: 1603 Powell Street, Emeryville (1.4 miles from the meeting location),
• Phone: 1-800-325-3535
• Rate: $175/night (single or double) block rate for “Gene Ontology / GO meeting”.
• How to book: Book using this link: https://www.marriott.com/events/start.mi?id=1563407776453&key=GRP or call 1-800-325-3535 and ask for the “Gene Ontology” room block.
  • 10 rooms reserved--we may be able to get more if needed.
  • Check in as early as Oct 6; check out as late as Oct 12.
  • Last day to get the group rate: September 6, 2019.
• Description: A normal hotel. Has an outdoor pool and a fitness center.
• Advantages: Closest hotel to meeting location.

The Graduate (formerly the Hotel Durant)

• Address: 2600 Durant Ave, Berkeley (2.9 miles from the meeting location)
• Phone: 510-845-8981
• Rate: Average of $210/night for a room with one queen.
• How to book: No special rates; you can book online
• Description: No pool or fitness center. More distinctive than the similarly-priced Hotel Shattuck Plaza. A recent article about The Graduate noted, "Berkeley's quirky counterculture is represented by bong-shaped lamps in the guestrooms and a restroom urinal painted with the logo and colors of Stanford, Cal-Berkeley’s arch-rival." Known for having made a brief appearance in the movie of the same name.
• Advantages: Near UC Campus and Telegraph Avenue, a colorful if slightly sketchy part of Berkeley.

Hotel Shattuck Plaza

• Address: 2086 Allston Way, Berkeley (2.5 miles from the meeting location)
• Phone: 866-466-9199
• Rate: UC Berkeley rate: $215/night. Same price for double or single.
• How to book: You will need to phone and ask for the UC Berkeley rate--not available online.
• Description: A more upscale hotel than the previous three, it was completely remodeled a few years ago. Has a fitness center but no pool.
• Advantages: Right in the heart of downtown Berkeley, near BART, Potter St. shuttle, and many world-class restaurants

Getting around / To do / Local activities

The organizers have lived in the area for a very long time. If you have *any* questions, do not hesitate to reach out to us and let us make your stay in the Bay Area more more pleasant.

Getting around

The LBL Potter Street site is located near a highway in a mixed business park and light industrial area.

Walking

Walking from the Emeryville hotel (Four Points Sheraton) to the meeting site is doable, but not necessarily a "pleasant" walk. It takes about half an hour.

Walking from downtown is not advised and would take about an hour.

By car (inc. "rideshare")

If you are driving to the GO meeting, parking should not be an issue--while there will be no on-site parking, there is usually plenty of on-street parking in the surrounding area if you can walk a little. If you intend on driving, contact Seth or Nomi for details.

The are usually plenty of Lyfts and Ubers in the area. The downtown area is about 10-12 minutes away.

By public transportation

From downtown

LBL shuttle

There is a fairly frequent LBL shuttle that directly connects downtown Berkeley area and the Potter Street site:

https://commute.lbl.gov/resource/shuttle-buses/maps-routes-schedules/potter-st-jbei-route/

You will need to show an LBL guest pass to board this shuttle. We can provide these on request--contact Seth or Nomi. The shuttle is often a 15-person van, so large groups may need to split up at peak times.

Bus (AC Transit)

There is also a bus that departs from near downtown and the Durant hotel and has a stop quite near the Potter Street site:

http://www.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?quick_line=36&Go=Go

From Emeryville

While it does not run directly by the hotel, one would need to walk a little and cross a bridge over the tracks, there is a free public shuttle that runs from near the hotel to near the Potter Street site: The Emery Go-round ():

https://www.emerygoround.com/standard-service.html

Biking and scootering

The are is fairly well served by various "last mile" solutions.

Rental bikes (now Lyft, previously Ford GoBikes) are available at various locations (https://member.baywheels.com/map/), including downtown Berkeley and near the meeting site (next to the Berkeley Bowl grocery store).

Food and drinks

Overview

Downtown Berkeley has lots of places to eat. The LBL Potter Street location is much more limited for cafes and restaurants, but there is a large supermarket with a cafe (Berkeley Bowl) a few blocks away. Ubereats and the like are always an option for people wanting more variety and many of the organizers will have vehicles and may be doing various errands about town anyways, if there is something in particular you want or need.

Seth will be happy to talk nearly endlessly about local restaurant, bar, and tea/cafe opportunities.

Exercise

For people interested in hitting the gym or swimming, the UC Berkeley recreational facilities are open to the general public with day passes:

https://recsports.berkeley.edu/day-passes/

The main rec facility and pool location is a short walk from downtown Berkeley. Several of the satellite pools have reduced day pass rates.

Things to do in the Berkeley area

The popular "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" festival (which leans more towards alternative rock than bluegrass) will take place in San Francisco, Fri-Sun October 4-6.

On Wednesday, Oct 8, we will break early for an optional hike in Tilden Park.

On Thursday, Oct 9, there will be an optional outing to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The Exploratorium is open Thursday evenings until 10pm for adults only (18+). To add to the fun, we'll take the ferry to San Francisco from the Berkeley Marina and then get dinner near there.

Departure

The GOC meeting will adjourn at 12:30pm on Thursday, October 10; lunch will not be provided (but there are places nearby to buy lunch). You should allow 1/2 hour to get to Oakland airport by car and 1 hour to get to SFO.

If you're staying around until Friday, there's an optional expedition on Thursday evening (see above).

Attendees

Please add yourself to the table if you plan to attend! Don't forget to register and pay via Eventbrite.

Alex Ignatchenko

Name	Organization	GOC meeting (Oct 8-10)?	GOC dinner (Oct 9)?	User Meeting (Oct 7)?	Hotel	Paid via Eventbrite
Chris Mungall	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Nomi Harris	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Seth Carbon	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes
Eric Douglass	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Peter D'Eustachio	NYULMC / Reactome	Yes	Yes	No	Four Points
Paul Thomas	USC	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD
Judy Blake	JAX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Four Points	Yes
Ben Good	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD
Jim Balhoff	RENCI	Yes	Yes	No	TBD
Kimberly Van Auken	WormBase, GO - Caltech	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD	Yes
David Hill	MGI, GO - The Jackson Laboratory	Yes	No	Yes	Four Points	Yes
Harold Drabkin	MGI, GO - The Jackson Laboratory	Yes	Yes	No	Four Points	Yes
Karen Christie	MGI, GO - The Jackson Laboratory	Yes	Yes	Yes	Four Points	Yes
Laurent-Philippe Albou	USC, LBNL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Edith Wong	SGD	Yes	Yes	No	N/A
Tanya Berardini	TAIR, Phoenix	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes
Leonore Reiser	TAIR, Phoenix	Fo' sho	yes	yes	N/A	Yes
Eva Huala	TAIR, Phoenix	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Suzi Aleksander	SGD, Stanford	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Mike Cherry	SGD, Stanford	Yes	Yes	No	Nash Hotel	yes
Huaiyu Mi	USC	Yes	Yes	Maybe	Four Points
Ruth Lovering	UCL	Yes	Yes	Yes	not booked yet	not yet
Adam Wright	OICR	Yes	Yes	Yes	Hilton Garden Inn	Yes
Justin Reese	LBL	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes
Petra Fey	dictyBase, Northwestern	Yes	Yes	Yes	not yet booked
Dustin Ebert	USC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Oakland airbnb	Yes
Pascale Gaudet	SIB/GOC	Yes	Yes	Yes	airbnb	not yet
Tom Hayman	RGD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Four Points
Sabrina Toro	ZFIN	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD
Michelle Giglio	IGS	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD	not yet
Suvarna Nadendla	IGS	Yes	Yes	Yes	TBD	not yet
EBI	Yes	Yes	No	Hotel Shattuck Plaza	Yes

NOT attending (please indicate if you will attend remotely):

Malcolm Fisher (Xenbase) will attend remotely.

Birgit Meldal (EBI Complex Portal) - remotely if required (need to see schedule) / manageable (I'm +8 hours)

Remote attendees can join us via Zoom (Zoom link will be sent out before the meeting)