So you’ve decided to come to Open Source Bridge in Portland, Oregon this June 21 – 24, but you’re coming from out of town, don’t know the area all that well, and need a place to stay? Don’t worry, we have some options for you near our Eliot Center conference venue.

We put together a comprehensive listing of lodging options near our conference venue on our wiki’s Lodging section to help you research. There’s also a map so you can see where these are.

We have secured discounts for our attendees through local hotel sponsors during the week of the conference. You will find details about these hotels and their discounts in our wiki’s Hotels article. When booking or while staying at these hotels, please thank them for providing discount sponsorships for Open Source Bridge.

For those on a budget we can recommend a couple of really good options:

First, there is Couchsurfing.org, a travel web site that matches travelers with hosts in cities around the world that are willing to put a verified person up for a few nights’ stay. If this is the option you’d like to try, you should first sign up for Couchsurfing.org, read their getting started tips, make a profile, get verified, and read the tips on how to be a good couch surfer. Portland has its own Ambassador of Couchsurfing, Ms. Lolly Rae, check out her profile and contact her with any questions you have about the Couchsurfing.org community. Although she can’t put up all of you, she can give great tips on using Couchsurfing.org in the Portland area.

Next, we have some local hostels. The Northwest Portland International Hostel & Guesthouse is closest to the conference venue. The Portland Hawthorne Hostel is across the river, but easily-accessible by Tri-Met bus. You can also check the Hostel World web site for any other deals they may have.

Still looking for something else? You can try the usual travel sites, like Kayak.com, Lonely Planet, Orbitz, Priceline, or Lastminute.com. Or keep checking back to this blog post or our Open Source Bridge Wiki for any updates on travel and accommodations. We look forward to seeing you here in June in the beautiful Rose City to join us for Open Source Bridge 2011.

During the conference, your Open Source Bridge badge gives you access to all of the museum galleries. This includes all of the open exhibition space within the Mark Building itself, home to the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, as well as the galleries in the main building itself.

For the entire month of June the Portland Art Museum is pleased to offer Bridge participants a 20% discount to becoming a member (use Promo code ‘OS10′) . Members enjoy free admission to the galleries, 10% off purchases made in the Museum gift store, invitations to members-only events & exhibition viewings, as well as discounts on lectures, films, art making classes, and other special programs.

For a complete list of membership categories and benefits visit http://portlandartmuseum.org/join//membership/

Promo code: OS10 valid through 6/30/2010

• Ace Hotel: $109.00 per night
• Jupiter Hotel: $75.00 per night
• Paramount Hotel: $94.00 per night
• Benson Hotel: $129.00 per night
• Hotel Modera: $99.00 per night
• Best Western Convention Center: $54.00 per night
• Courtyard City Center: $80.00 per night
• Comfort Inn City Center: 70.00 per night
• Mark Spencer Hotel: $75.00 per night

View Open Source Bridge 2010 Lodging in a larger map

By the way, thanks to everyone who submitted, tweeted about submitting, blogged about it, nagged friends to do it. You guys are awesome. In the end, we received 260 proposals, including one with 21 seconds to go. That’s fantastic, more than double what we’d hoped to get.

What to do now? Is the waiting killing you?

Head over to the proposals and comment, comment, comment  and then comment some more. Each proposal has comments that you can use to show your support. The content team will be reviewing these over the next couple days. So, this is your chance to broadcast your opinion to them.

So, what else can you do while we all wait?

If you submitted a proposal, I know one thing you can do: stop worrying about missing the Early Bird deadline.

Oh yeah, did you forget that the Early Bird rate ended on Friday too?

Not really a big deal, since the full price is only $250 for three days of talks, keynotes, and the 24-hour hacker lounge.

Don’t fret. If you were too busy formulating your proposal and forgot to register, we’ve got you covered.

If you submitted, and your proposal is not accepted, we still want you to come. So, we have a code you can use when you register that will get you the Early Bird rate of $175. Just drop a comment here or email us at info at opensourcebridge dot org. Make sure to remind us what proposal you submitted, too.

If you submitted, and your proposal is accepted, your attendance will be free, natch. If you’re already registered, we’ll refund the cost. No worries.

Now that you’ve got that off your mind, get back to enjoying your weekend.

Yeah, that oldie, but goodie seems to be experiencing a resurgence. Or maybe it’s just that I hang out with Rick way too much. Oopie.

Well, here comes the Portland technical conference version of Reese’s: Open Source Bridge and WebVisions.

I’m happy to announce that WebVisions (May 20-22, 2009 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon) and Open Source Bridge (June 17-19, 2009 at the Oregon Convention Center) have joined together to provide a 2-for-1 attendance package. Until May 18, if you register for WebVisions or register for Open Source Bridge, you’ll be able to attend both for only $300. I’m resisting the urge to sound like an infomercial pitchman because this really is a sweet deal.

How so? What do you get for your $300?

Well, if you read here, you know about Open Source Bridge, but just in case, here come the bullets:

• Open Source Bridge is entirely volunteer-run, by developers, for developers. This is the conference you’ve always wanted to attend.
• Session tracks are technology agnostic, based instead around shared community experiences and focused on similarities between projects, not differences.
• The geekery doesn’t end when the sessions do. There will also be a 24-hour hacker lounge for code sprints, bug bashes, session deep dives, bouncing ideas, starting new projects or just mingling and taking in the vibe.

And we’ll throw in a little World Domination to keep you interested.

So, what about WebVisions?

From their about:

WebVisions explores the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy to uncover the trends and agents of change that will shatter your assumptions about the Web. Be ready to network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

Over the years, we’ve built a loyal audience of designers, developers and industry leaders. I invite you to join us for an event that’s seen as “the creative conference for the Web.”

I believe this year will be WebVisions’ ninth iteration, all of them held here in Portland. I attended last year (and will this year as well), and thoroughly enjoyed the content and speakers. This year looks to be no different, with a lineup of heavy-hitters.

Maybe I should be asking what don’t you get for $300.

Not convinced? That’s what I like about you, never an easy sell.

Well, let’s examine the numbers. WebVisions’ Early Bird rate is $195, and I think that may be ending March 31 April 6, which means the cost rises to $250, still very affordable for the content. Open Source Bridge’s Early Bird rate is $175, also ending March 31 April 10, after which the cost also rises to $250, still cheap.

So, the package deal saves you $70 if you act before the Early Bird rates expire April 6, $125 between April 7 and 10, and if you miss that date both dates entirely, it’ll save you $200 on both.

Not too shabby considering: a) the caliber of the content and b) the relatively low prices of these two conferences.

Plus, there’s not a lot of overlapping content between WebVisions and Open Source Bridge. Look for yourself: our session proposals and keynotes and WebVisions’ schedule, including a full day of workshops.

So, look for the 2-for-1 option when you register. We’ve had one taker already, and we just debuted this a few days ago.

You’re the big winner here. Enjoy.