OpenCon will be held at the Osho Leela retreat in Gillingham, Dorset. Osho Leela is a Tantra and mediation retreat with dorm-style beds and double rooms available.
The venue has two large meeting rooms, one large dining hall, a bar open in the evenings during our event, several small meeting areas (social spaces attached to the sleeping cabins, seats 8-10 each), and plenty of outdoor space. It is also in the middle of the lovely Dorset countryside.
OpenCon runs Friday-Sunday, Oct 5th to 7th, 2012. It’ll begin at 6.00pm on the Friday and end at 4.30pm on the Sunday. See our Bookings Page to book a place.
Directions
Trains run from London Waterloo station to Gillingham (DOR) station. Gillingham station is a 5 minute taxi ride from Osho Leela. Train journey time is 2 hours travel from London.
The postcode is SP8 4RE, and detailed driving directions will be emailed out after booking. If you’re driving, it’d be amazing if you could offer ride-shares to other participants – you can offer or request rideshares on the Facebook event.
Rooms
You may choose to live in dorms for the £90 basis rate which is all-inclusive with food. Osho Leela also has plenty of double rooms at additional rates, and doubles cost £35 per night (that’s total for both people).
Staying nearby
If you are not staying on site but intend on participating for the entire weekend with the other residential guests, we ask for a contribution of £20.
Accessibility
The meeting rooms are wheelchair accessible, however, there are a limited number of fully wheelchair accessible sleeping rooms. If you need an accessible room, please contact us when booking.
The venue comprises a large main building and several outhouses we use as workshop space. The main building has step-free access to all of the ground floor. This includes a reception area with sofas for socialising, a dining room, one of our large workshop spaces (which we also use for evening events and the opening and closing ceremonies: it’s called Zorba), a bar (with a piano!), a cafe (which we turned into a chillout space last year) and a wheelchair-accessible residential suite. Two friendly cats roam around this building, but can easily be shut out of the workshop space.
The upstairs of the main building is dorms: most OpenCon attendees will sleep here, and this year we’ll be providing a choice between taking single-gender and mixed-gender rooms. It also contains communal, same-gender showers which are shared with the residents: if you’re staying in a dorm but need access to a private, gender-neutral shower, get in touch.
There is a second large workshop space in an outbuilding close to the main building: it has four steps leading up to the door. Private accommodation is available in trailers and pine cabins a two-minute walk from the main building: these will be private double or twin rooms, with a shared bathroom and living area. The living areas in the three pine cabins will be used as smaller workshop spaces – the rooms do not lock, and so should be considered as being as open as the dorm rooms. The private cabins also have three or four steps leading up to the front doors.
It’s also possible to camp at the venue: there are campsite showers, and the fees are reduced by £10 per person if you camp.
We know that the amount of step-free access around this venue is not ideal. Our dream venue includes step-free access throughout, is easily accessible by public transport, is cheap, friendly, serves varied food, has an induction loop, has gender-neutral loos, and a host of other factors that we don’t know about yet! This venue is the best we have found so far – if you know of a better venue, we’d love to hear your suggestions!
