Re: Off Topic: Space for Demos and Crates/Boxes

Posted by Gert van Cappellen on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Off-Topic-Space-for-Demos-and-Crates-Boxes-tp5397157p5411695.html

We have the same kind of problem but,

1) Setting up the latest confocals is taking much less time than 5 years ago, meaning you have a much shorter time in which the boxes should be around
2) End of last year we had a demo by Nikon and they didn't have any problems taking the boxes with them till the end of the demo. In the end this was not necessary because we found an empty room nearby, but they offered us this solution

Good luck,
Gert van Cappellen

on 10-08-2010 21:28 Holly Aaron said the following:

Dear Listers - Sorry for the slightly off-topic question, but I figure many of you have demos at your institutes when you are planning to purchase equipment or write grants.

 

The situation is such:  The buliding where my facility is housed is under "new management" that insists boxes and crates cannot be stored in the hallway at all. Mind you, the hallways are quite narrow for a "science" building, 6-feet across.  Previously, as long as we left 3-feet of clearance for fire-code, it was okay to leave the boxes in the hall. I barely have enough space to host an installed demo system with enough room for users to gather around it. I do not have space in the facility to store boxes and crates. The "management" tells me they do not have any storage available. They say the vendor should have the shipping company come and take the crates after the install and bring them back for the tear-down.

 

So my question is this: What do other academic institues do for demo boxes/crates?

 

I do not think we can compete with industry options or maybe even private schools, but it would be good to know what others are doing. Is storage included in your overhead costs? Does your department provide space for demo setups and storage?  Will vendors be able to have the boxes held off-site? Or will some vendors not bring demos with these restrictions?  I do know that it is almost always the case that the equipment arrives a day or two in advance of the install and that without fail, there is always a cable left in one of the boxes which has to be found at some later point, making off-site storage seem less than ideal.

 

Thanks for the info.

-Holly
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Holly L. Aaron
Molecular Imaging Center
Cancer Research Laboratory
University of California Berkeley
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