ALICE’s new meeting room

There’s no reason to be late for a meeting in Wonderland (Point 2) anymore as ALICE gets a brand new conference room and a ‘clean up’.

You won’t find Building 3294 on the CERN map yet, but it is already being used. If you follow the white rabbit just inside the entrance at point 2, you will find a new conference room and office space for 12 people.

"Previously at Point 2 we’ve had very little office space at all. Our old conference room was inside the main building, SX2, but it was cramped and extremely noisy," explained Frank Cliff from ALICE. "As soon as they turned on the overhead cranes you could barely hear yourself think!"

The plans for the new building were drawn up by the Civil Engineering Group, and construction started in August last year. The building was completed and already in use before Christmas. The 109 square metre conference room can fit up to 60 people and is fully equipped with video conferencing, wi-fi and air-con. "When the experiment is operating we will have up to two meetings per day, with around 50 people at each. So this new conference room will be invaluable," he continued.

The TS Department and the Chief Financial Officer gave the green light last April, on the condition that Point 2 was also given a ‘clean up’. It was decided that over half of the ageing temporary barracks should be removed. Since then 10 temporary buildings have been removed from Point 2, with around 15 still to be moved.

Work is also well underway on the construction of a new LHCb conference room at Point 8. The main construction work should be finished by spring and once completed the room will accommodate about 50 people.