Milwaukee Upper East Side Event Venue Details

  James  6 mins read.

Upper East Side Event Venue Details

Agile Carpentry has an upscale event room on the Upper East Side of Milwaukee, overlooking Lake Michigan. This is in a more residential urban neighborhood. There are lots of walkable restaurants, grocery stores, an amazing park system, and a wonderful trail system; but no hotels. Fortunately, the Downtown hotels are very close by.

Venue Address

Park Lafayette Towers
1918 East Lafayette Place
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Parking

Kenilworth Parking Lot
2139 N Prospect Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Notes:

  • Surface lot
  • ~$12/day
  • Immediately across from the intersection of N. Prospect Avenue and E. Woodstock Place.
  • Prospect Avenue is a one-way street which travels in a North-Easterly direction.

Public Parking Garage
2170 N Farwell Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Notes:

  • Covered parking.
  • ~$12/day
  • Along Farwell Avenue just south of E. Kenilworth Place.
  • There is a pedistrian passageway from this garage which makes it almost as close as the Kenilworth surface lot.

Street Parking between N. Prospect Avenue and E. Kane Place along N. Summit Avenue
Notes:

  • You are super lucky if you find a spot here.
  • There is very little free all-day street parking in this neighorhood. This is one of the very few exceptions.
  • This is by far the closest all-day public parking available near the training venue.
  • WARNING: Parking in this neighborhood is very strictly enforced. If you park in a limited duration parking space your vehicle will be ticketed if not towed.

Oak Leaf Trail To/From Downtown Hotels

In pleasant weather, the Oak Leaf Trail provides a great way to travel between the Downtown hotels and the Upper East Side event venue.

Using the recently built Downtown Westin Milwaukee as an example starting location, the travel times along Oak Leaf Trail to the Upper East Side event venue are as follows:

  • Walking: 37 minutes
  • Bicycle: 11 minutes
  • Scooter: 11 minutes

Consider Packing A Bicycle Helmet

Bicycle helmets are not legally required, but they are always a good idea. Consider packing one.

Here are a few folding bicycle helmet models.

You may also find the Virgina Tech Helmet Ratings useful. See the Are Cheap Helmets Unsafe? YouTube video for the story of the Virgina Tech helmet ratings lab.

Bublr Ride-Share Bicycles

Bublr Ride-Share Bicycles

The urban portions of Milwaukee have Bublr ride-share bicycles every few blocks.

Milwaukee has a very extensive trail system. This includes some pretty trails along Lake Michigan. You can explore the trail system on the Milwaukee County Parks website.

Although riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is technically illegal, this rule is only loosely enforced. If you are riding slowly and considerately along the sidewalks it is very unlikely you will encounter any problems. In many places the trail system and the sidewalks are the same.

If you are racing along the sidewalk, as you dream of riding in the Tour de France, don’t be surprised if the police stop you.

Dockless Electric Scooters

Dockless Electric Scooter Ride-Shares

Every spring the dockless electric scooters start showing up. Each vendor has their own mobile application for showing where to find a nearby scooter. Technically people are supposed to park them in designated spots, but no one does.

These are fast enough that police are more likely to enforce the no sidewalk rule. Riding on the Oak Leaf Trail is perfectly fine.

The two brands I am currently seeing are:

Other brands I have seen in the past:

Custom Neighborhood Map

You can turn on/off each of the following layers in the above custom neighborhood map:

  • Major Landmarks: Training Venue, All-Day Parking, Coffee Shops, Lunch Venues
  • Walking from Surface Parking: Walking route from the Kenilworth Parking Lot to the training venue.
  • Walking from Covered Parking: Walking route from the Public Parking Garage to the training venue.
  • Photos: Walking from Parking: Photos taken along the walking routes from parking.
  • Bublr Bicycle Stations: Shows the most relevant Bublr bicycle stations. The Bublr site has a far more comprehensive map of bike stations with live inventory levels.
  • Oak Leaf Trail Segment: Shows the segment of the Oak Leaf Trail between the Downtown hotels and the Upper East Side event venue.

Meals

Agile Carpentry typically provides breakfast, snacks, and beverages in the Upper East Side event space.

For lunch, it is often easiest to walk as a group to one of the table service restaurants nearby. With multi-day events and a larger group, I typically pre-arrange lunch at a different restaurant each day.

The four best walk-able table service restaurant options on the Upper East Side are:

Another potential restaurant choice is Stone Bowl Grill. Stone Bowl is a dive compared to the other four places, but the food and service are good.

Please let me know of any food restrictions so appropriate accommodations can be made.

Are Meals Included In Your Event Ticket?

Certified LeSS Practitioner: YES

With a training event such as a Certified LeSS Practitioner, breakfast and lunch are typically included in the ticket price. This includes lunch at the above restaurants.

UnConference: NO

A reasonable hosting strategy for an UnConference is to begin with the Upper East Side event space, and to only relocate the UnConference to a larger Downtown hotel event space once the event grows large enough to require doing so.

The best way to keep UnConference ticket pricing low at larger attendee numbers is to have people walk to lunch in multiple organized groups. One can eat like a king in the many table service restaurants in the Downtown and Third Ward area for the cost of catered lunch in hotel event space. Going out for lunch not only keeps conference ticket prices lower, it also results in a better experience for participants.

Since an UnConference has a strong chance of being relocated to Downtown hotel event space, lunch is not typically included in the event ticket price.

If an UnConference is in hotel event space, catering may initially be limited to beverage service. At higher attendee numbers, AM breaks and PM breaks are likely to be included as well.

UnConference: Please Bring Cash For Lunch

Considering the UnConference lunch strategy, I recommend bringing enough cash to pay for lunch. This will make it easier for your lunch group to settle the bill without needing to ask the server to run a credit card for each person.