Comment Cisco 2950T-48 Switches (Score 5, Informative) 199
One of the photos shows a Cisco 2950T-48 that provides 48 10/100 ethernet ports with 2 GigE uplink ports. This seems like a simple setup for lots of tables. Drop a switch at each table and feed run one cable back to the core switch for the area. If Cisco provided 300 of these switches that gives you 14400 100meg ports for users. Then a few core switches with a stack of non-blocking GigE ports and some 10GB or 40GB uplink ports to the core routers.
Easy... I'm sure several companies (or universities) had similar setups. The amazing thing is the built it as a temporary setup.
The real job is providing safe power and cooling for all users.... maybe next time they can provide PoE for everyone and require "green" computers!
http://www.dreamhack.se/dhw11/files/2011/11/20111122_M1n1M0nk3y_Building_DreamHack_0226.jpg