Re: Where to hold it? (was: Re: GU4DEC - Let's start the discussionnow.)

[hobbit aloss ukuu org uk]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 01:45:39AM +0100 or thereabouts, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> No, really. I think that GUADEC staying in Europe is very important. It
> was first organised because there weren't any conventions in Europe
> where hackers could get together (Amricans have Usenix, remember).

I agree with Bastien. And very much with his list of "should haves".
One note: 

> - should have a decent immigration/visit system (I'm wondering how many
> hackers from China or Eastern Europe we would see if the conference was
> held in the US)

I know of two conferences where speakers have had travel, accomodation
and talk topic all sorted: and then not got to them due to US immigration 
turning them back. In one case, the conference wasn't even *in* the US: 
the person was just catching a connection there.

Of course, this is before the DMCA. I suppose at least they were
able to return home...

Gods alone know what would happen if we had a Cuban Gnome hacker
and a Guadec in the US. (Hmm. Guadec in Cuba, anyone? :)) 

> - decent prices for hotels/food/etc.
> 
> IMO, London isn't a good idea for example (some people were mentioning

Crap public transport. High cost of living. Insanely high hotel prices.
Yeah, bad plan.

> it, probably as a joke ;). I'd like to see it in Dublin or Prague, or
> some other place that would fit the criteria above.

Dublin is expensive. Think "London prices". :( If you can fly to 
somewhere served by RyanAir, you can substantially chop the remaining 
airfare: I once flew with RyanAir from Dublin to Cardiff for five pounds!
But I don't think it makes up for the food/accomodation bills.

Only way you'd get accomodation cheaply in Britain is to do what the 
UKUUG (UK Unix Users' Group) do, or have done: at least once they've had
conferences in university holidays and hired out student accomodation. 
The rest of Britain is substantially cheaper than London and the 
south-east, but you run into "getting there" problems. I suppose
Birmingham or Manchester might have direct flights. 

Prague, now... hmm :) 

Germany was one suggestion I heard repeatedly, too. If we can get
help from people on the ground and from, say, LinuxTag organisers,
who went from a a few dozen people and an evening event to a huge
show with thousands of attenders in not very many years, that would
definitely be worth looking at. (Particularly since Guadec does
seem to be doubling each year. Eep.)

Telsa