Call for hosts for GUADEC 2009

[Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>]

Call for hosts for GUADEC 2009
==============================

The GNOME Foundation invites proposals to host GUADEC, the annual GNOME
conference, during the Summer of 2009.  GUADEC is the biggest gathering
of GNOME users and developers and includes a three-day conference, the
annual general meeting of the members of the GNOME Foundation, and a
week of coding, meeting, and discussing.

For the first time we also invite proposals to hold GUADEC and Akademy,
the KDE community conference, at the same time, in the same location.
Proposals should detail plans for hosting up to 800 attendees, with
separate facilities available for Akademy and GUADEC planned sessions.

The conferences should be held independently, in the same location, with
facilities available for joint sessions of interest to both communities.
A co-hosted event would constitute one of the largest events on the
planet dedicated to free software on the desktop.

Proposals for GUADEC-only should be sent to board gnome org, proposals
for a co-hosted event should be sent to kde-ev-board kde org as well.
Deadline for proposals is June 15th.

Key points which proposals should consider, and which will be taken into
account when deciding among candidates, are:

  * Local community support for hosting the conference
  * The availability and cost of travel from major European cities
  * The availability of sufficient low-cost accommodation
  * The budget for infrastructure and facilities required to hold the
    conference
  * The availability of restaurants or the organization of catering
    on-site
  * Local industry and government support

Check out the call-for-bids and the bids from previous GUADECs for more
information.  Or just contact board gnome org 

The conference will require availability of facilities for one week,
including a weekend, during Summer. Dates should avoid other key free
software conferences.

A few words of advice: organizing a conference of this size is hard
work, but there are many people in the community with experience who
will be there to help you. Bear in mind that people coming to these
conferences do so primarily to meet up with old friends and have fun,
and so the hallway track and social activities are very important.


Behdad Esfahbod
Director, GNOME Foundation