FAQ - if GUADEC at HIA in Grimstad.

[Nils Ulltveit-Moe <Nils Ulltveit-Moe hia no>]

Hi

I have compiled this list of answers to questions that have come up
in the discussion about possibly having HIA in Grimstad as the venue for 
the next GUADEC conference. Hope this answers most questions, (and
improves our chances to get the conference :-)

Mvh.
Nils Ulltveit-Moe


FAQ - if GUADEC at HIA in Grimstad:
-----------------------------------

Q: Glynn Foster <glynn foster sun com> writes:
One of the major sticking points of this years conference was the high
costs of the conference venue and network, although bandwidth was kindly
sponsored by HEAnet - this cut significantly into our budget, and it's
certainly something that needs to be thought out for next year.

A: If the 5th GUADEC conference comes to HIA in Grimstad, then the conference
venue will be free of charge, since it is founded in HIA's organisation with
both Nils Ulltveit-Moe and Michael Snaprud working there. Also being an
interesting and profiled conference from an academical and technical point of
view are reasons that HIA is willing to sponsor it.  For the same reason,
internet access will be free, provided that  HIA is listed as one of the main
sponsors.  We will be reponsible for the arrangement ourselves, and do not
have to pay any guards etc. The same applies to audiovisual equipment. All
main theatres also have both wireless and ethernet connectivity as well as
TV, DVD etc, and we know how to operate it.  We can rent Grimstad cinema one
or two days, if necessary, which holds up to 415 people for 206 Euros/day at
daytime, and renting the student house/pub Luftslottet costs 235 Euros/day
for non-profit arrangements.


Q: How big bandwith is there?

A: Internal backbone at HIA in Grimstad is gigabit, with 100 Mbit/s
connectivity shared with the campus in Kristiansand to the outside world. It
is usually limited at the edges by 10Mbit/s hubs or 11Mbit/s WLAN access
points.

Q: Are there sufficient with IP addresses?

A: Yes... Designed for 1500 students at Grimstad campus.

Q: Will the Linux work by LogOn partner next year if GUADEC is in Grimstad?

A: I do not know. Traditionally Linux work have had their own conferences in
Oslo. But even if we do not partner with them, we should be able to get
enough material for a third day, or maybe run a separate conference string in
one of the theatres all three days, if that is wanted, and it should be
possible to sell booth space for Norwegian or other Linux related companies.

Q: The conference shall commence in April. Will HIA in Grimstad be able to
accommodate it then?

A: No,  April is unfortunately impossible for HIA in Grimstad, since it is
just before the exam period starts, so all the theatres will still be in use.
In addition, the students will focus on rehearsing to the exams instead of
attending or helping out at GUADEC, and the teachers that help out arranging
GUADEC will be too busy following up the students or making exams. In
addition, If GUADEC is arranged in April, then the student apartments are
still in use, and the cheapest option for accomodation will be to get an
agreement with Norlandia Sørlandet Hotell, as shown below.

BUT: Even if the department of Technology in Grimstad are not able to
accommodate GUADEC in April, the main campus at Gimlemoen in Kristiansand may
be able to do that. In that case, the arrangement committee would also  have
to be founded in Kristiansand, since I do not have overview of the local
conditions there. (I work in Grimstad for the Department of Technology.)
Janis Gailis hia no would have to be a driving force if Kristiansand were arranging it. The main campus in Kristiansand also has larger theatres that
supports up to 450 people.

Q: When is the best time for HIA in Grimstad to arrange the conference?

A: The end of June or July is the nicest time of the year in this part of Norway, and the best time for HIA to arrange the conference. It may also be possible to find time in May. (See http://www.elillesand.no/galleri)

Q: The maximum limit of the main theatre sounds a little bit small.
Although I don't have attendance figures handy, I know that we pushed
well over 300 people in Seville - not sure how many people were in
Dublin.

A: We can rent Grimstad cinema one or two days, if necessary, which holds up
to 415 people for 206 Euros/day at daytime, if it is for non-profit
arrangements or seminars. I think GUADEC goes as non-profit? Grimstad cinema
is 10 minues walk from HIA. The Grimstad cinema is used to host the annual
short film festival, which is at least as large as GUADEC.

Q: Who are responsible for arranging Call for papers, getting speakers, announcing schedule etc.

A: This is generally a local committee responsibility, which
takes up quite a large amount of time. The order of events should be
something like -

     o Call for papers
         - This includes Abstract, Photo and Bio
     o Full paper submission
     o Successful papers announced
     o Schedule announced

Avoid announcing the schedule until we definitely have the
schedule fixed in stone.

Q: Free network, ROCK! How many people can the network room handle? This
years conference had a nice large room, and although was never filled to
capacity, it provided a nice place for people to sit down and
brainstorm, hacking on code, etc..

A: HIA sponsors network connectivity. Wireless connectivity should be
available all over the conference area. We might try to arrange some hind of
rental or sale of WLAN cards. In addition we should be able to provide a room
of similar size to Dublin, or connectivity in the Student mess or in the Gym
room.

Q: Is Kristiansand the main airport of Norway? I think this is quite
important, given the difficulties that we had in Seville.

A: No, Kristiansand is not the main airport of Norway. Neither is Torp. The
main airport for Norway is Gardermoen in Oslo. From Gardermoen it takes
3.5 hours by train/coach to Grimstad.

Q: How regular are the various buses?

A: The airport buses goes every hour, and every 45 minutes during rush hours.

There should not be any problems, at least if we are able to tell the public
transport services that we are getting that many people at that time. Then it
would be in their interest to keep the customers happy, and possibly run
extra buses. In an emergency case, HIA has its own school bus that may be
hired to transport people, if there should be any problems.

Link to airport bus to Kristiansand:
http://www.nettbuss.no/publish/filer/kjevikflybussny.pdf

Link to express coach to Torp airport:
http://www.nettbuss.no/publish/filer/Sorlandsekspressenny.pdf

Link to TimeBussen if you travel by boat:
http://www.nettbuss.no/publish/filer/Agderlokal.pdf

Link to Norwegian railways (Corresponds with Gardermoen main airport):
http://www.nsb.no


Q: Is there any other bars and restaurants around the conference venue?
With such a large amount of people travelling, it would be impossible to
accommodate everyone in the same place for food/beer.

A: The student mess should accommodate all conference participants during the
day. It is designed to accommodate 1500 students, not all at once, but 500 at
the time should be possible. In addition, we have the Ericsson mess, designed
for 500 people 5 minutes walk away, and you have several resturants and pubs
in the town centre 10 minutes walk away.

To have a beer, the student pub at Luftslottet should accommodate all. In
town there are no resturants accomodating 200+ people, but the student mess
or Norlandia hotel should be able to accommodate that.

Q: Resturants in Grimstad:

A:
Apotekergården   All kinds of food (fine resturant)
Canton - Chinese
Doktor Berg   All kinds of food, excellent beer selection from all the world.
Fat Lady - All kinds of food
Kjeller'n

Q: What about professional tutorials for a fee?

A: This may be an idea, if it is marketed well enough both via GUADEC and local press. Also, HIA and others may be interested in providing courses under the GUADEC umbrella. The courses should be targeted at areas where there is demand also locally, to get local participants and companies to attend the courses, and priced according to the audience (e.g. A cource for private persons should be cheaper than a course targeted at companies.) There is obviously a conflict of interest between all the involved parties that would have to be resolved before this could be done. We have polled the participants of the Linux installweek what they are interested in, and that may be used when planning courses:

What Linux related subjects interested the participants most?

1. Security
2. Network
3. System administration
4. Linux/Windows integration
5. Webapplications
6. Development
7. Installation
8. SkoleLinux
9. Multimedia.

(Of course, the audience at GUADEC would have a different profile for this, but it gives an indication for what local participants are interested in.)

Q: It would be useful for us if you could indicate a budget and your
experience with sponsors from earlier events. We would need to use the GNOME
foundations network to get in contact with the right people for sponsorship
contracts at big companies.

A: Glynn Foster <glynn foster sun com> writes:
This year the foundation board set the target of raising 50K early in
the year for GU4DEC and we managed to raise about 30K, which considering
the current economic climate was a pretty excellent achievement.
Obviously we're still trying to put together the final budget for the
event, so things are a little uncertain as yet. (This is a lot of money.. 50k
Euro is equivalent to 424.000 NOK).

Q: What are the criteria for Gold/Platinum etc sponsorship?

A: Glynn Foster <glynn foster sun com> writes:
As far as the sponsorship goes, basically the sponsorship amount is
proportional to the amount of exposure that a sponsor receieves, in
terms of a mention in any press releases, size of logos on website,
posters and programs etc. While I know some details, I'd rather Leslie
comment on this, so I don't get things wrong. This year we had a number
of levels of sponsorship - Platinum, Gold, Supporting, Media Partners,
Hardware Providers, Network Supporters and Association Partners. The
Foundation can certainly help with regard sponsorship contact details -
one of the big things that we missed out on this year was not having
enough time to target local companies. I'm pretty sure we missed out on
potentially quite a lot there.



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