Re: Akademy+GUADEC *2009* Hosting Proposals

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> Quick reminder that we are all ears to hear your comments about the
> three proposals.  Please send them sooner rather than later.

Indeed, I was waiting for comments from others before jumping in...

Here goes.

The Finland bid will obviously (?) have Nokia backing, so we should have
a good site, some people working to organise and have a very smoothly
run conference. They've done a lot of advance work, and Finland is a
solid (if slightly pricey) option.

A Coruna looks like a nice bid too. Also a little out of the way, like
the other two (before anyone jumps in, anything outside Frankfurt,
Amsterdam, London, Milan and Paris is out of the way - those are the air
transport hubs of Europe). Like Tampere and Tenerife, they have done a
lot of advance work, and I'd like to go to Spain again :)

I think we'll have a hard time convincing sponsors to support the Canary
Islands bid - it's mid-Summer, a holiday destination, it's out of the
way for people coming from the US and Australia, and the image people
will have when we present the plan to them will be "we're paying for a
junket".

Whether it's true or not, there will be a perception that costs for both
accommodation and travel will be higher than if we'd held the conference
somewhere else. As two non-profits sending out begging letters, we need
to be careful about the message we send to sponsors by our acts.
Benefactors like to give money to organisations they see as being frugal.

That said, the organisers have done a great job garnering local support
and pre-agreeing infrastructure, which makes me think twice about the
bid. Nevertheless, I feel that we'd be sending the wrong message having
the conference in an island holiday resort.

After all that, I'm happy with either Tampere or A Coruna, and I hope I
haven't offended the guys who put so much effort into Tenerife's bid.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org