Re: [guadec-list] Guadec Planning Meeting Notes - 20th January 2007

[Rob Bradford <rob robster org uk>]

On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 12:47 +0100, Rodrigo Moya wrote:

> this is ok for us europeans, americans and people from other rich
> countries, but my experience is that people from Latin America and India
> (the ones I've been hanging with while at GUADEC's) have no money to go
> with the "rich" hackers for lunch to the places those "rich" hackers go,
> so they end up going on their own, which makes it hard for most of them
> to get to talk to other hackers, since lunch and dinners are when you
> have more chance to meet other people. And that happened in Spain last
> year, which is much much more cheaper than the UK, so in the UK it's
> gonna be impossible for them to even go to 1 lunch/dinner (as some
> Chilean people did in Vilanova last year)

Rodrigo, thanks for raising this point. It is indeed a shame if people
feel excluded because of money and so we must definitely avoid this
happening again.

> So, even if we have it optional, I would suggest we try to get all
> hackers together at least at lunch time, and offering free lunch is the
> best option :-)

Indeed. Provided the food is reasonable, plentiful and efficient. If it
isn't then those who can afford it will just go elsewhere. And we'll end
up in the same mess :(

> In Copenhagen the catering was really good (except for the 1st day,
> where it was all vegetarian :-) so I'm sure you can find someone to do
> some acceptable catering. Maybe we can expend a bit more money and have
> a good catering and then have "rich" hackers pay for the lunch as part
> of the registration.

I also think it is important that the catering should be of the sitting
down variety. If you just get sandwiches then people might be less
likely to interact with people in a similar way to a sit down meal.

Although I guess this kind of social interaction can still take place
with evening meals.

One option might be to distribute vouchers that can be redeemed at local
restaurants to provide a fixed discount on a meal, e.g. �5 or �10.

Cheers,

Rob
-- 
Rob Bradford <rob robster org uk>