[guadec-list] Questions and more

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

A lot of people have been asking questions about GUADEC recently, so 
hopefully I can answer them here.

Visas

If you need a visa to travel to the UK and need a letter of invitation 
from us, please use the <http://guadec.org/travel>invitation letter 
request form. This will ensure your request is tracked properly, and we 
can collect the required details. Please read the 
<http://guadec.org/travel>travel information page if you are unsure 
about whether you require a visa, or want to know what information we 
need to send out an invitation letter.
Lots of questions have been popping up about GUADEC recently, so I put 
together a few answers. This article found it's way to planet.gnome.org, 
but in case anyone missed it, I'm sending to here also.


Sponsored Attendance

We are fortunate again this year to have funds to sponsor a limited 
number of people to attend GUADEC. If you think you will not be able to 
afford travel and accommodation expenses, but would be able to make a 
valuable contribution to GUADEC, please consider requesting sponsorship. 
See the <http://www.guadec.org/registration/sponsorship>sponsored 
attendance page for details.


Accommodation

Lots of people have been asking where to stay during GUADEC, and 
unfortunately we can't offer the excellent level of service provided 
last year. However, we are contacting hotels and hostels around 
Birmingham to find you the best possible rates and discounts. When this 
information is available it will be published on the website.

Registration

We are expecting registration to open very shortly. The process will be 
similar to last year, and we will be asking for a contribution depending 
on your participating status. Discounts will be available for foundation 
members, but we would urge you to consider making a further donation to 
support GUADEC and the GNOME project if you feel able.

Schedule

In other news, the <http://guadec.org/schedule>schedule is now nearly 
complete, and available on-line. Many thanks to Ross and the papers 
committee for their hard work in sorting this out.
We've also got our line up of <http://guadec.org/speakers>keynote 
speakers available on line. We are lucky again to have some very 
interesting people giving talks, including well known community members 
within both the GNOME and wider free software communities.

Sponsors

We also have had another three confirmed sponsors, but I've been so busy 
I haven't had time to announce them properly. They are HP, Sun and 
Novell. HP and Sun are both sponsoring at gold level, and Novell is 
sponsoring at silver level. More details on the 
<http://guadec.org/sponsors>sponsors pages.