Re: [Debconf-team] Nov 9. DebConf11 status update

[Moray Allan <moray@sermisy.org>]

Hi Adnan,

It's good to see some news from the Bosnian team; as you mention, it
would be a good idea to have a full (global) meeting soon to update
everyone on local arrangement progress, now that the international
team members have hopefully had time to recover after DebConf10.

On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 1:56 AM, Adnan Hodzic <adnan@foolcontrol.org> wrote:
> today I announced official dates when DebConf11 will be held, which are:
>
> DebCamp: 25th – 31st July 2011
> DebConf: 1st  - 7th August 2011

And on the blog post itself, you also say, "We encourage you to arrive
one day earlier (24th July for DebCamp, and 31st July for DebConf),
final departure date will be 8th August.", so we get

Sunday 24 July: DebCamp arrival day
Sunday 31 July: last day of DebCamp/DebConf arrival day
Monday 1 August: first day of DebConf
Sunday 7 August: last day of DebConf/last night of sponsored accommodation
Monday 8 August: DebConf departure day

I'm slightly worried about the DebConf dates there, for two reasons.
I mention them now as it's not too late yet to adjust the dates we
advertise to attendees within the block of time (without necessarily
needing to change facilities bookings):

1. Having departure on the Monday gives a risk that we end up needing
to pay for an extra night of sponsored accommodation for many people
(if they don't shift their arrival day back to match) -- how firm are
your promises of government funding for the accommodation?

2. Many DebConf attendees want to reduce the number of days they take
off work, and so prefer to travel on weekends.  Even when we've
officially finished on a Sunday, many attendees have left on the
Saturday.  Having the official departure day on a Monday would seem to
make this worse, as on the schedule above people who leave on Saturday
will miss two out of six DebConf days (unless the Day Trip day is put
on Saturday or Sunday, but that's not ideal itself).  Bear in mind
that there will be some ground transport time to reach an
international airport, so attendees may be leaving earlier in case the
bus/train/whatever is late to the airport,  in addition to the time
for their flight(s) themselves.

What are the views of others on the list?  Would it make more sense to
advertise DebConf arrival and departure weekend to weekend?

-- 
Moray