Re: [Debconf-team] Nov 9. DebConf11 status update
> 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
>
Some media is starting to pick up this dates are definitive, for the
discussion here I see they are not final. Adnan, what do you think
of updating your blog post and write 'tentative' dates ?
In any case, when the dates are definitive for real, please write
an email to debian-publicity@ to make an official announcement. =)
> 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?
>
I share your concerns, so far, the best formula has been from Sunday to
Saturday. In DC9 we experimented a bit with the dates, this time
starting in a Friday and we ended with a lot of people arriving in Saturday.
Since I have still at hand the data from DC10:
====================
Departure date:
2010-08-01 2
2010-08-02 2
2010-08-03 4
2010-08-04 2
2010-08-05 1
2010-08-06 11
2010-08-07 74
2010-08-08 167
None 145
Last day of talks was 2010-08-07 and still a lot of people departed that
day. "None 145" means people who did not set departure dates, since we did not
need that for people not staying at Columbia Housing.
Ana
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