[Debconf-team] Registration questions
Richard and I have been discussing the registration questions
regarding accommodation and food on #debconf-team, and would like to
hear some more opinions.
The main aim in this discussion is to make the registration process
simpler for attendees. In the past we've had to deal often with
people who thought they had asked for things that we didn't think they
had, and sometimes vice versa. While it's nice to help unsponsored
people to book rooms, it's not very helpful if we then become a
bottleneck for changes to their booking, and complicate the process of
payment (or cancellation) compared to a normal hotel booking.
Equally, few people like being asked to agree months in advance to pay
for a week's worth of meals in a restaurant, when they haven't yet
seen it or the other options -- most attendees would much rather be
able to choose where to eat separately for each meal.
A second aim is to reduce unnecessary work for the DebConf team before
and during the conference. Each year, dealing with last-minute
changes in accommodation leading up to and during the conference
period turns out to be more work than the relevant volunteers had
imagined.
>From this discussion, we have some questions for the local team:
* How is the hotel booking being handled? Do we simply have the
whole hotel, or do we need to provide a number of rooms?
* Are meals included with room bookings?
* Can people pay for meals directly, if they're (a) staying and
(b) not staying at the hotel?
* Is the government paying for hotel accommodation and food
directly, or giving us money to pay for it?
A summary of the way our discussion has been heading, and some more
questions, are at
http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf11/Registration
--
Moray
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