(We should maybe consider dropping -discuss as this is clearly -team material, IMHO) Hi all, Le mercredi, 25 juillet 2012 23.31:52, Daniel Pocock a écrit : > In any commercial project, if a customer made a special request like > this after accepting a proposal, the project manager calls a meeting and > offers two choices, (1) pay more money or (2) throw request out the window. While DebConf is not a commercial project and while we don't have "project managers", I would very much welcome a decision on this matter by the DebConf Team. > So while it is a great idea, I don't think it is reasonable to put any > pressure on the local team after the community accepted their original > proposal. I agree. During many discussions I've had at DebConf12 with various attendees, I've been repeatedly told that we "should really" (some said "must really") have "something" (including accomodation, catering and leisure) for kids and partners, some privacy for couples, etc. (Let's stay vague, you get the concept.) This puzzled me: while I very much understand how convenient it can be to go to a conference with partner and kids in Switzerland, have travel, accomodation and activities organised form them nearby, I really don't think it can be a principal goal of the DebConf Team (and that's without talking about the work it imposes to implement correctly). In fact, the primary and secondary goals of DebConf are already defined: http://debconf.org/goals.shtml This becomes an even trickier question when the DebConf accomodation is limited; as you know, the currently planned venue for DebConf13 (Le Camp) has a fixed amount of beds: 325 [0]. Given a DebConf13 in central Europe, reacheable rather easily by train from France and Germany, the expected amount of attendees is quite high (with a "high" to be defined, of course). So, to come straight to the point, one question that should be answered rather soon by the DebConf Team is the planned attribution of these beds across attendee categories. While it would certainly be possible to grant 100 beds to "people not interested in the conference but kid/partner", this would be a significant shift in what DebConf will look like. ( A reasonable alternative to this would be a completely external location / venue / program / accomodation with the "alternative DebConf" for non conference-attendees, organised by another team. ) My current opinion is that partner accomodation (accepting the limited privacy) can be handled without too much problems; kids accomodation on the other hand opens a huge set of questions I'd rather avoid. > > About accomodation: Not counting camping, we have space for 325 people > > in Le Camp. Being in Central Europe, it is not impossible that we get > > that number of attendees. Can we dare to provide lodging, possibly > > against our desired attendance? > > There have been other queries about accommodation too. I think the way > to address this, and other issues, is to run a [survey], so I'm starting > a separate thread on that subject. While a survey is nice and shiny and can be used as a help for taking decisions, the DebConf Team should IMHO stay the set of humans that take the final decision (aligned with the survey results or not) as it is the set of humans that end up implementing "DebConf" on their free time. (That said, I'm not convinced that a survey can really help for this question because it will most certainly end up biased.) Cheers, OdyX [0] Camping with tents is being discussed with the venue management but should not be taken as granted at all. External accomodation (official camping, hotels, …) is also being discussed but cannot be taken as granted either.
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