also sprach Tiago Bortoletto Vaz <tiago@debian.org> [2014-03-06 10:41 +0100]:
> It's not only about the team. Indeed, the German team looks
> amazing, but even this great team may not be able to prepare
> a great Debconf if the venue impose some important constraints
> (e.g a non 24/7 hacklab, which seems to be the case for Munich).
We are quite aware of downsides with Munich and we aren't happy with
them, even though we've had DebConfs without 24/7 hacklabs before.
However, we won't solve these problems before tonight's meeting and
I would think it were wrong to discard months of work on what could
be a great conference in a spectacular venue because at the moment,
the 24/7 access hasn't been resolved.
Our team cannot guarantee a perfect DebConf, and we aren't trying
to. But we are working hard to leave as little as possible to
chance. That's part of what motivates us.
> > > C) Heidelberg's venue burns down, so the team falls back to
> > > using Munich;
> > > → everyone happy, for a lesser DebConf is better than no
> > > DebConf.
>
> I'm afraid that C) can also happen due to other circunstances.
> Given that the team is mostly located in Munich, you may find it
> more convenient (no judgement here) and put less effort in
> Heidelberg option, for exemple. So in that case you'd have
> a 'better than no DebConf' just because you had a 'plan B' which
> was more confortable for the team. It's just one example, but we
> all know how hard is to keep active a local team, so I consider
> this example something realistic.
We have talked about this a lot in our meetings and of course it
would make things easier to organise the conference "at home". Our
Munich proposal exists mainly because we were unhappy with the
"local team" situation in Heidelberg.
However, there are three important considerations which make us
prefer Heidelberg nonetheless:
1. We have a single contractual partner in Heidelberg, the main
person in charge is about our age, understanding and
cooperative, and they do large conferences a lot, so they seem
like a great partner;
2. Heidelberg isn't that far away. For instance, I am going there
to meet the head of the zoo in 2 weeks (I am not even losing
much of the work day since I like to work on trains), and it's
part of the concept to go there some time before the conference
to be on site during the last phase of preparation.
3. Munich being local is nice during the organisation, especially
during the early stages when you need to be all over the place
and react quickly. However, once the conference is on, none of
us actually want to be "at home", but we'd rather submerge in
the conference ourselves.
I can also tell you that our team will be much more motivated to
work on a great conference 3 hours away from home, than at
a mediocre conference in our home town.
And yet, if Heidelberg turns out to be too expensive, or we decide
that local team presence is more important than previously imagined,
we have an alternative that's improving every day.
On behalf of the team,
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org>
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf14: Portland, OR, USA: http://debconf14.debconf.org
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