On the other hand, if the mission of the conference is promoting Debian around the globe, with carbon emissions, pandemia, etc. we should also consider a more fragmented conference, localized in different areas/continents. Maybe it would make sense to run all those piled up DebConfs the same year? (Maybe this is tad late now, after the announcement) Disclaimer - These are no strong opinions, just some food for thought. Have a nice day,
This has come up on other lists too, not specific to Debian but conferences in general. We now have the infrastructure to meet up virtually (Big blue button, Jitsi, irc, matrix, et al) there is also local infrastructure to meet on a very local level too.
Doing things virtually also makes this accessible to more people who can't travel, perhaps many of our younger developers who can't just simply jump on a plane but are environmentally conscious.
Before we shut down in the UK, I as running a code club and a local tech event, there is no reason why the same building can't host similar events and connect with other groups elsewhere in the country.
So I think decentralising could work Paul -- Paul Sutton, Cert Cont Sci (Open) https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/ LibrePlanet 2021 - March 20th & 21st - https://libreplanet.org/2021/ Pronoun : him/his/he