Re: DebConf 2 post-mortem
On Wed, 10 Jul 2002 22:37, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> On Jul 10, Scott Dier wrote:
> > * Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org> [020709 20:32]:
> > > - Housing in general was less than satisfactory. I realize this is a
> > > dorm, and the price was right (particularly after multiplying by 2/3),
> > > but I found the conditions to be bordering on squalid.
> >
> > Then you could have easily paid more than twice as much on a hotel room.
> > I checked. Nevermind the need for transport (rented car?) at that
> > point. Some cities aren't cheap. The YorkU rooms were a steal.
>
> There is some debate on this point. My most serious issue was that
> four strangers + ones' self in a confined space seems a bit of an
> overload; if I'd known beforehand I was going to be sharing with four
> people, I probably would have gotten a hotel room.
In Europe a cheap hotel room means a shared bathroom (which is what you get
with the dorm).
Sharing two bathrooms and a kitchen/lounge room with 4 other Debian
developers is pretty much ideal IMHO!
> (Note that this isn't the fault of Joe or anyone else except
> Hospitality York.)
>
> > > particularly since the only feasible alternatives were on-campus
> > > ripoff dining facilities.
> >
> > Hahahaha. You've never been to a university in the US with outsourced
> > food to only one company (aramark) who sucks more than any fast food
> > joint you can think of.
>
> Yes I have. I work at such a university. (In fairness, my C$ <> US$
> mental converter wasn't working all that well when I watched $10
> disappear from my wallet every time I wanted to eat something.)
I think that part of the problem here was that the University is essentially
closed on weekends. During the week I was able to get a lunch that was
totally satisfying for <$8 (Canadian).
> I think the larger issue - that YorkU was pretty isolated from the
> rest of the universe - shouldn't be overlooked, particularly since the
> whole schedule was so ad-hoc that if you tried to do anything for
> lunch, you might miss half the next talk before you got back. If
> nothing else, a semi-catered meal would have made it easier to fit
> into schedule overruns; if nothing else, when the pizza shows up, the
> presenter has to stop.
Catered lunches are good if they are done properly. That means quality clean
cutlery on the tables, a choice of at least three different types of hot
food, etc. Catered lunches which are any less than that tend to end up like
airline food.
> Also bear in mind that I'm used to academic conferences with hundreds
> of participants and huge budgets and printed programs and conference
> hotels and open-bar receptions and the like. I realize DebConf isn't
> an academic conference, but there are lessons to be learned from them.
Actually the $US5K that Lindows donated could have been entirely spent
instead of just spending a small portion of it.
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