[EuroPython] Is EuroPython happening this year?

[Michael Hudson]

Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk> writes:

> On Saturday 13 May 2006 16:13, Michael Hudson wrote:
>> Michael <ms at cerenity.org> writes:
>> >
>> > By "organisers" here I mean the people who stood up and said "we
>> > would like to host/run Europython", not the people pushing you to do
>> > it. I've simply had no time recently to push for asking for talks,
>> > and quite frankly at the moment I have NO confidence that the
>> > current organisers can deliver what they offered.
>>
>> We'll get there in the end, we always do...
>
> I think that while it's tempting to point the finger, things like
> EuroPython along with all its "assets" (Web site, materials from
> previous occasions, procedures, and so on) should be considered as
> ongoing, year-round activities.

In this vein it would be nice to not throw out the website this year,
for a change.  I'm reasonably happy with indico, though I'm not sure
we want to host it at CERN again.  More look and feel integration with
ep.org would be nice.

Also, I feel pretty confident that I'm am not going to be in the mood
to have anything to do with EuroPython organization for a good couple
of months after this year's event.  Are you volunteering? :)

> Imagine if the IOC left their Web site up with patchy information
> about the last Olympic games. Concepts like "current organisers" are
> misleading: there should always be more to the organisation of the
> event than just the people managing the stuff on the ground. And to
> bring up the IOC metaphor again, you don't generally have the
> previous hosts 'phoning up the next hosts saying, "We've got the
> torch here - when are you coming to collect it?"

That's hardly an accurate analogy to what has happened this year...

> Really, there should be nothing stopping the EuroPython organisation
> accepting talks for next year's conference right now. Sure, you
> won't have many people submitting talks now because it's way over
> everyone's horizon, but these issues don't change significantly on
> the basis of where the conference is held.

I think they do, a bit.  But yeah (also see comments about not
trashing the website).

> Where we've fallen shortest may be in the promotion and the continuous 
> reminding of people that the conference is happening: things one would 
> normally brush aside as "hype" in popular culture.

Well, this isn't rocket science, and also isn't entirely the fault of
'the organizers'.  I've tried myself, a bit.

> If people reading this list are in any doubt about the conference,
> it should be wondered what everyone else is thinking.

Some of them probably think the same magic pixies who organized last
year's event are happily working on this year's...

Cheers,
mwh

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