[EuroPython] Decision points and call to meeting

[Jacob Hallén]

Thanks for your comments, Tom. I have some things already adressed and I'm 
responding below.

onsdagen den 19 januari 2005 00.57 skrev tom:
> There is a subject which I would like to stress out. The first day (I
> believe), I noticed that some talks were cancelled. That's not funny when
> you want to attend these talks. I would like that possible speakers think
> very carefully when bringing in a paper. They've to be sure they find the
> time to prepare the talk before the conference starts. It is not funny to
> hear that a certain talk isn't given because the speaker had no time to
> prepare it. (ofcourse there are certain circumstances that you can't
> forsee)

Yes, this is a problem. I would like to adress this by asking the speakers to 
make their talks available on the EP website one week before the conference 
starts. The new conference system is designed to handle this.

> It might also be a good idea to assign to each talk a level of requirments.
> So that the possible listeners know that a certain talk needs some type of
> experience in a certain subject. Of course everybody is free to follow
> every talk, but it is nice to now beforehand if a talk would be usefull.

We had this last year, but perhaps it wasn't prominent and/or fine grained 
enough. I'd appreciate input on how to do this.

> Something should be done on the projectors as well. There was some trouble
> the first day. Perhaps lock them with some keylocks so that the projects
> can stay unattended in the rooms during lunchbreak?

Yes, the projectors and presentation setup were a bad problem. If the speakers 
have their talks available in one of the following formats, we should be able 
to provide them with a working setup, so they don't need their own computer 
plugged in:
OpenOffice.org
OOo-compatible Powerpoint
PDF
HTML

Apart from this the presentation machines need Python and a network 
connection, and possibly SSH as well.
The machines and the projectors need a lockdown so we dare leave them in the 
rooms over lunch. Hopefully we can get keys so we can lock the rooms as well.

Something we really need is a chief hardware operator. Any volunteers?

> > 2. Arrangements
> > Lunches, pub and banquet similar to last year. Laura talks to new caterer
> for
> > banquet.
>
> It was great. Why the need for another caterer?

The vegetarians didn't think it was great, they were rather unhappy. And the 
chef Laura is talking to is rather eager to do the job. We really like his 
cooking.

> > 3. Rooms
> > VA (150), VB(150), VR (180) and VG (70) to be reserved. (see last years
>
> site
>
> > map)
> > The big auditorium will probably not be available before 1800. I suggest
> > extending the lunch break to 1.5 hours, to make better use of the time.
>
> Some rooms were very crowed last year (that happens when their is success
>
> :-) ). For instance the room in which the Zope talks were given the first
>
> day. I'm not sure how this can be solved. I'm not sure if a prequestionaire
> will help here (eg who will likely go to a certain talk). Do others have an
> idea on this?
> yes, this is a good idea. I still remember that it took the first day a lot
> of time before everybody had his/her lunch.So it is a good idea to extend
> it.

There are 2 things that I hope will make this problem go away.
1. We will swap one small room for a bigger one, same size as the Zope room of 
the second and third days.
2. We will ask people about what talks they are most interested in, so we can 
better allocate space. This is part of the new conference handling system.
>
> Is it correct that both keynotes will now be handled in the auditorium?
> That would be great.

Yes, this is correct.

> > 8. Breakfast
> > We can get breakfast at the student union for SEK 50/person and day
> > (~5.50 Euro). This would include coffee, tea, juice, yoghurt, cheese
> > sandwich and ham sandwich. Do we want this? If we have to increase our
> > prices remains
>
> an
>
> > open question. We may save enough on cheaper locations.
>
> Mmm, is this to pay on site? Or will this increase the general conference
> price? People who booked a hotel mostly have breakfast at the hotel
> (included in the hotel fee)
> For people who don't stay at a hotel, this would be a great idea. But I
> don't think this has to be on the payrole for everybody.

I can check how many breakfasts they have to serve for this to be a reasonable 
proposition for the Student Union, and if they need advance booking.

Some people proposed having breakfast included to actively attract people to a 
place where you could meet others and talk outside the conference hours.

Personally, I'm too grumpy before breakfast to enjoy these things, which is 
why I haven't made any recommendation for decision.

It seems as we have 3 alternatives:
a) Included in the conference price
b) Provided with some loss guarantee for the Student Union, everyone pays 
their own way
c) Skip providing breakfast

> I wouldn't allow cheques. How many people payed for a check?
> 50 Euros for cacheing a foreign cheque... pfew...

University of Southampton sent 2 cheques. Nobody else did. The bank says it 
takes more than 2 hours of manual work to process a foreign cheque these 
days, which is why the fee is so high. In any case, they prefer all customers 
to use the IBAN system for currency transactions.  

Jacob