[Inpycon] Venue decision

[Noufal Ibrahim]

Okay. KG's scepticism has proven itself. The "poll" looks gamed. I think
most of these things (which depend on good will rather than rules) don't
really work out so well with the "unwashed masses".

There seems to be sufficient enthusiasm from Chennai and Pune to take
them seriously and I think they have more of a tech. culture than does
Coimbatore. 

Assuming that both Chennai and Pune are viable locations, is there
anyone here who's +1 for Coimbatore? Please take a moment to think
before replying. It's quite hard in general (for me atleast) to divorce
personal interest and convenience in decisions like this but if the
conference is to sustain and go anywhere, we need to to this.
The venue is an important thing as far as sponsors, the crowd and the
general image of the conference goes. Given these points, I'm -1 as far
as Coimbatore is concerned especially now that we have Chennai and Pune.

Between Chennai and Pune, I'm mixed. Here's my summary. We can ignore
smaller things like food, language, weather etc. for a 2 or 3 day event
I think as long as the city is somewhat cosmopolitan.

Chennai:
--------
Pros:
        Chennai *did* come up with the inital bid. I know Kausik
personally and he was instrumental in getting the 2009 event
happening. Rajalakshmi seems to be open to having the event there and it
looks somewhat set. As a minor point, the sponsorship brochure which I
mailed mentioned that the event is in Chennai (we can always correct
this but I'm mentioning it). There's a decent startup culture from what
I can tell and the ChennaiPy group is quite active.

Cons:
        Chennai sort of "fell from grace" after the initial emails. A
resurrection was necessary and this sort of cast a cloud on the bid in
general. Some of the initial proponents have moved away from the
city. 


Pune:
-----
Pros:
        Pune as far as I know is an active hacker friendly place. I see
a lot of events being conducted there (the PHPCamp, Devcamp
etc.). There's people on this list who are from there who obviously have
genuine interest. Dhananjay sent a list of possible venues and people
who can help so it looks set as well.

Cons:
        I can't see any. The only thing is that the whole possibility of
conducting the event in Pune came up only this week and so it hasn't
sunk in yet and I'm a litle overcautios since it's something "new".

I can't find any concrete data points to base my decision on but my gut
feel is that we should go for Pune. 

Comments?



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