[Inpycon] PyCon India 2020 - The Road Ahead?

[Anand Chitipothu]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 6:13 PM Sayan Chowdhury <gmail at yudocaa.in> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm dropping this email to discuss the road ahead for PyCon India
> 2020, around the current situation of COVID-19.
>
> COVID-19 was one of the first topics we discussed within the team and
> we're giving a close watch with its developments. We planned that we
> would come back to the topic later if situations worsen.
>
> The team discussed it hours before it was declared a pandemic by WHO
> and had a formal meeting this week.
>
> I would like the community to actively participate in this discussion
> thread.
>
> Problems
> ========
> - COVID-19: The rate of spread for COVID-19 is high, and even there is
> no timeline to when things would get better.
> - Hotel Booking: Sheraton has prepared the contract and we have to
> send out our payment and book the venue, but the situation is quite
> volatile now. Paying the hotel would mean we would be locked with the
> venue and if things go south, then we will end up losing money.
> - Complete Isolation: At this point in time, it is better to stay in
> complete isolation, and same goes for the volunteers.
> - Keynote Speakers: With the current VISA situation, we cannot fly in
> any of the keynote speakers from outside
> - Sponsors: The team talked to other organizers, and the companies at
> the moment are refraining from sponsorships. This is not true for all
> companies but a fair percentage of them.
> - Travel, Tickets & Participation: We also fear ticket sales. Till the
> time things don't get better, people might be reluctant to buy
> tickets.
> - Lockdown: If things don't get better there is a possibility of
> lockdown which means any public gathering would be banned
>

>
> How are we planning to go ahead?
> ================================
>
> We are planning to do some research with other options in hand, which
> means we won't be doing it at Sheraton.
>
> The options that we have are:
> - Smaller conference: We are planning to have talks with smaller
> venues like NIMHANS, BIC. The plan is to talk and negotiate with the
> cancellation. This means the expected crowd will fall down
> - Online conference: The other option is to have an online conference.
>
> We need to do budgeting for both the options and do some research if
> we go for the online conference option. The plan is we will closely
> monitor the situation and make the decision on which option to opt
> for.
>
> It would be great to have the community come forward with questions,
> suggestions to make PyCon India 2020 a success.
>

It looks like the biggest risk is the money getting locked with the hotel.
If the situation continues to be the same till October, that means the
economy would be severely hit and I don't think we will be able to find a
single sponsor. Given this situation, I think it may be too risky to spend
any money on the venue at this point in time.

One option that can be considered is to plan the event at an academic
institution, of course we need to plan for a smaller size conference. For
example, IIM Bangalore has a good auditorium and connected rooms and we can
talk to them and see if they are willing to host the event. I'm sure we can
even talk to many engineering colleges in the city. This allows us to run
the conference of if the situation improves, but not lose any money if have
to cancel the conference. This also gives us confidence to run the
conference even if we don't find any sponsors as budget is very low.

Anand
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