DebConf13/Switzerland/minutes-20110727

Presences

The following persons were present, in alphabetical order:

• Axel Beckert
• Didier Raboud
• Gaudenz Steinlin
• Luca Capello
• Martin F. Krafft (only at the beginning, the planned 30-minute meeting...)
• Salvatore Bonaccorso
• Thomas Koch

Personal agendas

We evaluated the amount of time each attendee would be able to allocate to the organization. We realized that it is to early for some of the attendees to confirm their committement, which also means that to have an idea of team composition we must wait until autumn this year.

According to the DebConf checkout list [3], at least one organizer must have been part of previous DebConfs, which means that she/he should be part of the Nicaragua's DebConf OrgaTeam (/!\ it's hard).

[3] <http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/LocationCheckList#Local_team>

Strong and weak points

Strong points

• Landscape: people probably want to come to Switzerland
• The country is well organized: infrastructures, governance, tourism, etc.
• Good and dense public transportation network
• Reliable partners: administrations, corporations, etc...
• We could hold a DebConf "out of town" and make it a cheaper option
• A reliable local team could be assembled
• A strong connection exists with the various local communities (universities, companies, LUGs, etc...), this could be an opportunity to have many people from various places in Switzerland attend DebConf (including DebianDay), hence lead more people to get involved in Debian.
• There is a good proportion of DDs in Switzerland (second highest proportion).
• A wide variety of international companies and NGOs have offices in Switzerland.
• It would be easy for participants to take home Debian Swiss Army Knifes.

Weak points

• The strength of the Swiss Franc (CHF) is clearly a big risk: a continued rise of it would make Switzerland way too expensive for most guests.
  • Getting sponsored food for everyone is a strong requirement. It was mentionned that university caterers would be a good option.
  • Providing sponsored side-services such as coffee, bar, etc. would greatly help in reducing the "too expensive" effect.
• Having more than one single hotel for attendees is a problem.
  • The chosen hotel must be flexible enough to handle the variance over Deb{Camp,Conf}
•  ?!! We are few in Switzerland, we need to be at least 10 persons wanting to commit seriously.
  • The CoreTeam will have a _tough_ year, don't expect to be at talks

     during DebConf13.

Ideas

• Boarding schools "college" (which have interns, lecture rooms, sleeping rooms)
  • July is the only possiblity for those.
• Universities: /!\ Examination times.

What we should expect

• 100-150 persons at DebCamp
• 300-400 sponsored people at DebConf
• At least 200-300 kCHF money from sponsors
  • Accommodation will be at least 210 kCHF
  • Catering is also expensive (10-15 CHF per person and day)
  • Would be possible to do by hand, given professional cook, kitchen and enough volunteers.
• Not a requirement to have in summer.
  • Be aware about exams dates.
  • End-of July is mostly good.

Open questions

Mini DebConf?

Mini DebConf as a "training" for DebConf could seem like a good thing to do, but on the other hand doing things twice at the same place could bore people and it could cause more workload during DebConf preparation.

To have an idea of the number of attendees for a Mini DebConf, there were roughly 150 persons in the one in Paris 2010 [4].

[4] <http://fr2010.mini.debconf.org/>

Team organisation

The general opinion was that it is critical for the team to have regular in-person meetings, which should happen regularly around once per month. Social events for the team are needed for team building, too.

It was mentioned that having Global Team members present at such regular face-to-face meetings would be essential. Nonetheless, we were aware that a strong commitment is required in for the "Core Team".

Based on previous event organizations (both F/LOSS and not), we think we need a coordinator, at least once the bid would be approved.

Final impressions

There are some skeptical voices: we must be realistic, because the size of the CoreTeam is critical (we need more committed people and define clear tasks).

Nevertheless, we think that it is a good idea to go on with the proposal.

Next Meeting

We will gather again tomorrow at 13:00 in the Meeting Room here at DebConf11, feel free to join us, especially if you live in Switzerland (all people present at DebConf11 that we are aware of have been cc:ed).

We thank Axel and Didier to have kept record of the minutes.