DebConf15/Bids/Germany

Our proposal

Germany within Europe

We propose to organise DebConf15 in Germany.

We inspected 76 different locations all over Germany and have identified two venues that we deem very suitable for our developers' conference: A youth hostel in Heidelberg and Munich's University of Applied Sciences, in combination with a nearby youth hostel. We have already entered the planning phase with both venues and we are convinced that we can organise a conference of very high standard at both of these locations.

Our favourite at the time of this bid is Heidelberg, but there exist good reasons that might make one prefer Munich. We would like to continue developing both options and to postpone the decision for one and against the other until after the committee has decided in favour of DebConf15 in Germany. We are confident that this approach will not only allow us to choose the better of two very good options, but that it will also be instrumental in pricing negotiations.

We created dedicated pages for each location and hope to provide a quick overview of the major up- and downsides in the following table:

Criterion	Heidelberg	Munich
Location	20 minutes from city centre, in between university, zoo, the river and sports clubs	Maxvorstadt, university quarter, slightly off-centre, great infrastructure
Transport	10 minutes by bus from main station, 90 minutes to Frankfurt airport (FRA)	5 minutes by tram from main station, 60 minutes to Munich airport (MUC)
Accomodation	all-in-one location (youth hostel with conferencing)	youth hostel 900m walking distance from conference venue
Capacity	320–430 people	300–450 people
Advantages	All-in-one location Single contractual partner	University infrastructure Great, spacious conference venue Strong local team
Downsides	Network connectivity not yet arranged Somewhat isolated	Negotiations with university very slow Catering not yet arranged 900m walking between venue and youth hostel 24/7 access not possible
Prospective dates	August/September 2015	2015-07-25 – 2015-08-08
Details	/Heidelberg	/Muenchen

Local team

The following people support this bid:

Name	Location	Debian affiliation	DC experience	Other experience
Martin Krafft	Munich	DD since 2001	DC5, DC6, DC7, DC8, DC9, DC11, DC13 (press team DC7–9)	DE legal matters, treasury
Margarita Manterola	Munich	DD since 2005	DC4, DC5, DC6, DC7, DC8, DC10, DC13 (DC8 organising team member)
Rene Engelhard	Berlin	DD since 2002	DC3, DC5, DC6, DC7, DC8, DC9, DC10, DC11, DC13
Bernd Zeimetz	Salzburg (2hrs from Munich)	DD since 2007, NM frontdesk	DC7, DC11	Lighting, audio, event organisation
Michael Banck	Munich	DD since 2001	DC3, DC6, DC7, DC9, DC10, DC11, DC13 (DC10 organising team member: talks team, science track)	Debian booth and BSP co-organiser
Richard "RichiH" Hartmann	Munich	DD since 2013, around since ~2000	DC13 (DC13 network team member)	freenode, OFTC, and FOSDEM staff
Constanze Stohn	Munich			FrOSCon orga team 2008 - now, marketing specialist
Christian T. Steigies	Kiel	DD since 1998	DC13	Organized m68k porter meeting and advanced scientific programming in Python summer school
Sebastian Harl	Munich	DD since 2009	DC7, DC13	FrOSCon co-organiser 2011–13, organiser of numerous Debian (and some collectd) appearances since 2007
Philipp Kaluza	Berlin	DM	DC7, DC11, DC13
Hannes von Haugwitz	Saarbrücken	DD since 2013		DE legal matters
Thomas Koch	Kreuzlingen (CH), ~4h from venues	DM	DC11, DC13	~10 years youth group work
Rhalina (Franziska Lichtblau)	Berlin	Contributing to Debian since 2007	DC11, DC13 (DC13 network team member)	Debian booth and event organisation
zobel (Martin Zobel-Helas)	near Duesseldorf	DD since 2005	DC5, DC9, DC11 (DC9 and DC11 NOC)	Debian booth member at several Events, DSA Team member, SPI Board Member
hefee (Sandro Knauß)	Göttingen	Contributing to Debian since 2013	DC13
Joerg Jaspert	Fulda	DD	DC6...DC14, not all attended but all with $orgawork	various orgas of Debian booths and events, SPI Board member, [...]
Wolodja Wentland	Nürnberg	DM	DC13

All of us are willing to help finish tasks from DebConf14. However, we have not yet talked about who will attend DebConf14.

No team members are in any way linked with any of the venues proposed.

Contact

We use the following communication media:

Mailing list

debconf15-germany@lists.debconf.net

Mail list archive

lists.debconf.net/lurker-net/mindex/debconf15-germany

IRC channel

#debconf15-germany on irc.debian.org

Wiki page (minutes and notes)

DebConf15/Germany

General information about Germany

Language / tourism

Germany is a well-known tourist destination. Especially the cities of our two bids, Heidelberg and Munich, are well-known internationally. Visitors can expect most people on the street to understand and speak basic English. Professionals, such as doctors, the police, as well as people working at hotels, information centres, and restaurants, will be able to converse and help in English.

Smoking

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the federal states of our two proposed venues, have both banned indoor smoking in public places. As a result, DebConf15 attendees will be able to enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere. Smokers will, however, be able to pursue their habit outside of buildings, as well as in specially-designated areas.

Travel information to/from Germany

Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC) are major international/Star Alliance hubs, and both within 1-1,5h of either venue. Germany hosts several more international airports (Berlin (TXL/SXF), Stuttgart (STR), Düsseldorf (DUS), Hamburg (HAM), Cologne/Bonn (CGN), among others). In addition, some smaller airports exist that are serviced by low-cost airlines, including Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) near Heidelberg and Memmingen/Allgäu (FMM) and Salzburg (SZG) near Munich.

Furthermore, Germany sports one of the most extensive rail networks, with great connections to all neighbouring countries and their larger cities.

Details for getting to and from the venue is specific to the options we present. Therefore, this information is included on the subpages: /Heidelberg & /Muenchen

Import regulations

The import regulations for Germany contain no surprises (no drugs, weapons, protected animals, or more than €10,000 in cash; "normal" amounts of duty-free stuff). We refer to the official customs webpage for more information.

Visa requirements

• Schengen member states: No visa required
• Everyone else has to go by the official list. 126 out of 198 countries need a visa.
  • If your country is listed as "no", you can stay up to 90 days per half calendar year without the need for a visa.
  • If your country is listed as "yes", you
    • have to apply for visa at your local German embassy or consulate. See this list.
    • must have health insurance valid in Germany, covering at least €30,000.
    • must prove you're able to live within and leave Germany on your own, financially.
    • must prove that you are willing and able to leave Germany before your visa expires.
    • can get a letter of invitation for DebConf15. It's not a requirement, but it can help. You will be required to prove existing work for Debian to deter visa scammers.

More information is available from these web pages:

• Official information
• Visa regulations
• Visa application forms

(Prospective) Sponsors

We have not contacted any sponsors yet, with the exception of the possibility to sponsor e.g. networking and usage of a venue. Further sponsor acquisition should start as soon as a venue decision has been made. Also, some of the sponsors listed below are regular DebConf sponsors, so we need to coordinate with the DebConf14 team.

In any case, sponsoring DebConf15 in Germany will be only somewhat venue-specific, so we list them here, rather than on the venue subpages:

The usual suspects

HP

Google

credativ GmbH

Open-Source related

GUUG

Gonicus

Red Hat

SuSE (in Nürnberg)

Linux New Media

OpenSourcePress

Heise

Hetzner

Heidelberg-specific

City of Heidelberg

University of Heidelberg (network)

IT companies with local offices

1&1/GMX (United Internet) - in Karlsruhe, reasonably close to Heidelberg

SAP (Walldorf is close to Heidelberg)

Munich-specific

City of Munich / LiMux

Hochschule München

LRZ (network)

MVG (city-owned transport)

Veolia/BOB (regional transport)

IT companies with local offices in Munich

IBM

Sun

Intel

Google

Cisco

Juniper

Huawei

1&1/GMX (United Internet)

Large companies with large local offices and social commitment

E-on

M

Big Munich-based companies

Süddeutscher Verlag

BMW

Siemens

Allianz

Münchner Rück

Hypo-Vereinsbank

Infineon

MAN

Linde

Smaller Munich-based companies

M-Net (ISP)

Allnet (cables and networking gear, west of Munich)

Boston Computer (storage & servers, east of Munich)