DebConf Documentation/Social events

Social events

Formal dinner

TODO: add the costs of the formal dinners / person every year might be interesting.

dc6

ana/dc6: The formal dinner was arranged in an external place from the venue. There was a need to rent buses to go and return. The place wasn't a restaurant, rather a big space with the tables arranged nicely in the shape of a swirl and had pre-made food. Due to heavy rain that night, some water entered in the place and there was a power cut leading to dinner ending earlier than expected. There was also a a stage where a band of mariachis played.

dc7

This year there wasn't a formal dinner due to budget constraints.

dc8

ana/dc8: The formal dinner took place in a restaurant of another hotel close to the hotel that served as venue. It was a served dinner. A band played during the dinner and we got an exclusive DPL dance. There was a different plate served for vegetarians but I can't remember the menu.

dc9

urbec/dc9: In walking distance to the venue.
At least two menues where served in courses, meat and vegetarian
One course of the first was local ham, one of the latter a fruit plate
At some point the music got very loud and made people leaving.

dc10

This year there wasn't a formal dinner due to budget constraints.

dc11

urbec/dc11: Buffet style food in walking distance to the venue. One free drink per person.

ana/dc11: The place was only accessible taking an elevator, we had to queue to take the elevator. Very fancy place. Food wasn't very good for vegetarians/vegans.

dc12

urbec/dc12: Rented busses to the eating place.

dc13

urbec/dc13: Took place after the daytrip at a boat which was going in circles around Lake Neuchâtel and finally brought people back to near the venue.
Option was expensive but doable due to big budget.
There where three food options, chicken, throut filet and vegan.
Quality was good, quantity was small.
Receiving a meal, that included no alcohol in desert was a very limited option only available to few people (mostly or only children).
There was only one drink included with the menue, which was water, further servings of even water had to be purchased for a high price.

dc14

ana/dc14: The formal dinner was a buffet style dinner in Punch Bowl Social Portland. It wasn't next to the venue but close enough to go by walking. The place included plenty of activities and games: bowling, pool tables, ping pong, pinball, etc

Cheese and Wine

bubulle: The first C&W party took place during DC5 as a non planned event, at least organisation-wise. It originally started with a 6-person BOF in the "French room" with cheese brought by Denis Barbier, Nicolas François and bubulle, shared with "who wants to come". It turned out into a quite long party with dozens of people joining and sharing various liquors of the world.

dc6

This was the first year the Cheese and Wine party was included formally in the schedule. However that year it was named "Wine and Cheese". The party took place in an open space next to the hacklabs.

Aigarius blogged about it: After the BOFs the, now official and scheduled, wine and cheese party started. It was briefly interrupted by rain, but the tables were moved under the roof in seconds and the party continued. There were around 40 different cheeses. Most of them were French and almost all of them were very tasty (some were .. an acquired taste :)). I can't say anything about the wine (I do not like the taste of alcohol), but other tasters were expressing very positive remarks. The party went on for a long time with more and more cheeses and vines brought up with time.

bubulle/dc6: It is often considered that DC6 C&W was the one that settled the tradition and turned it into a must-have event during a DebConf (or a mini Debconf).

dc7

bubulle/dc7: That one was very difficult to organize because of the closure of hacklabs during nights. It finally happened at the base floor of the "Church", the astonishing place that was used as night hacklab a few blocks away from DebConf main location. Because the event was happening in Europe, making cheese travail much easier for participants, we had a great amount of cheese. The most difficult part of organization was the tables setting and the lack of space (as well as keeping the location accessible). Finding decent bread was also a challenge, but thanks to French people living in Edinburgh we were finally able to get about 50 great "baguettes".

dc8

bubulle/dc8: Argentina's C&W happened in the DebConf hotel rooms. We had great help from the hotel staff and some of them probably still remember sharing a specific Bordeaux bottle brought by bubulle. The amount of cheese was a bit lower than previous C&W because of the more complicated travel. Mar del Plata has been the first time we organized a "cheese travel" to a cheese shop in order for those who couldn't bring cheese from home to bring some at the party.

dc9

The C&W party took place in the inside of the venue. The students residence had a big inside patio.

bubulle/dc9: From my memory, it has been one of the most friendly places to handle a C&W. The amount of cheese there was tremendous, with a great amount of the great "Torta de Caceres". We had music from a local group, that helped settling a very friendly environment.

dc10

Due to US regulations, it was impossible to have the C&W party outside. We were lent a big meeting room in one of the University building that we used for the party. One of the big problems with this solution was that the room wasn't accessible by wheelchair users.

bubulle/dc10: Rooms were also a bit too small, particularly because the amount of cheese was much higher than expected. Cheese travels to good (but expensive) shops in the neighbourhood were very efficient

ana/dc10: The room wasn't big enough and it was very crowded and hot.

dc11

urbec/dc11: The room was even smaller and more crowded. There was lots of leftover cheese which was thrown away (bubulle: that sadly happened in other occasions and is frequent with local cheese that are sometimes bought in too big quantities)

bubulle/dc11: There were indeed no other options because it was really discouraged to handle the party outside and we were refused to use the talk rooms.

bubulle/dc11: we had a great "fondue" and raffles as well.

dc12

urbec/dc12: The party took place outside the venue at a building with access to the garden.
At the beginning there was some discussion, whether we can enter or not.
For people not wanting (more) alcohol, juice was provided.
Cheese leftovers where distributed at the conference dinner.

bubulle/dc12: organization was a bit a nightmare...:-)....Cheese was stored at the hotel, 500 meters away, dishes were those used for the meals and the C&W location was Yet Another Location. It then requires a big amount of coordination and stress....but the party turned out to be one of the most friendly we ever had.

dc13

urbec/dc13: The C&W party took place in a round building at the venue, which also was run as debconf bar.
There was not much space inside, but at the venue surroundings, there was plenty to walk around.
Cheese ran out very early.

bubulle/dc13: one of the easiest ones to organize, with the help of the local staff (that included poeople who are great cheese lovers). Still the party's success made us run out of cheese too quickly, indeed.

dc14

We were bound to the same US regulations as in dc10. The C&W party took place in the PuppetLabs offices. About 2km away from the talks venue and the dorms.
urbec/dc14: Leftover cheese was brought to night hacklab for further consumption.