[Conferences-discuss] Update: YAPyC 2003 (Washington, DC)

[Adam Turoff]

On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 09:58:27AM +0100, Michael Hudson wrote:
> Adam Turoff <ziggy@panix.com> writes:
> > I'm also ignoring some of the more substantive issues: conference
> > theme, target audience, target tracks, general scheduling (mid-winter
> > seems OK so far), and overall expectations for this event.  I really
> > don't have a voice for any of these issues, and the best I can do here
> > is describe what's been done at four North American YAPC events to date.
> 
> Cheap-ish accomodation could be an issue (though given that I would be
> coming from Europe, flights are probably going to dominate...).

I'm starting with the assumption that this is a community-organized
event that replaces the Foretec-organized IPC in DC in the winter.
The couple of Europeans I met last year seemed to accept the airfare,
hotel and rather expensive conference fees at IPC.

I agree that it would be nice to offer some inexpensive accomodation.
That's been another hallmark of YAPC, at least in the US.
Unfortunately, that only becomes available in the summer (e.g.
university dorms), when flights are significantly more expensive.
For example, I could fly to London and pay for a hotel room for
about $500-$800 in the winter, but the flight alone to London in
the summer is about the same cost.  (Just a random datapoint).

There are other, less obvious effects on the community by having 
a community-run conference in the summer a few weeks away from the
Python Conference at OSCon.  Not only do the events compete with each
other, but it places a stress on the speakers who speak at both events.
We're seeing some of this with YAPC/TPC.

Z.