[EuroPython] Draft initial press release

[Jacob Hallén]

Here follows a draft press release. It is only intended as a heads-up, with 
more information sent out around 1 December. Comments and changes are 
welcome. 

Jacob



The Europython Team is proud to announce the third Europython
Conference, to be held at the Chalmers University of Technology,
Göteborg, Sweden on 7-9 June 2004.

After two successful years in Charleroi, Belgium, it is time for
Europython to change venue and raise its ambitions. "We will have more
venue space at lower cost next year", says Darío Lopez-Kästen, who is
in charge of venue booking. "This will allow us to have a fourth track
as well as holding BOF sessions and private meetings. We will also
have space for a small Python exhibition at very low cost for
participating companies."

"Reducing cost and increasing quality has been a main concern", says
Laura Creighton, local organiser. "We have made a block reservation of
about 150 beds in good quality 2 and 4 bed rooms that will be
available for booking at very low prices. I am also going to work on
the catering side. Apart from lunches and coffee, we hope to have a
conference dinner next year."

"All the track chairs are continuing their work", comments Martijn
Faasen, chair of the Python Frameworks track. "This allows us to
expand the program with new tracks, since more volunteers are joining
in the the planning and organising. We have plans for a short refereed
paper track, a social skills track and an expanded business track. We
would like to have an education track as well and are looking for
someone who wants to chair it."

Jacob Hallén, head organiser adds: "We are already looking forward to
June 2004. We think next Europython is going to be a lot of fun. Apart
from the conference itself, there will be sprints held both before and
after the conference. I am rather certain both Zope and the PyPy
project will hold sprints. Other people who want to hold sprints
should contact us as soon as possible. For the conference, we hope
more people will join us as volunteers to help make this the best
Python conference ever. So please reserve 7-9 June 2004 in your
calendars and keep a lookout for more information in the next few
weeks. The best deals will be for the early birds."

Volunteers and people having questions and inquiries should send them
by email to europython at python.org.