[EuroPython] Is EuroPython happening this year?

[Paul Boddie]

On Saturday 13 May 2006 18:00, Michael Hudson wrote:
> Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk> writes:
> >
> > I think that while it's tempting to point the finger, things like
> > EuroPython along with all its "assets" (Web site, materials from
> > previous occasions, procedures, and so on) should be considered as
> > ongoing, year-round activities.
>
> In this vein it would be nice to not throw out the website this year,
> for a change.  I'm reasonably happy with indico, though I'm not sure
> we want to host it at CERN again.  More look and feel integration with
> ep.org would be nice.

I guess so. That said, I haven't looked at Indico very much, although I did 
download the code.

> Also, I feel pretty confident that I'm am not going to be in the mood
> to have anything to do with EuroPython organization for a good couple
> of months after this year's event.  Are you volunteering? :)

It's surely a matter of keeping things up-to-date and making sure things don't 
decay. If I still have the same amount of "free time" after the conference, 
I'll gladly keep myself involved. The issue with volunteering is often making 
people feel able to volunteer and to contribute.

We should learn from PyCon, too. For example, it seems like obtaining 
recordings has been very difficult, and this seems to be an area Benedikt has 
been sorting out in advance. Getting permission from speakers and making the 
recordings available should be something that EuroPython gets right.

> > Imagine if the IOC left their Web site up with patchy information
> > about the last Olympic games. Concepts like "current organisers" are
> > misleading: there should always be more to the organisation of the
> > event than just the people managing the stuff on the ground. And to
> > bring up the IOC metaphor again, you don't generally have the
> > previous hosts 'phoning up the next hosts saying, "We've got the
> > torch here - when are you coming to collect it?"
>
> That's hardly an accurate analogy to what has happened this year...

I exaggerate to make a point, of course, and I having read and heard all about 
conference organisation, I don't underestimate the hassles involved. But my 
point was that it can be easier to sustain an existing process than to shut 
it down, only to have to start it up again later.

> > Really, there should be nothing stopping the EuroPython organisation
> > accepting talks for next year's conference right now. Sure, you
> > won't have many people submitting talks now because it's way over
> > everyone's horizon, but these issues don't change significantly on
> > the basis of where the conference is held.
>
> I think they do, a bit.  But yeah (also see comments about not
> trashing the website).

The processes have variables, but the fundamentals appear to be the same: an 
observation that presumably led to the creation of the Indico software.

> > Where we've fallen shortest may be in the promotion and the continuous
> > reminding of people that the conference is happening: things one would
> > normally brush aside as "hype" in popular culture.
>
> Well, this isn't rocket science, and also isn't entirely the fault of
> 'the organizers'.  I've tried myself, a bit.

One problem is that "traversing" the various milestones - talk submission 
opening, registration opening, early-bird registration closing, talk schedule 
announced, registration closing, and so on - gives good excuses to promote 
the conference. We've not really been able to stick to the schedule, as far 
as I can tell. Indeed, we don't seem to have clear schedule/deadline 
information published prominently - something I'm about to rectify on the 
ep.org site.

Paul