[EuroPython] Some general thoughts about EP2014 and future of EP

[Andreas Jung]

Am 10.02.2014 um 11:33 schrieb Filip Kłębczyk <fklebczyk at gmail.com>:

> Here are my 0.02$ or rather 0.02 EUR to the recent heated discussion. Sorry for walls of text.
> 
> Early bird sell out and frustrated voices
> =========================================
> 
> It's usually better idea to provide more than one price level connected with early booking a ticket. For example:
> 
> 300 EUR - 100 tickets or short date period
> 320 EUR - 100 tickets or short date period
> 340 EUR - 100 tickets or short date period
> 360 EUR - 100 tickets or short date period
> 380 EUR - 100 tickets or short date period
> 
> Such approach works good on other conferences. The budget of conference wouldn't lost this way and more people would get reduced price of ticket. The current 100 EUR gap between early and standard is just too much (for example for such price you can get full 3 day PyCon PL participation including accommodation and meals… or buy a cheap smartphone).

This can be taken into account for EP 15.
> 

> 
> 
> Place, venue, costs, economical situation of Europe
> ===================================================
> 
> I feel a bit sorry for the current EP organizers. They really wanted (in their sense) the best - probably it was let's do a superb and shiny European Python conference based on our previous experiences from PyCon DE. But lets make it more awesome - capital, big and professional venue in the center of the city, what would you expect more? Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, if you probably live in Germany (and earn as much money as they on average earn there) you can easily afford attending and it's cheap as beer. But wait a minute, attendees are a bit different that on PyCon DE, some of them come from Southern Europe, that is still recovering from financial crisis, some live in Central and Eastern Europe that in financial terms is still far behind western EU countries. I don't know Germany that much, but I guess there are also cheaper than Berlin cities in eastern part of Germany with cheaper venues etc. It should have been taken into account by organizers (hint: quality of venue and location costs sometimes are not the most important factors for a successful _community_ conference).

As stated earlier: traveling to Florence was more expensive than traveling to Berlin, hotel prices in Florence appeared higher in comparison what you get for the price. You have much, much more options staying in Berlin for a reasonable prices. Besides various hostels there is a huge market with rental apartments or single rooms for a fraction of a standard hotel room.

> 
> Elite developers conference or community conferences?
> =====================================================
> 
>  How well Python community is represented in EPS? 

This is a question for itself. Please ask the EPS directly.

Andreas