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

[Filip Kłębczyk]

W dniu 11.02.2014 14:00, Carina.Haupt at dlr.de pisze:
>
> That is true. Traveling costs are very relative to your location. The statement was only that for most or perhaps just a lot of people it may be cheaper to go to Berlin than to Florence.
>

Nope, Andreas in contrast to you arbitrarily said traveling to Florence 
was more expensive. Also stating, that it will be cheaper for most is 
not true, because we would have to ask what do you mean by most? Most of 
last year attendees, most of this year attendees (probably from Germany) 
or for most Python developers in Europe?

Travel and accommodation costs are relative. Therefore they shouldn't be 
used as an argument in this discussion. The thing that we can easily 
compare are the attendance prices.

>
> Here you mix something up. It was never states that the EP ticket prices were raised because the travel and accommondation costs are cheaper. This is definitely not the case! It was just mentioned that for a lot of people the outcome of all together might be the same. Not as a justification of the price, but to set things in relation.

Here you are mixing sth up. I never said that costs were raised because 
of the _hypothetical_ lower costs of travel & accommodation. I clearly 
stated that high costs come from choosing extremely pricy venue in 
center of capital (capitals are usually pricy) in one of the wealthiest 
European economies. It's very clear it must result in higher costs.

>
> Regarding the venue: There simply is no other venue which fits the needs of EuroPython.

Really, in whole Germany? Can't believe it.

> To pick a venue is difficult, is has to fit the number of expected participants, should also allow some growth, has to have enough rooms of the right sizes, should be easily reachable by public transport, cheap hotels should be nearby, and so on.
> If you search alone for something fitting for about 1000 people which is offering enough lecture halls and additional smaller rooms for workshops, you will quite fast run out of options. Big venues often just offer a lot of space, but not separated rooms. Smaller venues may offer enough rooms, but just small ones, no big ones which would fit for 800 or more people. We would have loved to have a cheaper venue, but we just could not get one which fits the need of EuroPython.
> For example, the Chaos Communication Congress moved to Hamburg due to the reason, that they did not find an appropriate venue in Berlin, whereby the main problem was to find a venue with enough big lecture rooms.
>

Define closer the reasons. I can imagine a lot of venues - hint: every 
university has big and smaller rooms and they are usually empty in 
mid-July etc. Saying that only one venue matched the requirements was i 
Berlin and center of it is just an overstatement.

>
> We definitely take into account that this is a European community event and we try our best to make it a great and affordable event for everybody. Therefore we offer the financial aid program to everybody who needs help.

The financial aid was introduced this year, because rising prices so 
high without any form of mitigation would cause even bigger unrest.

Regards,
Filip