Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

Dusty · 2009-11-02 16:39:08

Hey everyone,

Ralvez and I accidentally decided that 2010 is the year we're going to have an Arch Linux Conference. Arch Con will be happening in Toronto, Canada, in July, and we're eagerly accepting volunteers to take care of whatever you're interested in taking care of. We have a site here:

http://www.archlinux.ca/archcon2010/

and discussion is happening on the arch-events mailing list (http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 00193.html) and on the Arch Linux Canada forum thread here: http://www.archlinux.ca/bbs/viewtopic.php?pid=172#p172 If you want to contribute, drop us a line with whatever you're interested in doing.

Our first order of the day is a call for proposals. If you have an Arch Linux related topic you're eager to present on, send it to me at dusty@archlinux.ca. There are some outlines of the types of talks we want to host here: http://www.archlinux.ca/archcon2010/?page_id=10

The deadline for proposals is January 31. If you have a topic you want to present on or teach, send it our way and we'll decide which ones fit into our (as yet undefined) presentation and tutorial track. The more detail the better, it shows you're serious.

We'll be coming up with more details about venue, hotels and hostels, registration fees, catering, and more as time goes by. Right now, we need to make sure we have enough material to present, so get your proposals in. I believe every one of us has at least one good Arch Linux presentation in us, so what's yours?

Last edited by Dusty (2010-01-19 02:41:53)

Cerebral · 2009-11-02 16:46:47

Fixed your arch-events mailing list link for ya.

Dusty · 2009-11-02 16:48:26

Travis is awesome. You'll come to Toronto for this one, won't you? I know you don't like the big city, but it's only a two hour bus ride...

Cerebral · 2009-11-02 17:09:37

Dusty wrote:

You'll come to Toronto for this one, won't you? I know you don't like the big city, but it's only a two hour bus ride...

Attending is definitely on my to-do list.

Barrucadu · 2009-11-02 19:08:33

Hmm, to Canada or not to Canada… that is the question.

rson451 · 2009-11-02 19:16:47

Barrucadu wrote:

Hmm, to Canada or not to Canada… that is the question.

I'd love to Canada again, but the last time I Canada'd I ended up in the middle of a lake with nothing but a canoe and a bear bag.

Misfit138 · 2009-11-02 19:19:02

rson451 wrote:

Barrucadu wrote:
Hmm, to Canada or not to Canada… that is the question.
I'd love to Canada again, but the last time I Canada'd I ended up in the middle of a lake with nothing but a canoe and a bear bag.

What more does one need?

gallow · 2009-11-05 04:08:22

A firm date would be good.

I'd like to volunteer to help, but something firm to plan around would be good before I commit.

Dusty · 2009-11-05 04:18:21

At the moment, the stuff we need help with is planning what we need to get a firm date.

Dusty

DStein · 2009-11-27 19:30:29

I'm from Buffalo, NY (about 2 hrs drive) and would love to both attend and volunteer if needed. But like an earlier post indicated, a firm date would be helpful in order to plan around. I usually take most of the month of July off every year - civil service has it's benefits - so hopefully I'll be in town in order to go.

amranu · 2009-12-03 01:52:25

Anything changed with this con yet? Planning on going but I too need a date

sand_man · 2009-12-03 03:37:26

Hmm, I'm in Australia. Can't we compromise and make it at a venue somewhere in the middle like Africa?

Allan · 2009-12-03 03:53:59

sand_man wrote:

Hmm, I'm in Australia. Can't we compromise and make it at a venue somewhere in the middle like Africa?

I would have picked a nice island in the Pacific.

llcawthorne · 2009-12-03 04:03:20

Once y'all get a date established, don't forget to list (for free) on http://con-techie.com/.

It's not a tech con if it's not on con-techie dot com.

joephantom · 2009-12-03 13:02:02

I would go but I'm from Argentina .

Dusty · 2009-12-03 19:30:30

I've been on vacation for three weeks and not following discussion on this... I'm not sure what ralvez's status is, but I'm looking to be awfully busy with other things this year, so somebody else will have to step up with the planning. So far, there has been a fair amount of interest from people thinking of attending, but nobody has indicated that they have any interest in presenting. Without presentations, there's not much reason to attend, so that's what needs to be nailed down first.

Dusty

ralvez · 2009-12-04 01:54:21

My job is changing and I've been assigned to do project management of software development, so I've been busy the past few weeks.
Nevertheless, I've set up some meetings with some people in the institution where I work to firm up dates, accommodations, $$, etc.
I'll post in the nest few days what comes out of these meetings.

R.

gelendir · 2009-12-10 00:37:25

Have there been any recent developments about the Arch Con ?

I'm a computer science student and regular arch user who lives in québec city (7 hour drive from toronto), and if ever there is a conference, I'm definitely going to come and attend. I can even come present a subject (although i'm not the best ) if need be.

If I lived a little closer, I would glady help in the organisation, but I think it's going to be a little difficult from this far

ralvez · 2009-12-10 00:48:14

@gelendir,

I'm working on getting Humber to provide facilities for accommodation of guests on campus. I have some meetings set up to discuss the matter, price, etc.
I'm also looking at options outside the college and will post ASAP on this list whatever I find.

Stay tuned !!

R.

YZMSQ · 2009-12-11 14:31:28

great!It sounds good!I'm planning to contribute to arch......:D

Dusty · 2010-01-16 20:16:16

Have you had any word from them, ralvez?

From my end, there has been a distinct lack of proposals for talks and presentations; I've had exactly two people express interest, though one has provided several topics he'd speak on.

So I think we'll be changing the format instead -- instead of a 'broadcast' conference, with talks going "from" a presenter "to" the audience, I want to do something more interactive, the way this community itself works. We'll be having semi-moderated discussions, round-table style, along with bug squashing sessions, coding sprints and similar interactive sessions where everyone can contribute.

This may change our requirements as far as presentation rooms go, but I think there are still enough people interested in getting together to justify having a conference.

Dusty

ralvez · 2010-01-16 23:21:15

Yes, I have a good amount of information.
I'm organizing it and I'm going to make a post today or tomorrow with all the data I have.
It's substantial so we will have to take some time to digest it. I've made some pdf's which I'll post on my website and provide links to (unless you have a better idea to allow users to see them) so people can see them.

We will have to get a clear idea of "this is a go" or not soon because the booking has to happen soon.

R,

ralvez · 2010-01-19 00:33:03

OK. I got the information we need to move forward with our conference in Toronto.

Le me split the information in peaces so we can better digest it.

1. Date. I suggested a date July 22 and 23 , 2010
Humber is OK with that because the college has virtually no students at that time so we have the most flexibility. It does not have to be those days exactly but I just wanted to have a base to work with.

2. Accommodations. There are several options but the two that seem more realistic are:
> Western Hotel or Merriott
> Humber Student's Residence

For the hotels I've have a contact that can guarantee one of the best prices in town (he runs all the training conferences with them so he gets a huge discount) and we would run under his umbrella. I'll firm prices ASAP but it would be nice if I could have an idea of how many people are at least considering this option. I hate to ask favors for nothing.

For the Residence the told me that we can place a reservation now if we want but the lady also volunteered a bit of information that is very convenient to us. She said that if we book our rooms individually (as opposed to as a group) we can (a) cancel a room with no penalty and (b) we do not have to put the money down up to the moment we get there.

IMPORTANT: To cancel a personal reservation you must call 48 hours in advance or you loose your $$.

This link http://conference.humber.ca/rates.html has the information on the Residence Rooms and price. There are pictures http://conference.humber.ca/accommodations.html so you can see what you get. I visited the place and it's very nice.

3. College Facilities

The price varies depending on what we want to rent. Our options are:
Electronic Classrooms (EC) with capacity from 40 to 75 people for $ 250 a room if we use the facilities at the Guelph-Humber University section or $120 a room if we use the ones located in the College section. Both are Electronic Classrooms, the difference is that the ones in the University are brand new.
If we know we can do without Ecs we can negotiate a better price. Based on what Dusty said (see previous post) I wonder if we should consider that ...

4. Meals

We have many choices and I'm posting all of them here: http://www.tag.humber.ca/conference/Meals.html but some are worth some added comments.

Group Meals are a good choice but require a minimum of 40 people and the costs are:

$8.00 - Hot Buffet Breakfast
$12.25 – Buffet Lunch
$ 15.25 – Buffet Dinner (served between 5:30pm and 7:00pm)

They suggested that the most inexpensive way is to use the Meal Plan (the one the college has for the students) where we would go down to the students are and get food in the food court but that of course is not as "exclusive" as to have it served to us.

We can also combine some of those meals, so we can have say a break for refreshments between presentations; and you will notice that I've added a pdf to illustrate that option too in the link to all the meal options.

5. Transportation.

For those of you staying in residence is not a issue.
For those in hotels the distance to the College is +/- 12 min by car and +/- 30 min by bus. Once I confirm prices for the hotels I'll post maps with detailed info.

6. Visiting Toronto.

For those that would like to visit Toronto I'll be happy to provide information about highlight points and touristic attractions. It of course would depend on the time you are going to stick around... Toronto is BIG.
Let me know if there is any interest on this.

Hmmm ... am I missing anything? I'm sure I am. Ask questions if in doubt.

Edit: I can do a presentation if you need help in that department.

Last edited by ralvez (2010-01-19 00:35:21)

Dusty · 2010-01-19 02:35:57

Thanks so much Ralvez, you really covered a lot. I think we should stick to the July 22nd and 23rd dates; it's something there could be tons of bikeshed over, so let's just pick a date and choose it. Then we can register the classroom and get going with that. We can open up some kind of online registration so we know the kind of numbers we'll be dealing with. My estimate based on interest is 20-30 people. I figure we can charge them $100 early, or $175 late registration for the two days, that'll cover a few meals and a bit of schwag for everyone.

Some questions: How far in advance do we have to book everything? It would help if we could start with an online registration that gives us an estimate of how many people will come, and some funding to work with. Then we know how big a classroom we need.

I think you already answered this once, but we will definitely need to give all attendees wireless access; I think you said we can get a guest password from Humber?

We'll definitely have to schedule a social night of some sort, which will probably involve booze (and possibly dinner). People familiar with the city (including you and I, although we'll likely be pretty busy with other stuff) could also volunteer to do some city tours and stuff on the Saturday.

EVERYONE: With semi-concrete dates, now, we desperately need people to volunteer to give talks. Anything Arch, Linux, programming, or geek related will be considered. I know we're all a bunch of introverted geeks, but it's easier to present to a bunch of introverted geeks, so don't be shy, step up and present!

Dusty

ralvez · 2010-01-19 03:39:02

My estimate based on interest is 20-30 people. I figure we can charge them $100 early, or $175 late registration for the two days, that'll cover a few meals and a bit of schwag for everyone.

That sounds reasonable to me. Most conferences (worth visiting )in Toronto start at $120.00 plus, so this is OK I think.

How far in advance do we have to book everything?

I would say ASAP because we are not the only ones interested in using Humber. Having said that if we decide that we do not need the ECs we may be in better shape.
I may be able bring a simple projector that can be plugged to a laptop and go from there.

I think you already answered this once, but we will definitely need to give all attendees wireless access

Wireless is accessible via the non-secure connection at Humber. That should be good enough for most things. If we need to deal with a "special" situation I can use my secure connection but I'm sure we will be OK.

We'll definitely have to schedule a social night of some sort, which will probably involve booze (and possibly dinner).

I'm not a booze kidda guy so I cannot make recommendations there and I'll leave that in your capable hands but if the thing is about dancing and eating I can help.
We will discuss that when the time comes.

... need people to volunteer to give talks. Anything Arch, Linux, programming, or geek related will be considered.

If it is of interest I can give a talk on "How to use mod_python to develop interactive web sites."

I think we can make this a success if we all work together !!
I'm exited

Ricardo

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-02 16:39:08

Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

#2 2009-11-02 16:46:47

Re: Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

#3 2009-11-02 16:48:26

Re: Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

#4 2009-11-02 17:09:37

Re: Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

#5 2009-11-02 19:08:33

Re: Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

#6 2009-11-02 19:16:47

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#7 2009-11-02 19:19:02

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#8 2009-11-05 04:08:22

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#9 2009-11-05 04:18:21

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#10 2009-11-27 19:30:29

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#11 2009-12-03 01:52:25

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#12 2009-12-03 03:37:26

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#13 2009-12-03 03:53:59

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#15 2009-12-03 13:02:02

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#16 2009-12-03 19:30:30

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#17 2009-12-04 01:54:21

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#18 2009-12-10 00:37:25

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#19 2009-12-10 00:48:14

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#20 2009-12-11 14:31:28

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#21 2010-01-16 20:16:16

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#22 2010-01-16 23:21:15

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#23 2010-01-19 00:33:03

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#24 2010-01-19 02:35:57

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#25 2010-01-19 03:39:02

Re: Archcon2010: July 22 and 23, Toronto, Canada.

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