Time to plan Rockbox devcon 2008?!

[scorche]

I don't really think anything besides the east coast of the US would work that well.

[kugel.]

@Kugel

Could you please take all that stuff out of your post. It might be amongst *your* reasons for not wanting to travel to the US, but I don't see that spreading FUD about it is relevant to this discussion.

As soon as you give me a valid reason. Oh, and FUD is certainly not valid here, imo. Or do you want to deny that the USA is spying on incoming tourists?

I just want you to take a European city into consideration. And I gave reasons and even a city suggestion. I don't see where my reasoning failed. Just because you don't care about your privacy and sensible data it doesn't mean others would also do so.

Anyway, I'm not totally against meeting in the USA. I just prefer EU since I live here, which means I wouldn't have the costs (I probably couldn't take the costs), and the privacy issues.

Is there any special reason for the USA?

[Febs]

Is there any special reason for the USA?

Just a couple of thoughts on why a U.S. location would make sense:

1.  The last two major DevCon events were held in Europe.

2.  The low value of the U.S. dollar (a) makes it extremely expensive for US citizens to attend a European event but (b) relatively inexpensive for Europeans to attend a US event.  

[Llorean]

Another suggestion in the US could be Atlanta. In the East of the country, a LOT cheaper than NYC in terms of finding places to stay. Do we have anyone in or about that area perhaps?

[Davide-NYC]

Please describe what exactly is meant by 'hosting'.
Once I know exactly what is needed I will look into seeing of a suitable location can be found in NYC for this DevCon business.  

[GodEater]

As soon as you give me a valid reason. Oh, and FUD is certainly not valid here, imo. Or do you want to deny that the USA is spying on incoming tourists?

I'm not denying it, I'm just pointing out that it's not valid in this discussion. US Citizens coming to Europe face just as bad treatment here - just ask Soap. So I don't really care why you don't want to travel to the US. If citizens of both continents cop the same attitude we won't have a transatlantic devcon at all.

Is there any special reason for the USA?

Yes, for both the reasons Febs quotes.

[LambdaCalculus]

Please describe what exactly is meant by 'hosting'.
Once I know exactly what is needed I will look into seeing of a suitable location can be found in NYC for this DevCon business.  

Davide, here's a checklist of what's needed:

1) Hotel (not too expensive); most of the devs will be coming in most likely Friday and leaving Sunday. So two nights will be needed.

2) Conference space. This is important! I had suggested on IRC that we perhaps find a hotel with conference/meeting rooms if possible. This may be expensive, though! (Sadly, I can't host it in my job )

3) Designated airport to meet everyone. Do you think it'll be cheaper for the devs to land in Newark, JFK, or LaGuardia?

I would've suggested a hotel in Times Square somewhere, but that's just ASKING for it to be expensive as all getup. Know any nice hotels that won't break the bank?

[Llorean]

I know personally I don't need a "nice" hotel. I'll settle for "Clean" and possibly "quiet" as the only two significant factors. Oh, and "internet access" too I suppose. I'll sacrifice a lot of "nice" for even moderate amounts of "cheaper" assuming the actual "needs" are met.

[AlexP]

Also, the airport of arrival will likely depend on the airport of departure and the airline flown.  I think therefore you will have people coming into different ones.

[Febs]

Another suggestion in the US could be Atlanta. In the East of the country, a LOT cheaper than NYC in terms of finding places to stay. Do we have anyone in or about that area perhaps?

Philadelphia would have similar advantages and would at least equally accessible to international travel than Atlanta.  In fact, because of its proximity to New York, Philadelphia would probably give more flight options:

• Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is a US Airways hub.  US Airways has daily flights to London (LGW) and has service to Heathrow scheduled to begin in late March.  US Airways also has direct flights to/from Stockholm, Frankfurt, Munich, and other European cities.
• Newark airport (EWR) is a Continental hub and is less than two hours from Philadelphia by car.   Continental has direct service from Newark to London Heathrow, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, and a number of other European cities.  We could possibly arrange for people coming to the DevCon from New York to give rides to attendees coming in from other areas of the world.

If anyone is interested in Philadelphia, I could put together some information about hotels and look into availability of conference room space.  There is a slight possibility that I could reserve my office's conference space for the weekend, though I think that it is more likely that we would need to look into renting a hotel conference room.

[LambdaCalculus]

Good call, Febs! I haven't lived in Philly in 10 years, but I do remember there being lots of hotels near the downtown district that are not very expensive.

/me marks Philly as another possible location

[petur]

As far as I'm concerned, we should look at this rationally (cost wise):
- how many from the US <=> how many from the EU.
- hosting and sleeping costs.

[Davide-NYC]

How many people (maximum) would be in attendance if DevCon were in NYC and what would the conference space requirements be? (Do not presume I know what devs need.)

[petur]

Maybe between 10 and 20 people?

Needs:
- internet access (fast enough)
- tables and chairs
- a meeting room (unless we reorganize the tables to create one)
- a beamer would be nice
- glasses (we can get drinks ourself)
- ...

[AlexP]

- a beamer would be nice

Just to be clear, do you mean a projector?  i.e. for showing big images on a screen?