Announcement imminent

[David Nalley]

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Paul W. Frields <stickster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 06:41:11PM +0200, Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
>> Paul W. Frields wrote:
>> > Robyn has forwarded a contract with the hotel for rooms.  We are
>> > trying to work out some details on that contract so that we're not
>> > stuck with a bill we can't pay, but (ironically?) one of the things we
>> > could use is a growing list of out of staters that tells us we can
>> > make a specific minimum (like 35, 40, or 50 rooms).
>> >
>> > So I spent part of today working on the FUDCon namespace page for the
>> > event, and will continue to work on it tomorrow so we can announce the
>> > event quickly.
>> >
>>
>> Awesome! I've pre-registered, continuing the tradition of being an early bird
>> registration FUDCon party-crasher! ;-)
>>
>> -- Jeroen
>>
>> PS. Flights from overseas (AMS or LHR <-> PHX) look like ~E 600,- anyways.
>> Along with 4 nights in a shared hotel room (~$100,- per night per person), the
>> costs add up to about $1200 just for physical proximity -no drinks included,
>> and boy can I drink ;-) Just giving you a window of reference for
>> international (overseas) visitors.
>
> As I mentioned, part of the planning process is figuring out where and
> how to offer subsidies, full or partial.  We generally offer fewer for
> people outside the region.  In the same way that the EMEA FUDCon is
> trying to spend a little less on bringing USA people in, because of
> costs, the same thing applies to the NA FUDCon.  But we always have
> some international visitors there and can work out subsidies wherever
> it makes sense.
>
> So after our thread derailed (only slightly) ;-) into hotel choice,
> I've had almost no one on the planning committee (Robyn? Ryan? Jared?)
> respond to the original inquiry about an announcement.  Does it make
> sense to just gather names now, so we can move forward more
> confidently with the hotel?


I am not on said committee, but I think it makes sense to go ahead and
announce. I think we have essentially reached the point of no return
for the dates and location. So I don't think, as far as hotel, city,
or dates, that anything is really subject to change at this point.
What is left is negotiating with the hotel (which the announcement
will help by getting us some preliminary numbers) and airlines
(Assuming Mr. Parrish hasn't already completed that)