Flock 2015: Rochester, NY
by Ruth Suehle
After four bids (!) and much discussion to make the difficult decision
between two great finalists, we're happy to announce Rochester, NY and the
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as the location for Flock 2015.
Groups of RIT students have been participating in Fedora for some time and
attended both Flock events and FUDCons before that. They started planning
their bid to host Flock themselves in 2013 after the Charleston, SC event.
(Planning in advance clearly pays off!) Earlier this year, they launched
the first university minor in open source (
http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50590), making RIT an even more
standout choice for a Fedora gathering.
Although by only a small number, Rochester led the community voting. We
spent some time doing more in-depth comparisons with it and the second
vote-getter, Colorado. While both pose a few of their own logistic and
financial challenges (as almost any location will), Rochester had the best
solutions and gave us the best chance financially of getting the most
Fedora contributors to the event, which is always our goal. They also have
a team of students with the support of faculty ready to help, along with
the assistance of the local convention and visitors' bureau to make sure we
get the best rates possible for hotels and evening events.
Part of that process is also the final choice of specific dates, which can
greatly affect pricing. We hope to add that information soon but wanted to
let you know to start planning to enjoy New York next August.
Read the original Rochester bid (again) for details about what to expect:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flock2015-Rochester-proposal
Send any questions to flock-planning(a)lists.fedoraproject.org (and join that
list if you'd like to help plan future Flock events).
See you at Flock!
Ruth Suehle
Tom Callaway
Josh Boyer
9 years, 2 months
Flock bid survey results
by Ruth Suehle
The voting was pretty close. Nowhere was outright rejected by voters, so
everyone who worked on a bid should be pleased with their work. And I
really appreciate everyone who took the time to write a bid, as it's a lot
better to have four choices than one!
On to the results!
*How likely would it be for you to attend Flock if it were located in each
place?* (would not, not likely, likely, will)
48% of respondents said they would attend if it were in Rochester. For each
of the others 30-31% said they would.
If including "likely to" or "will attend," all of the choices received
67-70% positive responses.
None received an overwhelming number of "will not attend" votes.
*Rank the Flock 2015 bids from your most preferred (1) to least preferred
(4). *
Rochester was chosen as most preferred by 40% of voters. The runner up was
Colorado with 24% putting it as their first choice. When including first
and second choices, Rochester and Colorado are tied as favorite locations,
each with 56%.
For demographics:
47% had never attended a Flock in the past.
38% attended Charleston
38% attended Prague
Only 6% of respondents said they did not intend to attend Flock this year.
64% were from North America
21% EMEA
9% APAC
6% LATAM
Because so few respondents indicated they don't plan to attend Flock, when
the survey results are filtered to exclude anyone who said they were not
planning to attend Flock (i.e., the responses only of people who said that
they plan to attend or would like to if they receive a subsidy), the
percentages hold. The patterns are also the same when the results are
limited to NA and EMEA.
This week we'll do a more in-depth cost prediction for Rochester and
Colorado Springs to choose the location (and dates, I hope) for Flock 2015.
Thanks again for all your work on the bids and to everyone who voted!
Ruth
9 years, 4 months