Alexander Panek wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 15:00:23 -0800
> Brad Roberts <braddr@puremagic.com> wrote:
> 
>> No details, but assume same time, same place... one year later (give
>> or take a few weeks.. shout now if you are passionate about any
>> particular dates -- preferably via private email).  I've not really
>> put any thought into it other than that I'm willing to do it all
>> again.
> 
> I had hoped the conference would take place in Europe in 2008. :(

To be a little less facetious, Brad's going to organize it again and Brad lives in Seattle, and his employer in Seattle graciously donates the facilities for the gathering.  Also Walter and Andrei are both in Seattle too.  Thus it is in Seattle again.

I'm sure there would be nothing but applause if someone volunteered to organize a Euro D conference in 2008 also.  You may even be able to convince Walter to pay his own way there, but if you're going to do it the courteous thing would be to pay for his plane fare and accommodations, perhaps funded by charging a registration fee.

--bb

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:23:29 +0900
Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup@billbaxter.com> wrote:

> To be a little less facetious, Brad's going to organize it again and Brad lives in Seattle, and his employer in Seattle graciously donates the facilities for the gathering.  Also Walter and Andrei are both in Seattle too.  Thus it is in Seattle again.

No offense intended, but this is a rather deficient argument. Even though I appreciate that it is being organized, I don't see a point in excluding a big part of the community by holding it in the US again. It's just not affordable to go to the US for most of us. I suppose the same applies to your situation.

> I'm sure there would be nothing but applause if someone volunteered to organize a Euro D conference in 2008 also.  You may even be able to convince Walter to pay his own way there, but if you're going to do it the courteous thing would be to pay for his plane fare and accommodations, perhaps funded by charging a registration fee.

IMHO, everyone should pay on his own if possible. Anything else is going to be a matter of communication between all participants. We could even have a pool of money for those who couldn't attend because they are students, or similar.

Ad the other reply: is it cheaper to go to Europe or to USA from Japan?

-- 
Alexander Panek <alexander.panek@brainsware.org>

Alexander Panek wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:23:29 +0900
> Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup@billbaxter.com> wrote:
> 
>> To be a little less facetious, Brad's going to organize it again and Brad lives in Seattle, and his employer in Seattle graciously donates the facilities for the gathering.  Also Walter and Andrei are both in Seattle too.  Thus it is in Seattle again.
> 
> No offense intended, but this is a rather deficient argument. Even
> though I appreciate that it is being organized, I don't see a point in
> excluding a big part of the community by holding it in the US again.
> It's just not affordable to go to the US for most of us. I suppose the
> same applies to your situation.

It's a rather good argument: the people who absolutely must attend are all in Seattle, and there are free facilities there. If nobody else volunteers a facility and travel expenses for at least Walter, then they won't have a convention in their country.

Renting a facility to hold about a hundred to a hundred fifty people for three days... you'd probably spend a few thousand dollars or euros for that. (The Washington Convention Center in Washington DC, to take a Leftpondian example, would cost about US$1400 for the space, and probably a few hundred more for AV equipment.) Flying in Walter only adds a few hundred, though. Still, you'd have to charge attendees, probably in the range of $30 if you're not serving food, more like $40 or $50 if you're serving food. Charging money cuts into attendance.

Of course, there's the question of how many people would attend, if the convention were in Europe or Japan. You'd get more Leftpondians if it were in the US, of course, and Leftpondians probably make up a plurality of the people here.

Moreover, holding it in Amazon means you get developers from a major organization wandering in. That's a decent advantage.

Christopher Wright wrote:
> Of course, there's the question of how many people would attend, if the convention were in Europe or Japan. You'd get more Leftpondians if it were in the US, of course, and Leftpondians probably make up a plurality of the people here.

(i don't want to argue for either side of the planet. i'd be happy not to have to travel far, but seattle is probably better than most other locations.)

i just wanted to throw in the geographic distribution graph of ddbg website visitors. not that it's representative in any way, but it came to mind when thinking about where D users tend to hide:

http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://ddbg.mainia.de

Jascha Wetzel wrote:
> Christopher Wright wrote:
>> Of course, there's the question of how many people would attend, if the convention were in Europe or Japan. You'd get more Leftpondians if it were in the US, of course, and Leftpondians probably make up a plurality of the people here.
> 
> (i don't want to argue for either side of the planet. i'd be happy not to have to travel far, but seattle is probably better than most other locations.)
> 
> i just wanted to throw in the geographic distribution graph of ddbg website visitors. not that it's representative in any way, but it came to mind when thinking about where D users tend to hide:
> 
> http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://ddbg.mainia.de

Okay, how about a nice, central location like Yemen or Qatar?

"Christopher Wright" <dhasenan@gmail.com> wrote in message news:fjjuvr$eqh$1@digitalmars.com...
> Jascha Wetzel wrote:
>> Christopher Wright wrote:
>>> Of course, there's the question of how many people would attend, if the convention were in Europe or Japan. You'd get more Leftpondians if it were in the US, of course, and Leftpondians probably make up a plurality of the people here.
>>
>> (i don't want to argue for either side of the planet. i'd be happy not to have to travel far, but seattle is probably better than most other locations.)
>>
>> i just wanted to throw in the geographic distribution graph of ddbg website visitors. not that it's representative in any way, but it came to mind when thinking about where D users tend to hide:
>>
>> http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://ddbg.mainia.de
>
> Okay, how about a nice, central location like Yemen or Qatar?

How about the middle of the Atlantic ocean?  I think that splits the difference between the population centers in Europe and North America.

The Virgin Islands or the Canaries!  Hell yes!

Alexander Panek wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:23:29 +0900
> Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup@billbaxter.com> wrote:
> 
>> To be a little less facetious, Brad's going to organize it again and Brad lives in Seattle, and his employer in Seattle graciously donates the facilities for the gathering.  Also Walter and Andrei are both in Seattle too.  Thus it is in Seattle again.
> 
> No offense intended, but this is a rather deficient argument. Even
> though I appreciate that it is being organized, I don't see a point in
> excluding a big part of the community by holding it in the US again.
> It's just not affordable to go to the US for most of us. I suppose the
> same applies to your situation.

It may be a weak argument, but that's the way it is.  I'm just the volunteer messenger boy, telling you so that Brad doesn't have to.  I'm just basically repeating the same thing that was in the 2007 conference FAQ.

>> I'm sure there would be nothing but applause if someone volunteered
>> to organize a Euro D conference in 2008 also.  You may even be able
>> to convince Walter to pay his own way there, but if you're going to
>> do it the courteous thing would be to pay for his plane fare and accommodations, perhaps funded by charging a registration fee.
> 
> IMHO, everyone should pay on his own if possible. Anything else is
> going to be a matter of communication between all participants. We
> could even have a pool of money for those who couldn't attend because
> they are students, or similar.
> 
> Ad the other reply: is it cheaper to go to Europe or to USA from Japan?

West coast USA is cheaper, but it's generally over $1000 US to either destination.  Money's not as big an issue for me as the time it takes to travel there and back.  I can't really justify spending more than like a day or two total attending a conference about a programming language. Just traveling to the USA or Europe eats up about 2 days' time.  That's why I was thinking about trying to put together some sort of gathering of D folks at SIGGRAPH in LA 2008 to maybe chat about D and computer graphics, because I'll be at SIGGRAPH anyway.

--bb

Jascha Wetzel wrote:
> Christopher Wright wrote:
>> Of course, there's the question of how many people would attend, if the convention were in Europe or Japan. You'd get more Leftpondians if it were in the US, of course, and Leftpondians probably make up a plurality of the people here.
> 
> (i don't want to argue for either side of the planet. i'd be happy not to have to travel far, but seattle is probably better than most other locations.)
> 
> i just wanted to throw in the geographic distribution graph of ddbg website visitors. not that it's representative in any way, but it came to mind when thinking about where D users tend to hide:
> 
> http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://ddbg.mainia.de

Interesting.  It looks like you and me have the biggest dots.  :-)

--bb
[by which I mean the two biggest dots seem to be over Germany and Tokyo, if that wasn't clear]

Brad Roberts schrieb:
> On Thu, 6 Dec 2007, BCS wrote:
> 
>> Reply to Brad,
>>
>>> *next year*.
>> 8-) ???
>>
>> Oh. Oh. When, where, who?!?!? Please tell me it a bit earlier (I had to cut class to make it last time).
> 
> No details, but assume same time, same place... one year later (give or take a few weeks.. shout now if you are passionate about any particular dates -- preferably via private email).  I've not really put any thought into it other than that I'm willing to do it all again.
> 
> Later,
> Brad

Wow, thats really great news!

Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
> The Virgin Islands or the Canaries!  Hell yes! 

I could go for that.