FUDCon:Bid for Dublin 2011

About Dublin
Dublin is the largest city of Ireland. It is a primate city with an urban population of over 1 million, containing almost 25% of the country's population. Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and at the centre of the Dublin Region.

The FUDcon 2011 is planned to be right before the Red Hat Partner Summit 2011.

Reference Links

 * City of Dublin
 * Official portal fro Dublin
 * Dublin Wikipedia page
 * Dublin Tourism

Date

 * June 3-5 2011 FUDCon EMEA 2011
 * June 5-8 2011 Red Hat Partner Summit 2011

Major Local Airports
Dublin Airport (Airport Code: DUB) is the major airport servicing the eastern part of Ireland.

Local Mass Transit
Dublin Bus operates in the bigger area around Dublin and Bus Éireann connects the cities of Ireland. Luas Red Line is linking to downtown Dublin.

Ferries
There are ferries from English main island and France to Dublin (eg. http://www.irishferries.co.uk, http://www.poferries.com, and http://www.stenaline.com).

Trains
Irish Rail connects all major cities of Ireland. The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) is running along the coast of Dublin.

Costs from US

 * New York: starts at 480 euros
 * Bosten: starts at 520 euros
 * Washington: starts at 550 euros
 * Los Angeles: starts at 550 euros

Costs from Italy

 * Milan: starts at 77 euros
 * Rome: start at 124 euros

Costs from France

 * Paris: starts at 60 Euros
 * Lyon: starts at 250 Euros

Costs from Switzerland

 * Basel: starts at 170 euros
 * Zurich: starts at 120 euros
 * Geneva: starts at 120 euros

Costs from Germany

 * Frankfurt: starts at 80 euros
 * Berlin: starts at 74 euros
 * Hamburg: starts at 100 euros
 * Düsseldorf: starts at 149 euros

Costs from the UK

 * London: starts at 33 euros
 * Liverpool: starts at 44 euros

Possible venues

 * Red Hat Partner Summit 2011 willl take place at the Convention Centre Dublin. See Cons for a comment about this.
 * Red Hat Training Centre at Dublin. I doubt that there is enough space for 100-120 people.
 * Rooms of the university. See Cons for a comment about this.

FUDPub Options
Dublin Pub Scene will definitely guide us to a nice location.

Social Event
Option of visiting the city of Bray where a nice climb onto Bray Head vouches for spectacular view over the Irish Sea.

About the Organizers
The two responsible persons have plenty of experience in organizing events at remote locations.


 * GeroldKassube - Organized several FADs, Fedora presences at big linux events (LinuxTag 2006-2009), and the FUDCon Berlin 2007 and 2009
 * FabianAffolter - Involvement in planning and organizing different Fedora events (incl. FUDCon Berlin 2007 and 2009, LinuxTag Berlin, OpenExpo Switzerland, LinuxDay Austria)

Pros

 * A clear signal from Red Hat that they care about Fedora. It would be a cooperation of Red Hat and Fedora.
 * Administrators, system engineers, solution architects, and other will maybe join to see what happened in Fedora in the near future that will land in RHEL. FUDCon will have a new audience.
 * Plenty of Red hat people will attend the Summit.
 * One time trip costs (for at least Red Hat employees).
 * There are universities at Dublin (Dublin City University and University College Dublin) even if we know that it's hard to attract students.
 * Fedora presence near/at an important Red Hat event.
 * There is a Red Hat Training Centre at Dublin (use space there?).
 * We can use the Red Hat channels (marketing, press, etc.) to reach people.
 * Share and save costs because of bigger contingent of rooms.
 * Alan Cox is living in the UK and some other important people like Richard Hughes or Dave Jones.
 * It will be easy to find a (FUD)Pub there.
 * There's lots to do an see in and around Dublin

Cons

 * It will be hard piece of work to convince Red Hat to let Fedora stand side-by-side with RH.
 * Costs are high because the Hotel and the Convention Center are business-style and not really for Community events (if we share the locations with the summit).
 * It will be a long week if people attend RH Summit and FUDCon.
 * There are no active local Fedora contributors (as far as I know). Maybe UK Ambassadors will give us a hand.
 * No contact to the university.
 * It needs a very good communication between Red Hat and the Fedora Community to make most benefit.
 * Dublin is considered one of the most expensive cities in Europe, a pint of beer is usually between 5 and 7 Euro, meals are around 25 Euro average, but you can get snacks and fast food for around 10 Euro
 * Although Dublin has it's very own charme, it's not a particularily beautiful city
 * Not in Schengen area; people residing within the EU who are not citizens might need an extra visa