FUDCon:Bid for Beijing 2012

FUDCon is the Fedora Users and Developer's Conference, an opportunity for all who contribute to or use Fedora to meet, learn, plan, and hack. This event is free and is open to everyone. To learn about what a FUDCon is like, you can view a video from the North American FUDCon 2009. Please read https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_organization_process and understand it thoroughly if you are a event organizing volunteer. If you are responsible for finding a good place, refer to the requirements listed in https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon/Organization



Dates
Proposed: 3 consecutive days, of a weekend between 1 March 2012 and 31 May 2012.


 * Friday: arrival day, FUDpub
 * Saturday: Unconference with possible themed track in another room
 * Sunday: Half-day hackfests, half-day unconference track (to present hackfest work, etc).

About Beijing
Beijing (北京) is the capital and cultural heart of China. It houses many universities and high profile IT companies of which Red Hat China is one.

Beijing is the second largest city in the People's Republic of China and has a very distinct and easy layout. The city is based around a ring structure which starts with the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum) being the center.

The city allows you to easily move around using public transport, of which the Subway is probably the best way. All proposed events sites,hotels, restaurants and shopping places are easily accessible by subway. Reference link:http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Beijing-Subway.png

Beijing provides full possibilities for foreign visitors to have rich experience in the following ways:


 * Cuisine: Restaurants of different tastes of food from all over the world are available in Beijing. From the most well known restaurants of Quan Ju De Roasting Duck, Dong Lai Shun Instant-boiled Mutton, to popular gourmet street. It's easy for you to find the right one suitable for your budget from 4 dollars/person to 60 dollars/person or above. If you just want a snack or lunch, almost in every street you can find a cheap restaurant which offers all kinds of Chinese food.
 * Art: 798 Art Zone (Cao Chang Di, which is often compared with New York's Greenwich Village or SoHo), The National Centre for the Performing Arts.
 * Famous Sites: The Great Wall, the Forbidden City (the Palace Museum; palace of emperors during the Ming and Qing Dynasty), Tian An Men Square, Mausoleum of Mao Ze Dong, Temple of Heaven (where emperors made visits for annual ceremonies to pray to Heaven for propsperity and good harvest), the Summer Palace, Siheyuan (courtyard houses) and Hutong (alleys).
 * Entertainment: Some famous bar street are quite easily reachable by subway. Using Line 10 you can travel to Tuanjiehu and visit Sanlitun (三里屯). This area is famous as an international bar street and offers a lot of different styles of Western food. Another option which is about 25 minutes away is Wudaokao (五道口), this is also a famous area mostly known among students. Yuan Dadu covers an area of 10,000 square meters and provides one of the longest bar streets in Beijing.
 * Shopping: Xiu Shui Street (Silk Street) is quite a hot spot for foreign visitors where you could buy silk, pearl, Chinaware, handicrafts and clothes at a low price. The other well know shopping areas are Xi Dan and Dong Dan, respectively on the east and west side of the famous Tian An Men Square.
 * Architecture: This is a city where you could see both traditional architecture of imperial China and much more modern architectural forms.

At the moment two options are being considered for hosting this event. An alternative venue is available in the form of meeting room(s) at the Engineering office of Red Hat at Raycom, see Alternative venue

Option One: Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications
BUPT is a national university specializing in the field of cable communications, wireless communications, computer, and electronic engineering. It is located in Haidian district is easily reachable by public transport (Line 10). This option is considered due to the good relationship with the Red Hat Engineering office in Beijing. Discussions about renting classrooms or other co-operation is being discussed.

The BUPT Science and Technology Plaza have different size of conference rooms, with internet of 4M bandwidth, screen, white board, microphone and beverage service.

Prices

 * Conference room for 40p: $330/day
 * Conference room for 60p: $370/day
 * Conference room for 100p: $990/day

Links

 * Introduction
 * Map
 * Route on the map

Option Two: National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The location is very easy to reach by Subway Line 4, only 5 minutes' walk from Exit of Zhong Guan Cun Station,furthermore, it's 20 minutes' walk distance from Red Hat Beijing Engineering office. Conference room is well furnished and equipped with facilities. Wifi, microphone, projector, screen, white board are available.

Prices

 * Conference room for 60p: $428/day
 * Conference room for 100p: $550/day

Links

 * Introduction
 * Map
 * Route on map

Alternative venue for Meeting
The Beijing Engineering Office with well furnished and equipped meeting rooms is an alternative choice for this event.

Availability
The Engineering office at Raycom near Tsinghua University has shown interest to offer their training center for activities. This option is currently under discussion to provide a place for activities like hackfests, etc.

This locations is within walking distance from a stop along subway Line 10 and about 10-15 minutes away from the venue by taxi.

Food and Catering
Fruit, small snacks and different kind of food can be arranged. After the bidding phase we can collect information about specific needs.

Links

 * http://www.raycompark.com.cn

Reference Links

 * http://wikitravel.org/en/Beijing
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_10,_Beijing_Subway

Major Local Airports
Beijing Capital International Airport (Airport Code: PEK) is the major airport servicing Northern China and Beijing. Airlines from most of major cities in the world can fly to Beijing directly.

Transit to/from airport
The airport is easily accessible by public transport, e.g. subway and shuttle bus. Taxi takes about 40-50 mins from airport to the center of the city.

Local Mass Transit
The two proposed venue are easily reachable with public transport; several buses go to BUPT and it is within walking distance from Xi Tu Cheng station along Subway Line 10. National Science Library is 5 minutes' walk distance from Zhong Guan Cun station along subway line 4. Also, the Beijing office of Red Hat is easily reachable using line 10.


 * Subway costs are fixed at ¥2 per ride (about $0.30)
 * Taxi cost is calculated per kilometer. starts at ¥10 (includes 3KM). ¥2 per additional kilometer.
 * Bus depends on the local or regional bus, Some prices are fixed at ¥1 or ¥2 or according to distance (mostly bus with airco costs more). Discount is offered for traveling with a transit card.

Visa Application
We list links here about Chinese visa introduction and application procedure:
 * Chinese Visa and Procedure for visa application from http://www.gov.cn
 * Visa Application Form from http://www.fmprc.gov.cn

Hotel
A lot of different hotel options are available and are currently under discussion.


 * Option 1 Wen Jin Hotel, a 4-star hotel, 20 minutes' taxi from FUDCon location BUPT, 20 minutes' walk from the Red Hat China Engineering office, 10 minutes' walk from the famous Wudaokou bar street. Food selection is quite abundant in nearby distance from typical Beijing Roast Duck to Korean barbecue.
 * Option 2 The Jade Palace, a 5-star hotel. It's easily accessible by Subway line 10 and only within 5 minutes' walk distance from Exit B. 20 minutes' walk to Red Hat Engineering office, half an hour's bus to BUPT.
 * Option 3 BUPT Science and Technology Plaza. The same place with FUDCon event.
 * Option 4 Yi Hai Hotel, easy to reach by Line 13, only 10 minutes' walk to BUPT.
 * Option 5 Yan Shan Hotel, right besides Ren Min University. 5 minutes' walk from Ren Men Da Xue station of Line 4.

Estimated Hotel Costs/night/room
Cheaper hotel options are available, but mostly personnel is not proficient enough at English. If needed, special arrangement or last-minute can be discussed. On the following hotel map options can be found near the possible venue.

Transit to/from FUDCon
Easy access to the venue is possible by public transport.



Internet Capabilities
Wifi connection is available at event venue, cabled internet or wifi is accessible at all hotels.

Transportation to Event
Price indication for flight tickets. For international and domestic flights you can fly directly to Beijing (PEK; Beijing Capital Airport). For domestic flights it is also possible to use Tianjin (Tianjin Binhai airport) and take the high speed train to Beijing (this takes about 30-40mins).


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Capital_International_Airport
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_Binhai_International_Airport

Costs from NA and LATAM

 * New York (JFK): from $1100
 * Boston (BOS): from $1100
 * Washington: from $1100
 * Los Angeles (LAX): from $850

Costs from Europe and Africa

 * Frankfurt (FRA): from $800
 * Munich (MUC): from $750
 * Berlin: from $750
 * Amsterdam: from $750
 * Brussels: from $770
 * Vienna: from $760

Costs from Asia and Australia

 * Tokyo: from $500
 * Hong Kong: from $300
 * Singapore: from $450
 * Delhi: from $550
 * Pune: from $980 (2 stops: Delhi, HK)
 * Sydney: from $950
 * Brisbane: from $1800 / $1427 (stops at HKG)

Costs from China
For Chinese citizens it is also possible to come by train. Each trainstation in Beijing offers good connection with the subway. As mentioned earlier, it is possible to even fly to Tianjin and take the high speed connection to Beijing. Soon this option is also available for Shanghai (hopefully this line opens before the event, expected 5:30 hours).

Organizers/Event owners

 * Gerard Braad
 * Yong Yuan
 * Grace Liu from Red Hat Beijing Engineering

Pro

 * Opportunity to grow Open Source and Fedora presence in Asia
 * Possible co-operation with various user groups in Beijing and China, e.g. China Unix, Beijing LUG, etc.
 * Mozilla China has shown interest to participate in a themed track; e.g. web technologies.
 * The city provides a lot of possibilities to explore; cultural, history, cuisine, architectural, etc.
 * Excellent mass/public transport options.
 * Most major airline companies offer direct flights to the airport and traffic costs and time to reach the hotel are minimal (within 1 hour).
 * The Red Hat Beijing Engineering office with different size of meeting rooms from 2-person capacity to 40-person capacity, and training area for 50 persons, making it a very ideal alternative location.
 * A group of volunteers from Red Hat Beijing Engineering will be available.
 * Sponsoring is being discussed with Fabricatorz, China Mobile and other options.

Con

 * English proficiency is limited for certain locations/services. Needed information and help will be provided as much as possible by the event organizers. Solutions have already been discussed, like downloaded flyers and instructions in China which can be handed to taxi drivers or desk personnel.

Proposed sponsorship criteria

 * FUDCon team will sponsor local travel, food and accommodation for everyone who is a speaker or hackfest participant
 * Red Hat speakers travelling internationally, talk to your manager for covering the flight expenses.  FUDCon team can cover other expenses if needed.
 * Community volunteers (international participants), we have limited budget for covering flight cost. FUDCon team will be choosy about this.   FUDCon team will cover other expenses.
 * Community volunteers (within India). FUDCon team will cover flight costs for you if you are a speaker or hackfest participant

Budget Details
FUDCon APAC has been provided a tentative budget of 15000 US Dollars as per

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2011-May/002350.html

Gerard Braad will talk to teams within Red Hat and others on complimenting the budget but for the bidding process, our planning must be limited within this amount. Note that if a Red Hat person comes from some other country, his or her manager will generally fund that travel and that's what we will encourage. Max Spevack has additional discretionary budget in special cases. Community volunteers need funds to be taken out of the FUDCon allotted budget typically.

We are also tracking this at TBA. This ticket is private to event organizers.

Preregistration
Add your name to the list if you will attend. FUDCon is free and open for everyone to attend.

After the bidding phase is over, this information will be used for the actual registration.

Plan Meetings
2011/07/08 #fedora-zh@IRC Meeting log