FUDCon:Bid for Zurich 2011: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:26, 10 March 2011

Preface

Zurich has been home to FUDCon EMEA 2010 and is ready for repeating its success in 2011. Clearly the organizers have learned much in 2010 and room for improvement emerged in the process. Also quite some feedback in terms of what was good and what could have been better has been received after the event. The time is right to make use of the gained knowledge.

One of the major changes to FUDCon Zurich 2010 will be that this time it's going to be a stand-alone event, while it has been teamed up with FrOSCamp in 2010. This change adds more flexibility in terms of the event's date and venue.

Organizers

Additionally to the knowledge gained from organizing FUDCon Zurich 2010 Sandro and Marcus have additional experience from organizing other events like FAD EMEA 2008, FrOSCamp 2010 Zurich and more.

About Zurich

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Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland with close to 2 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, containing about 25% of the country's population. Zurich is located at the tip of Lake Zurich between a couple of hills and traversed by two rivers. According to several surveys Zurich is among the top cities with best quality of life in Europe and it's also Europe's wealthiest city. The city is one of the world's largest financial center and the commercial capital of Switzerland. Zurich is also home to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) which attracts global companies' research and development offices, e.g. IBM or Google.

Reference Links

Date

2011-09-16/18
or any other date between 2011-09-03/18

Transportation

International Airport

Zurich has an international airport with flights from all over the world by most major airlines. Within Europe it might be cheaper to fly to EuroAirport Basel.

From Zurich Airport it's an 11 minute train ride to Zurich's main station. From EuroAirport it's a 15 minute bus ride to Basel SBB train station and from there an 1h train ride to Zurich HB.

Flight Costs

Prices as of 2011-03-09 from expedia.de, including:

Round trip
Economy Class
1 Stop tops
Arrival: 2011-09-15
Departure: Europe 2011-09-18, US 2011-09-19

Europe

Look for other options!
In some cases taking the train might be the cheaper option while probably being a longer journey

Amsterdam: EUR 153
Athens: EUR 205
Barcelona: EUR 84
Belgrade: EUR 184
Berlin: EUR 92
Brussels: EUR 189
Bucharest: EUR 154
Budapest: EUR 107
Dublin: EUR 157
Edinburgh: EUR 212
Glasgow: EUR 215
Goteborg: EUR 170
Helsinki: EUR 182
Istanbul: EUR 175
Kiev: EUR 177
Krakov: EUR 159
London: EUR 76
Lyon: EUR 168
Madrid: EUR 143
Manchester: EUR 163
Milan: EUR 131
Oslo: EUR 170
Paris: EUR 164
Prague: EUR 158
Rome: EUR 132
Sofia: EUR 177
Stockholm: EUR 137
Valencia: EUR 183
Vienna: EUR 108
Warsaw: EUR 78
Zagreb: EUR 153

United States

Look for other options!
in most cases flying on another week day might be the cheaper option.

Boston, MA: EUR 582
Chicago, IL: EUR 612
Los Angeles, CA: EUR 692
New York, NY: EUR 613
Raleigh, NC: EUR 754
San Francisco, CA: EUR 612

International Train Station

Zurich has Switzerland's biggest train station (with 26 tracks and expanding) called Zurich HB (or also Zurich main station) and there's direct (night) trains from major European cities like Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Prag and Vienna.

Switzerland's nationwide railway, the Swiss Federal Railways (usually SBB or SBB CFF FFS) can be found here and their website can be used to get information about international trains as well as all local public transportation (rail, bus, tram, trolleybus, lake boat and cable car). More information on Zurich's local public transportation can be found on the website of the ZVV (the network of all operators in that area) here.

Zurich main station is only a couple of minutes from the event venue.

Local

The city features a modern, quick and clean tram and bus system that connects all parts of the city and also the airport.

A tram ride from the main station to the event venues only takes a little over 10 minutes.

Venue

We can make use of a big variety of rooms at the ETH Zurich and possibly also at the University of Zurich (UZH). Most of the rooms feature a projector, one or several white or black boards and if the size makes it necessary microphones and speakers. FUDCon Zurich will take place in the summer break so while there'll be administrative employees and researchers working in their offices and laboratories there's no classes taking place.

Both the ETHZ and the UZH have corporate-class wifi networks available for free. We can use all rooms for free but we might have to pay some cleaning crew (to collect garbage, keep toilets clean and clean rooms at the end of the event) which we estimate at EUR 400 tops.

As for restaurants, there's pizza, pasta, doener kebap and other food available in easy walking distance. More restaurants are available in the city, just 2-3 stops away and still walkable if you like.

Social Event

For FUDPub in 2010 we went to a nice restaurant a couple of minutes from the event venue. There we had a nice dish (either chicken or veggie), lots of beer and a very chatty atmosphere. We could repeat that if desired. The second social event in 2010 was supposed to be a party which didn't work out well so we definitely wouldn't do that again.

We are thinking of replacing the party with something more cosy/comfy like a lounge, beers and some background music maybe with some board games and poker. Other options include bowling or billards, with or without catering.

Accommodation

TODO: Description of proposed lodging and estimated costs along with a written agreement from lodging specifying rates TODO: Notation of internet connectivity options for both hotel and conference venue.

Deadlines

TODO: Deadlines for event reservation, etc.

Pros and Cons of location

TODO: Pros and Cons of the proposed location.

Pros

Zurich is well connected with international flights, pan-european trains and a local tram and bus system.

TODO

Cons