Hi folks,
Since we do not seem to communicate enough, I'll start to send updates about YAPC::Europe in Paris here (my use perl blog and Cc: to yapc-europe@lists.dircon.co.uk). Maybe every two weeks or so, maybe more frequently.
First of all, a (very) short summary of the current situation regarding organisation issues.
We are waiting for answers from this side to help us decide how we can deal with the snacks and meals we are supposed to provide (inside, in the neighbourhood with coupons...).
We made efforts to find sponsors for prominent persons in the Perl community to come to the conference. We introduced people on both sides of the ocean, but now things are no longer in our hands. Crossing fingers... The training company needs to find enough students before they can fully sponsor our two guest stars.
Now, the toughest part: money issues. It looks that the current market situation will hit the Paris conference just like the rest of the IT world. Most of our sponsors are very reluctant to give us money. This does not mean that we do not have sponsors (even though we just learnt that one of our potential sponsors renounced), but that getting money from them is a very difficult task. This also means that the final auction will probably be less affluent than in the previous years (not that much books, mind you). That's just to let you know the situation in advance.
Side-tracking the conference itself in my conclusion, let me announce that we are trying to find some ways to make the Paris trip enjoyable for spouses as well. As you'll note in the registration form (once the registration part of the web site is opened(*)), we are asking how many people you'll bring (how many will come to Paris, but not to the conference, that is). We would like to organise "spouse events", but we'll need to know how big is our target audience. So please don't forget to fill in that part of the form.
That's it for a beginning, stay tuned.
(*) Real Soon Now. I promise.
