Initial planning topic for EBTM05

[alex77r]

Southern Europe in the EBT-desert.

Yes !

[Elmo]

Distances are always great for some users. In Brussels, we had nevertheless half a dozen finnish people. I agree with Mr Euro that the most important thing is to find an organiser (or two, who live in the same area).

The organiser should
1) have enough free time and energy to organise the meeting. (Sounds trivial, but isn't. If you know already that you'll have to study intensively for exams to be held next summer, you are likely to be well busy with that. The meeting shouldn't be cancelled because the organiser has to or prefers to deal with other things. Don't underestimate the time needed for the discussion here and then for the organisation itself.)
2) be creative and realistic about the program. (Participants will have very different backgrounds and interests; the main thing they have in common is EBT, and not all of them will be there for the whole week-end. There has to be time for social gathering, sightseeing, and it is worth considering to find something which relates specifically to eurobilltracking. Last time it was a guided tour in the Belgian Central Bank.)
3) live in or fairly nearby a city which is suitable for the meeting (see below).
4) be sufficiently fluent in english to manage a group of, say, thirty to fifty people throughout the meeting.

The city should be
a) sufficiently close to the home of the organiser for him/her to arrange the meeting (in particular: sightseeing, maps, guided tours, areas for lunch, things like that).
b) sufficiently familiar to the organiser ("local knowledge").
c) easily accessible for public and private transportation; in the best case it's a major transportation hub.
d) large enough to provide sights and entertainment for many people with different interests.
e) preferrably (!) located in the area Benelux, Western Germany, Northeastern France - this is the area with highest user density apart from Finland, and more central than Finland so that users from southern Europe might join more easily.
f) preferrably (not necessarily!) somehow related to eurobilltracking.

If the meeting was organised by me I would organise it in Leiden:

• Leiden is close to Schiphol Airport (only 17 minutes by train)
• Leiden is pretty close to Amsterdam, Haarlem (John. Enschede, the Dutch printer), The Hague, Rotterdam, Delft and Utrecht (at most 45 minutes)
• I may be able to organise some sleeping locations (most possibly
  togetier with Giberski and a few other EBT-ers from Leiden and nearby
  cities)

Please be aware that I am some sort of very drunk now, so don't consider
this as a confirmation that I will organize it!

This won't mean that I don't want to organize the meeting at all! Should there be a shortage of volunteers then I might be willing to (co-)
organize the meeting

[N0W1K]

This won't mean that I don't want to organize the meeting at all! Should there be a shortage of volunteers then I might be willing to (co-)organize the meeting

That's why I cannot offer myself as a volunteer from Spain I need more people to organice the meeting...

The other thing is that maybe is better to visit Madrid and the FNMT

[Olivier]

People keep it realistic. Who wants to organise it????

Mr Euro has a point. It's useless to start thinking where to keep a meeting unless someone really decides to organize it like Mr Euro did last January. If someone does it's his job or privilege to choose a location for the meeting.

I would have loved to organize it in Paris, but I'm still too far for the next summer. Maybe in 2006 or 2007 if I come back.
For me, the situation is not a problem. I just don't want to spend too much on a train or plane ticket.

[giberski]

I may be able to organise some sleeping locations (most possibly togetier with Giberski and a few other EBT-ers from Leiden and nearby cities)

Elmo, if it ever gets so far, you can count on me, some ideas sound good, Joh. Enschede in Haarlem is a good idea. Sleeping places enough in my place! So this can be option number 1 folks!

Giberski

[Olivier]

The Netherlands would be a nice area to meet.

[giberski]

That's true, and I would find it an honour to organise it with some others. So I think place number 1 is on the list!

Giberski

[Mr Euro]

Come on guys... who else wants to volunteer? I bet there are a lot of fins who can organize the event. I also read on the German forum that they are planning a german ebtmeeting. Maybe those guys could make it an international one???? Or another country?

@Now1k: If you are interested to organize don't hold yourself back.

@All: I'm willing to help organizing again for any country, but my help will be purely online and for advice you can always ask...

[avij]

I agree with Mr Euro, the most important thing at this phase is to find an organizer, or rather, a team willing to organize the event. I just kind of wanted to set the ball rolling, so that people can start thinking about their other holiday plans for the next summer.

I made a small survey on IRC after EBTM04 about EBTM05. The general consensus seemed to be that some people (including me) would be willing to travel anywhere, and the others thought that a location near them would be more practical. Germany and Finland received most of the unoffical votes, and Spain and Netherlands were also mentioned as possibilities.

My plan for all the EBTMs was that their location would change each year, so that at least some year it'd be easier for some people to participate. While Leiden would probably be an otherwise excellent place to have EBTM05, it doesn't exactly serve this changing location goal because the distance between Brussels and Leiden is only 147 km (the only hit between those cities, btw). I'd be delighted to have the meeting somewhere in Germany (or Spain, for that matter), but if we can't find an organizing team from there we'll have to consider all the alternatives, including Leiden. This was just my personal opinion, though.

Let me hereby present Helsinki, Finland as one of the possibilities. I've already interviewed a small group of people who might be willing to assist in organizing the event if it was held here. We have a money museum here as well and this would probably be a very good excuse for some of you to visit Finland. I may be slightly biased, but I don't think the distance from the rest of you is really a problem, once you get over the fact that you'll probably need to take an airplane to come to Finland (there are other options as well, though). Plane tickets are reasonably cheap when bought enough time in advance. In any case, I think we'll need to make some kind of a feasibility study about this though -- realistically speaking, it doesn't make sense to organize EBTM05 here if only a few non-Finn EBTers would be able to participate.

I ask you also to consider that the distance between Leiden and Lisbon (it's a moderated hit but illustrates my point well) is 1824 km, while the distance between Amersfoort and Helsinki is "only" 1491 km. If you're always going to use the "too long distance" logic, you're never going to leave any further than your neighbour country

Any other people willing to organize the event? Come on, you need to show us your own country

(edit: typos)

[Elmo]

I support avij's story, because I want to see some other countries and cities.
And Leiden is pretty close to Brussels (nice to know that my hit with
Annie_in_exile is the only hit between Brussels and Leiden!), so let's try to
find another place. Should all options turn out to be impossible, I a willing to
co-organize the meeting with Giberski and other users from the Leiden area.

[Chiel]

My plan for all the EBTMs was that their location would change each year, so that at least some year it'd be easier for some people to participate. While Leiden would probably be an otherwise excellent place to have EBTM05, it doesn't exactly serve this changing location goal because the distance between Brussels and Leiden is only 147 km

I agree that the location should differ from year to year, but distance is not so much of an issue in this.
While the distance might be relatively small, Leiden and Brussels are very different, with different things to do. Furthermore, the advantage of Leiden being situated amidst a lot of other cities and near an airport (2 in fact) as mentioned before, still stands. In my opinion the fact that the distance Brussels > Leiden is 'only' 147 km, should not rule out Leiden as possible EBTM05 location.

[giberski]

I totally agree with Chiel, Leiden is a great city to be a meetingplace, and why, if no-one else is suggesting a place, shouldn't we keep this option open, untill someone else comes with a better idea? I someone in Germany, France or Spain comes with it, we can always change it, but I say for now, let's keep Leiden in the race. What do you think?

Giberski

[Olivier]

I totally agree with Chiel, Leiden is a great city to be a meetingplace, and why, if no-one else is suggesting a place, shouldn't we keep this option open, untill someone else comes with a better idea? I someone in Germany, France or Spain comes with it, we can always change it, but I say for now, let's keep Leiden in the race. What do you think?

Giberski

Let's people propose their options, and then start a poll.
If planes are not expensive from Paris to Helsinki, I don't mind. I just need a place to stay when I come.
The best for me would be in early August...

[Asiamaniac]

Come on guys... who else wants to volunteer? I bet there are a lot of fins who can organize the event. I also read on the German forum that they are planning a german ebtmeeting. Maybe those guys could make it an international one???? Or another country?

@Now1k: If you are interested to organize don't hold yourself back.

@All: I'm willing to help organizing again for any country, but my help will be purely online and for advice you can always ask...

I already suggested that some weeks ago: We want to meet in Nürnberg (Nuremberg) where three top-trackers are from. Moreover, Nürnberg is a very beautiful and interesting city, nicer, cheaper and safer than Frankfurt or Berlin. Somehow the organizers are a bit afraid of the responsibility to organize such a meeting on an international scale. Indeed, this is quite some bigger size.

Anybody from Frankfurt here? Wiesbaden is not far away from Frankfurt but I am not very familiar with that city. If I can find a co-organiser from Frankfurt or around, I would be very pleased do it for Frankfurt. But not alone! (Moreover, my export-job requires travelling, sometimes within a few days only and such my spare time / week-ends is not that predictable. To make EBTM05 as successful and great organized as the last one, I do believe that it takes much time, planning, energy and nerves.)

[giberski]

Well, it's still silent, how about Leiden

Giberski