Re: [Linux-aus] LCA2006

[Bret Busby <bret@busby.net>]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Ben Jensz wrote:

> 
> Nope, not at all.  Qantas' online booking app couldn't find any flights 
> from various AU cities at various times of the year to Dunedin at all, 
> so I just picked the nearest city they did have flights to.
> 
> Personally I think that making the conference a more expensive exercise 
> for the majority of people that it is being organised for is only going 
> to serve to push it away from a community based conference and more 
> towards a more corporate style conference.  In that people who aren't 
> working in high paying jobs and/or having their employer sending them 
> along to it simply aren't going to be able to attend the conference, so 
> the majority of attendees will be from corporate environments and hence 
> looking for sessions orientated around that.
> 
> The other argument is that if flights to NZ from the east coast are 
> cheap, then one would presume that starting at the NZ end and flying 
> *to* Australia would cost the same?  So in fairness for attendees from 
> wider Australia *and* NZ, wouldn't a good compromise be to have it in 
> say Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne so that its cheaper for NZ attendees 
> and its also relatively cheap for Australian attendees as well?  
> Personally I see it as the best option to try and cater equally for NZ 
> attendees and the attendees from wider Australia.
> 
> All of course IMHO.
> 
> 
> / Ben
> 
> 
> Bret Busby wrote:
> 
> >And, did you take into account, the additional cost of flying to 
> >Dunedin, from an international airport in NZ? In a previous message, I 
> >believe that I mentioned that as far as I am aware, international 
> >flights from Australia (or from WA, anyway), do not go to Dunedin.
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 

And neither do Air NZ, or Virgin Blue/Pacific Blue, have international 
flights to Dunedin.

All require an additional flight to Dunedin, whether it be from 
Christchurch (the closest international airport), Queenstown 
(one route from Sydney, via Air NZ), Wellington or Auckland.

Mind you, if you've got heaps of money, and, don't mind the 16-20 hours 
of travel, that it is expected to take to get from Perth to Dunedin, the 
conference may as well be in Europe or Africa, for the proximity to 
Perth, and, the cost.

I expect that people from the NT, would have similar problems, in 
attending a conference in Dunedin.

Oh, and, don't forget, for those that do not already have a passport, 
that is an extra hundred dollars (plus photo's, if you need them done), 
to add on to the conference costs, the GST's (NZ GST on the conference 
fees, and Australian GST on the Australian components of the fees, and 
on the NZ GST and on the NZ components), the air fares, the 
accommodation, the international travel insurance, which would need to 
include international medical insurance, etc.

Why not just buy a Windows Server 2003 multi-user licence, or RHEL3 and 
SAP? It would be cheaper, apparently, than attending such a Linux 
conference.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of 
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams, 
  published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................