Re: [Linux-aus] linux.conf.au in January

[Mary Gardiner <mary-la@puzzling.org>]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2005, Craige McWhirter wrote:
> Was it January or LCA that was the drawcard? Do we have any hard figures
> on who's not coming because it's April? Does LCA require a large
> international contingent to be a success? Genuine questions I'd like to
> see some discussion on because the answers to them are important to our
> timing selection.

This is how I see LCA in January:

 Pros:

  - good for attendees from the Southern Hermisphere because late
    December - mid Janaury is a slow time for many businesses and it
    fits in with a traditional leave taking time, and people are less
    likely to have tasks they can't get out of at work
    
  - good for attendees from the Northern hemisphere because they escape
    mid-winter, and I suspect they may also have a post-holiday slowdown
    (although not as much because it isn't summer)

 Cons:

  - bad for attendees from Southern Hemisphere because it has clashes
    with lots of people's summer holidays. Quite a lot of people either
    won't be able to get an extra week's leave for LCA, won't have that
    leave, and won't be able to substitute LCA for their family holiday
    due to their family not wanting to 'holiday' at LCA

I don't have a good sense of the pros and cons of other seasons, I
suppose:

 - winter is bad because it's cool/cold and also busy for businesses.
   I guess for very northern destinations (Cairns) there might be an
   exception because of the jellyfish: better swimming in winter!
 
 - autumn/spring have reasonable weather and are less likely to clash
   with people's plans with family and friends, but they're also busy
   times and not as attractive to people from the Northern hemisphere as
   the Southern summer.

I think I personally would prefer a non-January conference because of a
long standing January family holiday tradition that has already clashed
with LCA once. Even when it doesn't clash, I usually don't have
sufficient leave for both the holiday and LCA. It's more likely I'll
have leave for a conference at another time of the year (that said, I'm
not doing LCA in Canberra so... take my opinion for the kind of scummy
opinion it is :) )

-Mary