Venue and Date of the Conference 2022

[derberg]

Current state:
- We wanted event after holidays
- Pairing in Dublin with Open Source Summit from Linux Foundation is not an option anymore, they changed schedule, start Monday, so we would have a competing event in different part of city. I think this is a good reason to resign from expensive Dublin
- Once on Slack I shared that I know an amazing venue in Poland. This is not an option anymore because of the War in Ukraine. We do not know what future brings. Tourism is already dying in Poland, so if people do not come to see beautiful Cracow, then they will not come for a conference. We need different location in Europe to not affect AsyncAPI Community

We need some good ideas on where to organize the event and when, we already have April. Please share, especially if you can help in organizing the event 🙏🏼

In previous discussion we were pretty solid in narrowing goal to:

• somewhere in Europe
• September or after

[quetzalliwrites]

Should we vote on doing in-person vs online again?

With the war, I feel less than safe thinking about visiting Europe this year ❤️

[derberg]

I know people are afraid to visit countries that have borders with Russia and Ukraine, but others? Like Spain or Croatia? I would say it is like being afraid to visit New York because of issues in Miami.

Unless we get some real data and see other parts of Europe are also affected by fear like Poland, I would be hesitant to resign from in-person in Europe to not affect the community. I mean I'm against Poland only because we can clearly see in reports that tourism is hugely affected, which means that really many community members might not come and it is bad for AsyncAPI

[jonaslagoni]

Don't think it has ever been a question of in-person vs online (has it?), as if it's in-person it will be a hybrid enabling both, there are contributors all around the world who should all be able to participate one way or another 🙂

[derberg]

yup, the community voted for hybrid, and that is the goal

[loopDelicious]

I talked to the organizers of a conference I attended in Croatia last year. It's affordable but also beautiful (on the coast) and relatively accessible. They did a great job with attendee entry health requirements and managed COVID testing requirements for traveling speakers too.

Some events in the US are relaxing their requirements now. I'm not sure what they're doing in Europe.

[fmvilas]

I propose we go back to the initial "plan" and do it in the Tenerife (Canary Islands) or Barcelona. Both are beautiful and well-connected places with lots of hotel offerings. In Tenerife, we have @jotamusik who could probably help us with some local stuff (although I wouldn't mind visiting before too 😄) and, in Barcelona, I'm sure we have many people but from the top of my head @smoya is there working full-time for AsyncAPI.

[smoya]

Happy to help organize this wherever it happens finally. If in Barcelona, I can help with most of the venue stuff as I have some experience building conferences✌️

[Leamsi9]

I lived in Tenerife for many years and I have still very good links, including to friends who organise events and conferences there regularly, on a limited budget, so they will probably have recommendations and contacts for good venues. Let me know if I can help. Barcelona sounds fantastic too.

[Leamsi9]

I should add that if the UK is an option I can also help. No current Covid restrictions.

[derberg]

@Leamsi9 yeah, UK is cold, especially October/November 😄

Looks like there are 2 options left:

• Barcelona
• Canary Island

We will do a survey soon based on #323 where we will ask:

• October vs November
• Barcelona vs Canary Island
• Will you watch online or come in person

[derberg]

I had a call with Emily from Linux Foundation, to check if we can still count on them if we choose not to have a connected event with some LF event. All good 🚀

• We host kick of call next week for conference organization, please join AsyncAPI Conference 2022 organization kick off, 15:00 UTC Thursday May 26th 2022 #370. Emily confirmed when will be there for questions too
• We do it in person first time, so target one track, one room/hall event, around 100 ppl. One track one hall/room is perfect for us as it makes it supper easy to connect after presentations, bring community together, and not lost each other on corridors . Should be good for sponsor booths too
• Emily will get us proposals of venues with possible dates
• We will have options for 2-day and 3-day conference. We need to decide. I personally prefer 3 as then, on day 1 we can do the contributor summit (it had a large audience when we did it last year)
• For venue, I told Emily to target warm south. There were names like Sevilla, Valencia, Canary Island, and even Greece. Let's see what LF can get for us

Please join the meeting 🙏🏼

[smoya]

@derberg Are we waiting for LF to provide a list of possible venues?

[smoya]

I can provide some, adapted for the number of expected attendees.

[derberg]

yes, LF does the research, but if you already know some good locations, please share and I'll forward it to them so they can send "enquiry for a prize"

[smoya]

• MACBA, Barcelona city.
  • This is divided in two buildings, Meier and Convent dels Àngels building. Both are located in the same square.
  • PROS: MACBA is well known, as CCCB for be the reference of urban culture but also for the contemporary art In Barcelona. Located in the Raval, literally 5 minutes walking from Ramblas, one of the most famous touristic places in Barcelona. Also from Passeig de Gràcia and the Gothic Quarter.
  • CONS: I guess the cost.
• CCCB, Barcelona city.
  • PROS: It is the CCCB! A reference for urban culture in Barcelona. It has several rooms that fit our needs. It is next to CCCB building, So same PROS as MACBA.
  • CONS: Maybe costs?
• Casa Convalescència, Barcelona city.
  • PROS: Really beautiful building. And IIRC (I was speaking there in a conf back in 2014), it has everything we need: Can host ~200 attendees, there is space for booths, for having a meal, etc. It is pretty well located.
• Valkiria, Barcelona city.
  • PROS: It seems (I've never been there) cool and it has everything we need. They offer all services, including catering but also can provide streaming, etc. Metro station is literally 2 mins walking from the venue.
  • CONS: It is located in 22@ (this is not a con), 15 mins from Torre Glories, but still is not the touristic city center. Not sure about prices for the venue. I received not very positive feedback from someone who attended an event there.
• La Salle, Barcelona city.
  • PROS: big enough, capacity for >300 attendees, but the good point is that they adapt the lights of the room according to the number of people that attend, so the farthest seats will look like "darker". There is also a terrace.
  • CONS: A bit far from the city center. The location is nice, near the Collserola natural park, but it is not very well communicated by public transport.
• Alimara Hotel, Barcelona city.
  • PROS: Rooms of all spaces + nice garden.
  • CONS: A bit far from city center, however there is a Metro station pretty near.

Alternatively, most of the hotels have conference rooms. Some are pretty "cold" and "formal", others are more cool. I.e. SB Plaza Europa, the NH ones, etc.

I could keep investigating some others if those aren't working. I just mentioned some of the venues I've been attending or organizing so far.

[fmvilas]

So I got a message from @peter-rr saying he had a chat with people from Attico (a coworking space in Barcelona) and apparently they can host the event perfectly. Leaving a link to their website: https://aticco.com/en/events/. If you decide to call, make sure you ping @peter-rr (Peter on Slack) as he has close contact with them.