Hey @council — it’s been a while since we’ve met in person. I am planning on going to FOSDEM for the GNOME Advisory Board meeting and to see people (not yet sure if I’ll try to actually cram myself into a devroom!), so I’ll be around.
That’s the 4th and 5th of February in Brussels. The GNOME meeting is probably going to be the day before (and CentOS often runs a thing the day before as well) so we could either do Fedora Council meetings before that or following. And it could be in Brussels or somewhere easy to get to from there.
The agenda would be primarily: next steps on Fedora strategy. I know I’m still owing everyone some posts here, but those are really in the works, and I think early February will be a perfect time to sew things up. We also have a number of other topics that could benefit from in-person work sessions.
What do you all think? I’d like to get this figured out soon so we can book space and travel for everyone.
FOSDEM works for me. It will have been 16 years since I have been to FOSDEM. Per our most recent council meeting, I feel sooner rather than later is better for an in person meeting.
I mean, would you be able to attend a Council meeting in or near Brussels sometime close enough to FOSDEM that those who are attending could combine the trips.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by “Council meeting”. I was assuming you’re thinking of a one-day like we used to do adjacent to Flock and DevConf CZ. If that’s the case, then I don’t think it’s worth me making a transoceanic trip. If you were thinking of a three-day meeting like we’ve previously held in November/December, I might be able to do something immediately prior to FOSDEM.
It’s probably best to proceed as if I won’t be able to attend and then if the details work out such that I can, then hooray!
Yes, I’m thinking it’s time for the three-day extravaganza. Since we didn’t do that this month, and since we’re not going to have even a one-day DevConf.cz meeting (because of that not happening until June), I think it’s time. (I’ll edit the topic title to match.)
Works for me too. Having some time near the FOSDEM time and someplace closer to Brussels (or Brussels itself if that’s possible) really helps. I plan on helping out with the distribution devroom this time, so combining two purposes on the same trip can be a good thing.
This sounds really nice!
I would love to see this happening somewhere before/after FOSDEM and in Brussels or nearby. I am planning to volunteer for the FOSDEM booth anyway. So, this sounds like a good opportunity!
I want a scoped agenda in advance. The Fedora strategy is hand-wavy for now, until more documentation is in place and we have more opportunities for community input. Three days is a lot of time to ask for, and this can be hardest for folks who can’t roll the travel time and working days as part of their dayjob.
That said, I am in favor. The in-person inertia would help. I was on the Council before this time around, and I know it was a good while since all folks came together.
This is confirmed. I heard a rumor it will be CentOS Connect.
My optimism is hoping for interesting post-FOSDEM scheduling like Copyleft Conf but nothing is confirmed. My preference is before FOSDEM though.
Dates could be Monday, 30 January to Thursday, 2 February. Assume an earlier day on Thursday to allow for any travel or change of hotel depending on location.
Location could vary. The first question to answer is how important it is for us to meet in the same city as FOSDEM. If close proximity to FOSDEM is of higher importance, we could explore options in Brussels but I feel like it will be a challenge to find affordable meeting space. There is a Red Hat office there but it is not managed by Red Hat, so we would have to check if space were available there or not (assuming we consider a Red Hat office as a possible venue).
If we were open to an alternate city, I would suggest another option: Frankfurt, Germany. Some reasons why I think Frankfurt could be a good option:
It is a major European travel hub. There are options for many different travel itineraries to converge in Frankfurt.
Forward travel directly to Brussels is possible by air or train.
Daily costs for individuals will likely run much less than in Brussels.
It could be an option to try a venue that is not a Red Hat office (e.g. hotel or coworking space), but Red Hat is a significant sponsor of Fedora. If we could leverage this sponsorship to save budget on venue, I think it would be a win for our future events (e.g. contributor hackfests and Flock).
I am ok with a meetup in Brussels or in Frankfurt. I think that Brussels may be a bit more difficult because we need space to do it. Could we rent a conference room at whatever hotel we use? I do not think holding the meetup at FOSDEM is a good idea because it’s too distracting and those of us making that trip probably also want to be attending FOSDEM.
Frankfurt is fine with me as well. The sooner we nail this down, the faster I can communicate my budget needs to work.
(also, non-RH-managed RH offices are nearly impossible to use unless you’re sales. it’s really just not worth the effort.)
It is a good question, and I was informed off-thread that historically, a hotel has thrown in a conference room or working area for as part of making a larger reservation (e.g. 8+ rooms). So, this could work.
For sure. I wouldn’t propose that either. Too much chaos and I don’t want to compete with the conference!
Good to know. This pushes me more towards Frankfurt then.
I want to lock this down no later than the Council meeting on Wednesday, 23 November.
There is a Hampton by Hilton Frankfurt City Centre Messe about 1 km away from the Red Hat office. Getting to the hotel from the airport is a 30-minute trip by rail. Getting from the hotel to the local train station (i.e. for forward travel to Brussels) is a 22-minute trip by rail. The total train travel time from Frankfurt to Brussels is 3.5 to 4 hours. I tentatively held a space at the Red Hat Frankfurt office, but we can pivot to something else.
The points @jflory7 mentioned about why Frankfurt, Germany could potentially be the location for the council hackfest makes sense to me and hence, I am more inclined to that option. Personally, from what I heard from the folks, getting a VISA to Germany from India should be a non-issue.
I have just been told that I have an AWS offsite meeting Jan 30 - Feb 01 in Washington DC. While not saying “you have to move this for me”, I would really like to actually participate here. Is there any chance we could do this after FOSDEM?
