Describe DebConf/21/Bids/India/CheckList here.
Checklist to be filled by any prospective local teams that would like to host Debconf
(the font style indicates the different priorities high, medium and low.)
Contents
Local team
Please name the main local team
- Sruthi Chandran, Pirate Praveen, Balashankar C, Abhijith PA, Utkarsh Gupta, Raju Devidas, Andrew Lee, Kannan VM, Kiran S Kunjumon, Ambady, Suman, Anupa Ann Joseph, Akhil Varkey and Ranjith Siji
Of these people, which have been present at a previous ?DebConfs and which have participated as organizers and/or volunteers (the line might be quite blurry at times) of a previous DebConf?
Sruthi and Utkarsh has been to 2019 Debconf and has participated as volunteers. Sruthi was involved with the front desk activities through out the event. Utkarsh was part of bursary and content team. Andrew acted as a local organizer of DebConf 18. Raju Devidas has been to 2 Debconfs.
Briefly describe their involvement in Debian and the Free Software world.
- Abhijith,Andrew, Balashankar, Praveen, Sruthi and Utkarsh are Debian Developers. Raju is an active Debian contributor maintaining multiple packages.Akhil, Ambady,Kannan, Kiran, Manas,Samyak and Suman has packaged for debian. All of the people mentioned in the team has been active in organizing Debian events like release parties to miniDebconfs/Debutsav in India in addition to other events on Free Software. Ranjith Siji, Kannan and Ambady contributes also takes sessions on Wikipedia and are active contributors.
Who has previous experience in organizing events? What events?
- Andrew Lee was a local Debconf18 organizer. Sruthi Chandran, Pirate Praveen, Balashankar C, Abhijith PA, Utkarsh Gutpta, Raju and Kiran was involved in organizing Debutsavs in India. Along with them, rest of the team has conducted various small and large Debian events throughout India.
Who of your team is contributing to DebConfN-1? In which teams?
Raju, Akhil, Utkarsh and a couple others may be attending DebConf 2020 and helping in local organization stuff. Utkarsh will be part of bursary and content teams as well.
Are any local team members linked (professionally/financially/personally) with any of the organisations who will provide services (e.g. venue/food/accommodation) to DebConf? (Any links can be good or bad, but they should be stated publicly.)
- No.
Choice of city / town / whatever
- Are you suggesting a city, a town, a village, a spa in the middle of nowhere?
Kochi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kochi) is a port city of Kerala in India.
- How many people live there?
- About 21 million people.
- How easy/convenient is it to get computer hardware and electronic components?
- It is easy. Kochi is the commerce capital of Kerala.
- Electronics shops.
- Yes and lots of them.
- Computer hardware stores.
- Yes. Lots of them are available near the venue.
- Supermarkets, etc.
- Plenty of them and all the hotels in the bid have easy access to them.
Delivery from online shopping services like Amazon, ?MediaMarkt? How long does delivery take?
- Flipkart and Amazon covers Kochi. In the case of both, you can have deliveries within two days for the premium options which varies for products.
- How easy is it for handicapped people to move around?
- Not very friendly in general. Metro is disabled friendly.
- Which is the nearest railway station?
- Ernakulam Junction/South (ERS) - 2.3 km, Ernakulam Town/North (ERN) - 1.8 km.
- Is there good connectivity by rail or coach? How much does it cost? Good connectivity with rest of India. Sample rates from Bangalore (635 km): Sleeper (non ac) - 350 INR, Third class ac - 915 INR, Second class ac - 1285 INR, First class ac - 2110 INR.
How long does the trip from the station to the venue take?
- 5 - 10 minutes.
- Which is the nearest airport?
Cochin International Airport is the nearest airport.
Are there any cheap airlines flying to the chosen city (or nearby)?
How long does the trip from the airport to the venue take?
- The venue is about 21 kms away from the airport and can be reached within an hour via public transport system.
How friendly is your country towards foreigners?
- Very friendly and India receives around 15.6 million foreign tourists every year which contributes a great part to its economy.
Visas: Which/how many countries' citizens require getting a visa? How hard (bureaucratic, probable) is it to get it?
e-Visa is where you can apply online for Indian Visa. Citizens of other countries require visa and the FAQ covers the countries and requirements.
Are there any import regulations, which might affect DebConf? (e.g. a limit to number of laptops / cheese / wine you can bring in; hard regulations for money transfers; etc.)
- You can bring only one laptop duty free. 2 litres of alcoholic beverages or wine duty free and duty payable for any quantity above the limits. FCRA regulations require permission from government before receiving money from abroad (or partnership with an organization that has FCRA clearance from government).
- Language: Do most people speak English? How hard is it for a foreigner to find their way around?
- Large number of tourists visit Kerala and in most places you can get around with English.
- Smoking: What are the local regulations about smoking?
Public smoking is prohibited. This link covers the public spaces and exceptions. There are usually designated smoking areas in buildings (Venue has a designated smoking area).
Conference Facilities
How much does it cost to rent these facilities?
- Conference Hall - 600 INR per person including lunch (number of persons or 40% of capacity, whichever is higher, will be considered)
How far away are the locations from each other? (auditoriums, hacklabs, restaurant, sleeping quarters, front desk, orga spaces)
- Everything is within 500 metres distance.
What kind of places are available suitable for hacklabs, workshops, ?BoFs and talks? Usually DebConf needs 2 videoed presentation talk rooms, 1 videoed BoF room, several (>=3) smaller BoF rooms, and a few (>= 2) hack labs.
Plans for rooms have been detailed in the table added to https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/21/Bids/India#Hotel_Abad_Plaza_.26_Nearby_Hotels
- How many people fit in each of them?
How flexible are the spaces?
Can smaller auditoria be merged into a bigger one?
- No.
- Are tables/chairs fixed, or can we arrange them to fit more people/give more room to the people that we need?
- Most of the rooms, chairs are not fixed. We can arrange as per our requirements.
Is the venue accessible? Note: There are more accessibility issues to bear in mind than just mobility. Is the area safe for people with any kind of disability? (There are sight and hearing-impaired people, too.) Bonus: What people is it not good for?
- Is there access to all areas with ramps and/or elevators? (Note: carrying somebody over some steps is not usually an acceptable option.)
- Hotels have ramps and elevators.
Are there people with experience in accessibility at the venue? Are we in contact with them?
- Is there access to all areas with ramps and/or elevators? (Note: carrying somebody over some steps is not usually an acceptable option.)
- Are plans / blueprints with exact distances available to us (to be kept confidential on request)?
- All venues are mapped publicly.
What kind of audio equipment is already present in the talk rooms?
Wireless or stationary mics?
- Already available in the room
clip-on kind of mics or hand-held mics?
- Available on request. Chargeable @ 750 INR per day.
How many of them?
Can the video team take control of the audio equipment in the room?
- Will the hacklabs be allowed to stay open 24x7? What time schedule do they offer?
What kind of security will be there?
Are there any limitations regarding the consumptions of food / alcohol? Where do these limitations apply?
How far is it to the nearest convenience stores / all-night restaurants?
- This is downtown Kochi, everything is within couple of minutes walking distance.
- Please provide pictures of the venue and accommodation.
Food
How much are the meals per person per day?
- Conference Hall - 600 INR per person including lunch (number of persons or 40% of capacity, whichever is higher, will be considered) Dinner - 500 INR
- Where will food be served? Is this near the talk rooms / the hacklabs?
- Near the talk rooms.
What kind of food will be served?
In what fashion? (table service, limited buffet, open buffet, etc.)
- Open buffet
- Would food for vegetarian / vegan / lactose-intolerant / gluten-sensitive / religious (of any denomination) people be available?
- yes
How many meals do we need to order to get those kind of "special" meals?
- The special meals can be included in the original meal plan itself by doing proper menu selection. Quite a lot of the Kerala food options are vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free by nature.
Will it cost extra to get those special meals?
Will the special meals come from a separate caterer?
In a two week period, how much variety in food can be provided?
Socialising
- What areas are available nearby for attendees to hack, socially? (e.g. bars, outside tables, swimming pools, coffee shops)
- Coffee Shop, Swimming Pool, Pool Side Party Area are available in the same hotel premises.
- What hours will they be open?
- To be confirmed.
Is there conference WiFi coverage in these areas?
- To be confirmed.
Network connectivity
Is the area already wired with regular network infrastructure? (much preferably: 1Gbps)
- They have internet access. But we will take leased line.
How much does it cost and how difficult is it to get a big internet connection? (100 Mbps at least)
- 15000 INR for 1Gbps for one month per connection.
How much work does it imply to cover the area with WiFi?
- To be confirmed.
- What can be done if an area isn't well covered? Are there spare APs?
- We can arrange some spare APs
If we use someone else's infrastructure, how flexible are they, regarding routing / firewall / IP ranges / public access / WiFi SSIDs / other stuff?
- To be confirmed.
Do we have restrictions on allowed ports?
Are we traffic-shaped? Or can we set a traffic shaper if we need so?
Can we get a dedicated SSID for DebConf with static auth? Rather than per-user credentials.
Do we have a point of contact, who understands our needs? To be confirmed.
Would it be possible to set up the core network before DebCamp? (a day or two, earlier would be nicer, in order to handle problems gracefully. Additional weeks for wireless.)
Special rooms
Plans for rooms have been detailed in the table added to https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/21/Bids/India#Hotel_Abad_Plaza_.26_Nearby_Hotels
Both for server and video rooms:
- General conditions for the rooms
- Size
- Have they/do they need air conditioning?
- What network connectivity is available?
What electrical load can they handle?
- Lockable? Who has access?
Front Desk:
- Where are are we expecting to host the front desk? How close is it to other spaces?
- Is it lockable?
Orga Room:
- Is there a small (10 person) room that the orga team can use for meetings and storage?
Meeting Room:
- Is there a small (10 person) room that can be used for private meetings? (e.g. sensitive issues)
Accommodation
How much does it cost per person per night?
- 3250 INR (twin sharing)
Is the place where people are going to sleep near the conference facilities?
- Yes, it will be in same hotel or within 500 metres.
Is it able to handle an uncertainty in the attendee count, until a month before the conference?
- Since we have a number of hotels within short distance, handling uncertainty should not be an issue.
Is it able to handle the change in attendance from ~20 on the first night to the expected maximum towards the end of the conference?
- This should be fine.
- Is it able to handle foreigners who can't speak the local languages? (i.e. do the people at the accommodation speak English?)
- Yes, the venue/accommodation people speak English.
Is accommodation check-in separate to DebConf check-in?
- Yes.
Can couples (and families) be accommodated together?
- Yes.
How many room keys would be available?
- To be confirmed.
- Are there other hotels around?
- Being downtown Kochi, there are a number of hotels in all budget range near the venue.
- Are there rooms ready for handicapped people? How many?
- To be confirmed.
Child Care
- Will there be any child care available?
- Could be arranged.
- Where will it be located?
- To be confirmed.
- What will it cost?
- To be confirmed.
- What age ranges will be supported?
- To be confirmed.
- During what hours will it be offered?
- To be confirmed.
Fun and Free time
- What leisure activities are recommended?
- The hotel itself provides facilities for Ayurvedic spa, steamroom, swimming pool etc. In addition boat rides, beaches, cultural tours etc are recommended.
- List some possible Day Trips.
- Backwater houseboat rides, Fort Kochi tour, Cultural tour, Nature trails, beaches, the options are many.
- Are the proposed locations ready to receive people with disabilities?
- How expensive would they be?
- Many options could be free or minimum cost. Backwater tour may be the most expensive one (rates to be confirmed)
- Will transport need to be organised?
- Some can be done without special transport arrangements, some may require transport arrangements.
Local Sponsors
Do you have a list of prospective sponsors that might be interested in helping the conference? (By providing venues, money, hardware, connectivity, etc.)
- ICFOSS FOSSEE Hamara Linux Nilenso C-DAC
- Have you spoken to these organisations yet, to find out if they might sponsor, and what conditions and deadlines they have? (Note that many large organisations which provide funding for events need to be approached a long time in advance.)
We spoke with ICFOSS (International Centre for Free and Open Source Software is an autonomous organization set up by the Government of Kerala, India to promote FOSS). They expressed interest in being part of the DebConf.
- Do you have promises/pledges from any of these sponsors already?
Timing
When (and why) would be the best time to host DebConf at your location?
- September second week
- What is your backup plan if your preferred venue isn't available at that time?
- As this bid has listed multiple hotels, even if one or two is not available, it will be manageable.
- Is there a provisional reservation in place for a particular date? When does the provisional reservation expire?
- No