[Debian-uk] Dropping Cambridge bid for 2017

[Daniel Pocock]

On 13/12/15 22:17, Neil Williams wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 21:59:45 +0100
> Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.pro> wrote:
>
>> On 13 December 2015 21:35:31 CET, "Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo"
>> <manuel.montezelo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2015-12-13 18:39 GMT+00:00 Steve McIntyre <steve at einval.com>:  
>>>> Hi folks,
>>>>
>>>> I'm sorry to say that we won't be submitting a complete bid for
>>>> DC17 in Cambridge. We're partway ready, but we're not going to be
>>>> there  
>>> for  
>>>> 15th December. In the last couple of weeks, my preferred
>>>> accomodation partner has NACKed us and I've been too busy with
>>>> other things since [1] to work on replacment options. We hope to
>>>> find more time to make  
>>> a  
>>>> complete bid in future, maybe DC18 or DC19.
>>>>
>>>> Good luck to the other teams bidding to host in 2017!
>>>>
>>>> [1] My wife Jo has had a major surgical procedure and I've been
>>>>     helping her recuperate at home.  
>>> Pity, but understandable.  Thanks for all the work that you put
>>> there, and hope that Jo is better now!
>>>
>>> BTW, I recall having a conversation with her about possible
>>> accomodation in Cambridge, I don't recall which options there were,
>>> but at least at first glance it doesn't seem very easy to find
>>> accomodation for a huge number of people, with Heidelberg in mind
>>> (maybe attendance would not be so high, but I think that it would be
>>> in the ballpark at least).
>>>
>> If student accommodation is vacant in the summer months it might be
>> affordable.
> Student accommodation in Cambridge is typically full during the summer
> months - there are a large number of summer schools and Cambridge
> colleges make significant proportions of their income from those
> schools. The reputation of the university only feeds the demand which
> makes the costs much higher than other university towns. Proximity to
> London also has an impact on the base cost of general accommodation. It
> was always going to be one of the more difficult parts of the Cambridge
> bid and has been under constant evaluation, especially whether any of
> the student accommodation could be made affordable by using personal
> relationships between the many DD's who were educated here. A lot of
> work has already gone into the problem of accommodation in Cambridge
> for the bid.
>

Switzerland and New York both have "special" economic circumstances and
they each still hosted a DebConf so there is no reason to think it is
impossible for Cambridge - just difficult.  Has DebConf ever failed to
go ahead simply because it was going to be difficult?

The bigger concern for a Cambridge DebConf is the potential disruption
to local developers who already do a lot of great things for different
parts of Debian.