Frankfurt.pm bid for hosting YAPC::EU 2011

Frankfurt.pm, one of the biggest Perlmonger groups in Germany, would like to host the YAPC::Europe 2011 Perl conference in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)

Organizers

If Frankfurt.pm is selected to host next year's YAPC::Europe, we will form a "Verein" (registered association) to handle everything regarding the event.

Frankfurt.pm members have some experience in organizing events:

• Some of us were in the organizing committee of the German Perl-Workshop (GPW) for many years
• Frankfurt.pm has organized the 11th German Perl-Workshop in 2009
• Frankfurt.pm organizes a small workshop every year for 5 years now

These Frankfurt.pm members have already committed to organize YAPC::Europe 2011:

• Renée Bäcker
• Max Maischein
• Harald Vajkonny
• Rolf Langsdorf
• Thomas Fahle
• Heiko Honrath
• Wieland Pusch

And we get some support of other Perlmongers in Germany:

• Steffen Schwigon - Dresden.pm (also in the organizing committee of GPW 2004 - 2010)
• Bernhard Schmalhofer - Munich.pm

Most of us have attended a YAPC for several years.

Contact

Questions? Comments? Please contact the organizers at yapceu@perl-magazin.de

Venue

We have no contract yet, but we are already in contact with two venues. Sadly both venues are not for free, but the price is ok.

Saalbau Titus

Situated amidst modern architecture and surrounded by over 120 retail shops, banks and service companies, one finds the SAALBAU Titus Forum, located in Frankfurt´s "Nordwestzentrum". This building is ideal for hosting large-scale events such as congresses, seminars, presentations and exhibitions. Thanks to the neighbouring hotel, the Titus-Forum is also suitable for events lasting several days.

The location is nearby the an area called "Nordwestzentrum" with several opportunities to get lunch and one hotel (Courtyard Marriot). Other hotels are in the city - that is 25min by subway.

The Saalbau Titus has several rooms:

• "Großer Saal", 580 sqm, 356 seats (classroom style capacity) up to 647 seats (row seating).
• "Clubraum 3", 67 sqm, 80 seats (row seating)
• "Clubraum 4", 58 sqm, 50 seats (row seating)

There are several other options in the Saalbau (1 bigger room, several smaller rooms).

In case, we can't find a sponsor for lunch, there are several opportunities in the "Nordwestzentrum", see http://www.nwz-frankfurt.de/nc/geschaefte/branchen/gastronomie/ (german).

University of Frankfurt / Campus Bockenheim

The old "headquarters" in Merton Street – Domicile of the Economics and Business Administration Department

The traditional campus of the university is located close to Frankfurt’s trade fair and main train station. The university’s administrative offices as well as some departments can be found here.

• HI 300 seats
• H1 60 seats
• H2 120 seats

We can book several of the smaller rooms if needed.

Hotels are very close to the venue.

In case, we can't find a sponsor for lunch, there are several opportunities for lunch located nearby.

Catering

The attendance fees include coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon.

Depending on the level of sponsorship, we could also consider more expensive scenarios: for example, including high-quality lunches and coffee breaks.

Conference Details

The subsequent paragraphs give an overview over the conference itself.

Date

We choose August for the conference.

Since August is quiet in terms of fairs and other events, prices for hotels should be relatively small. And last YAPCs have been in August, too.

Exact dates have to be announced.

Theme

If Frankfurt is elected to host next year's YAPC, the Conference Theme is likely "Powerhouse Perl".

A powerhouse generates the energy we all need - and most businesses need power, too. Many businesses run with Perl, either built a product with Perl or use it for several tasks to work more efficiently. We hope, that this theme leads to many talks that show how Perl can be used to run or at least helps to run a business.

Website

We plan to use the conference toolkit "Act!" as this is proven by many YAPCs and it provides everything we need.

Additional Program

The "Partner Program" introduced to YAPC::EU in 2009 is a great idea, so we plan to offer a "Partner Program", too. And addtional courses before and after the YAPC are good opportunities to learn some things in detail.

Additional Courses

We know, that some attendees try to cover their costs with income of courses. We do not offer these courses at the venue, but we will help to organize these courses (book the rooms, handling invoices and payment).

Partner Program

Families are important and hopefully some attendees bring their families. So we plan to have a Partner Program. The details for the program have to be defined, but some ideas follow

• Visit Frankfurt Airport (Airport tour)
• Ebbelwoi-Express ride
• Sightseeing
• Visit the Maintower
• Cruise on the River Rhine

Budget

Here some information about the income and costs that we expect.

Attendees

Attendees make the biggest part in income and costs.

Income

Planned attendance fees:

Guests, Speakers, Orga:   0 EUR
Full-time students:      50 EUR
Early-bird:              80 EUR
Regular price:          110 EUR
Corporate tariff:       900 EUR

final fees have to be announced.

Costs

There are several costs per attendee:

T-shirt:                  5 EUR
Catering:                25 EUR
Bag:                      3 EUR
badge, and other stuff:   2 EUR
Attendees dinner:        30 EUR

And we plan to invite some guests and we assume that this will cost us 8,000 EUR

Venue

Unfortunately, "venue" means "costs". Currently we know two scenarios

Saalbau Titus-Forum:     9,000 EUR
University of Frankfurt: 5,000 EUR

some calculations

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| attendee type | % |# of attendees |
| | | 250 | 280 |
| guests, speaker ( 0 EUR) | 75 (#)| 75 ( 0 EUR) | 75 ( 0 EUR) |
| students ( 50 EUR) | 5% | 9 ( 450 EUR) | 11 ( 550 EUR) |
| early bird ( 80 EUR) | 80% | 140 (11,200 EUR) | 164 (13,120 EUR) |
| standard (110 EUR) | 10% | 18 ( 1,980 EUR) | 20 ( 2,200 EUR) |
| corporate (900 EUR) | 5% | 8 ( 7,200 EUR) | 10 ( 9,000 EUR) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| costs (variable) | | 250 (16,250 EUR) | 280 (18,200 EUR) |
| costs (fix) | | (20,000 EUR) | (20,000 EUR) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| sum | | -15,420 EUR | -13,330 EUR |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| attendee type             | %     |# of attendees                       |
|                           |       | 300              | 320              |
| guests, speaker (  0 EUR) | 75 (#)| 75  (     0 EUR) | 75  (     0 EUR) |
| students        ( 50 EUR) | 5%    | 12  (   600 EUR) | 13  (   650 EUR) |
| early bird      ( 80 EUR) | 80%   | 180 (14,400 EUR) | 196 (15,680 EUR) |
| standard        (110 EUR) | 10%   | 22  ( 2,420 EUR) | 24  ( 2,640 EUR) |
| corporate       (900 EUR) | 5%    | 11  ( 9,900 EUR) | 12  (10,800 EUR) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| costs (variable)          |       | 300 (19,500 EUR) | 320 (20,800 EUR) |
| costs (fix)               |       |     (20,000 EUR) |     (20,000 EUR) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| sum                       |       |     -12,180 EUR  |     -11,030 EUR  |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

These are pessimistic calculations (assumed high fix costs and the ratio of the attendees type may change).

Sponsors

Sponsors are very important to host an event like the YAPC::EU.

Dt. Perl-Workshop GbR

The "company" that is behind the the German Perl-Workshop has alread committed that they will grant financial support.

$foo - Perl-Magazin

The German Perl magazin has already committed their support.

OTRS AG

((otrs)) provides the ticketing system that we use for orga stuff and they said, that they are interested in sponsoring us.

others

We have good contacts to other German companies using Perl. We will ask them for sponsorship. And we will talk to the companies that supported earlier YAPCs as well.

About Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main - better known as simply Frankfurt - is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth largest city in Germany. In 2009 over 600,000 peopled lived there and the Rhein-Main-Area (which is the second largest metropolitan area in Germany) has a population of about 5,600,000.

Frankfurt is the financial and transportation center of Germany: It is the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the German Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Trade Fair.

But Frankfurt was an important city in the history, too. The very first democratic elected German parliament had its seat in Frankfurt.

More info about Frankfurt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt

Sightseeing

Those who set out on a discovery tour of Frankfurt can easily reach many of the sites on foot or by bus and train. Many attractions are not very far from one another in the city centre. And with public transport, you can quickly reach further sights such as the Palm Garden and the Zoo. A city tour with the nostalgic tram, the ‘Ebbelwei Express’ is particularly popular. And culture lovers will find an impressive selection of renowned museums on both banks of the Main.

Some of the intresting things to see:

Römer

The Römer, a Frankfurt landmark, is among the most beautiful and oldest town halls. Its silhouette, with three gables and the famous balcony, is known throughout the world.

Ebbelwei Express

This colourful tram carriage, which takes you to the finest sights in Frankfurt, offers an original city tour. Guests can enjoy the trip over a glass of cider.

Imperial Cathedral

Visible from far away and of exceptional historical significance: Saint Bartholomew’s Imperial Cathedral is a Frankfurt landmark and the coronation site of German emperors.

Saal Lane

The numerous postmodern façades behind the Schirn bridge the gap between contemporary architecture and the medieval buildings on the Römerberg.

Getting there

It's very easy to come to Frankfurt (like the claim of the state Hesse says: "Hessen - no way around us" ;-) )

By Plane

There are excellent connections to Frankfurt. Frankfurt Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world and all major cities have flight connections to Germany. Some connections from other cities (as of May 27th, 2010):

• Munich - Lufthansa - 114,90 EUR
• Vienna - Austrian Airlines - 84,39 EUR
• Lisbon - TAP Portugal - 208,18 EUR
• Birmingham - Lufthansa - 109,94 EUR
• Copenhagen - Lufthansa - 145,60 EUR
• Paris - Lufthansa - 103,59 EUR
• Amsterdam - Lufthansa - 94,30 EUR
• and many more

And Frankfurt-Hahn is an excellent low-cost airport (it's an 2-hours-ride by bus from Hahn to Frankfurt). The bus transfer from Airport Frankfurt-Hahn to Frankfurt is 12 EUR (one way).

By Bus

Several bus agencies offer travellings by bus from several cities (see Eurolines - http://www.touring.de/index.php?id=2&L=1)

By Car

Thanks to its central location, Frankfurt is an important traffic hub and can be easily reached from all directions. The motorway interchange with the highest volume of traffic, the Frankfurt Interchange, connects the federal motorways A3 and A5 and is used by more than 305,000 cars and lorries every day.

Depending on the direction of travel, you can reach Frankfurt in the following ways:

From the north (e.g. Hamburg, Kassel, Hanover), via the federal motorway A5 to the Frankfurt interchange From the south (e.g. Basle, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt), via the federal motorway A67, then onto the A5 to the Frankfurt interchange From the west (e.g. Cologne): via the federal motorway A3 to the Frankfurt interchange From the south-east (e.g. Munich, Würzburg): via the federal motorway A3 to the Frankfurt interchange From the south-west (e.g. Saarbrücken) via the federal motorway A6 and then A5 to the Frankfurt interchange.

By Train

Frankfurt central station is the most important rail transport hub in Germany. Every day, more than 1,100 trains connect the city with many national and international destinations and around 700 suburban railway trains take passengers to stations within Frankfurt and the surrounding area. More than 350,000 passengers and visitors from home and abroad use this station every day. To be able to manage this great volume of traffic, the central station has more than 25 platforms in five departure halls.

Getting around

Public transport in Frankfurt is done with several carriers. There are underground, busses, trams, "S-Bahn" (rapid transit rail) and trains. So it's very easy to get around in Frankfurt.

More info about public transport in Frankfurt is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport_in_Frankfurt_am_Main

A single ticket from city center to the venue is 2,40 EUR (as of May 31st, 2010).

Accomodations

Frankfurt has a variety of accommodations - for every budget. From youth hostel (http://www.jugendherberge-frankfurt.de) over "bed and breakfast" to 5-star hotels like the Steigenberger (http://www.steigenberger.com/Frankfurt). We will provide a list of accomodations on the conference website.

Summary

We think, that Frankfurt is a great place for a YAPC::Europe and we are confident that we can organize a great YAPC::EU 2011. We are a team of motivated people.

Max Maischein, Renée Bäcker et al. on behalf of the Frankfurt.pm