2009/3/19 joseph seddon <life_is_bitter_sweet(a)hotmail.co.uk>uk>: What sort of things are you needing for this? General "Oxford is in the SE of England, so is relatively expensive", etc, or...? Amsterdam has some standard prices; Gdansk doesn't seem to mention this. Travel costs might be tricky - I mean, predicting air costs six months out is tough, much less eighteen. It should be possible to do something comparable to the Amsterdam & Gdansk bids, though - all three may be spurious numbers, but at least they're comparably spurious ;-) -- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk

2009/3/19 joseph seddon <life_is_bitter_sweet(a)hotmail.co.uk>uk>: You lucky man! Although I'm not particularly active here in WikimediaUK I am monitoring. I'd like to highlight my experience with events like this. I'm not about to start volunteering time here, I am unable to do so due to other commitments. However, if there is something quick I can do for you, feel free to ask. I am member of the Conference Planning Committee over at the Apache Software Foundation. This means I've been involved with putting on major, multi-stream conferences. This year I am the co-lead on ApacheCon Europe (which starts next week in Amsterdam if anyone is interested - see http//www.apachecon.com). I have also been involved to a lesser extent in previous years events. My experience is one of coordination rather than doing. We have specialists handling all the important stuff like production, press, accounting, local engagement etc. The role of the conference committee is to make sure they all play nicely together and to make decisions about content at the event. The most important thing to understand is, even with all the professional support we have, running a major international conference is a *huge* undertaking. I'm sure you know this already, but the more times it is said the more aware of it we are. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask if there if you think I may be able to help in some speficic way. Ross