ApacheCons always need a venue and a date. ApacheCon should be announced far enough in advance that people can make plans to attend, and this will vary greatly depending on who your target audience is. If attendees will all come from the local area, and perhaps from established meetup groups, you will need less time to promote than if attendees will travel internationally to attend, for example.
Ensure that the selected venue has adequate space for the talk sessions, a general area for unstructured conversations, and room for exhibition tables and booths. You’ll want to make sure that the talk session rooms have enough capacity for your expected numb er of attendees. If you have different tracks, it is ideal to have the different talk rooms next to each other. If that is not possible, have them as close together as possible.
Ensure that the selected date does not conflict with any major regional event, important holidays, or sporting events. These will affect venue cost, attendance, and available parking, among other considerations.
In planning a location for ApacheCon or an Apache Roadshow, take into account the following considerations:
- Accessibility: Ensure that all event meeting spaces are accessible
- ApacheCon MUST have a Hackathon space
- Room for media training. consult with ASF Marketing & Publicity
- Board room for monthly board meeting (if the conference falls during board meeting). Consult with secretary@apache.org.
- Hard network drop in keynote room for streaming video.
- Hard network drop for registration desk.
All session rooms MUST have
- Wifi. Reliable 200+ Mb/s. ApacheCon attendees expect fast wifi. Preferred info: 'apachecon'/'httpd1995'
- Projection. (No Windows-only solutions!)
- Mic/Speakers
Venue SHOULD be accessible to an international airport with good connectivity to major international hubs.
Note: local universities are often willing to make meeting space available inexpensively, or even free in many cases. This can be of use for co-located events such as: