FUDCon headed to the Southwest?

Well, we’d definitely like to erase that question mark in the title if possible, when it comes to the next North American FUDCon.

Why? Well for one thing, our last several FUDCons for North America have been held in northern locations. And since those events are held between December and February at some point, as part of our rotating schedule of premier Fedora events, that means it’s can be pretty cold at FUDCon North America. (Sometimes even for the people who live in the host city.)

So when I found out some of our contributors were hip to get a conference in Tempe, Arizona, I thought to myself, Hooray! Finally a place where we won’t have to wear earmuffs for FUDCon! Robyn Bergeron started the ball rolling, and has a bid page on our wiki for FUDCon NA 2011.

The remaining issues need to be ironed out, though, and they’re fairly important:

1. Hotel costs
2. Internet connectivity

Item Number Two seems especially important because we all know the pain and suffering inflicted by bad broadband on a FOSS conference. So enter one young matriculating Arizona State University freshman, Ryan Rix, who is helping track down, through the ASU LUG, faculty contacts at ASU that might be able to help us assess the state of conference space and secure an appropriate venue with decent Internet.

We’d love to bring a Fedora event to a major university like ASU, not the least of which reasons is that it’s full of inquiring young engineering minds who could benefit from a nice big frothy mug of open source goodness. Sorry for the beer metaphor there… just a college flashback, I guess.

I’ve asked Robyn and Ryan, as the bid team, to help us get answers to these questions before June 1, so if needed we can make alternate plans.

Work is, of course, going on openly on the fudcon-planning list, so if you’re interested in helping to organize the event, please sign up and introduce yourself. Thanks again to Robyn and Ryan for their continued efforts. If they approach you for assistance, and you’d like a warmer weather FUDCon NA 2011, be sure to say thanks and give a little extra. ?