AW: [lisp-hh] European Common Lisp Meeting in Hamburg..., sorry, in Amsterdam

[Arthur Lemmens]

Hi Joerg,

> [no mention of any limits whatsoever]

The web site mentioned the possibility that we might run out of seats
(and that it would be first come first served) from the very beginning.

> I fully understand that it's a private initiative, and that people
> did not expect 75 people to come

Indeed.  We expected 40-50 persons and I originally booked a room for
50 persons.  When we reached 40 registrations within a few days, we
realized that we would get more than 50 registrations and I found a
bigger room.  I reserved the bigger room in the expectation that we
wouldn't get more than 70 registrations.

But the growth of interest in Lisp meetings is stronger than even I
(famous for my theory that the number of participants to Amsterdam
Lisp meetings doubles each time ;-) expected and within a few more
days we reached 65 registrations.

At that point we sent a warning to comp.lang.lisp and the eurolisp
mailing list that we were filling up very fast and that people should
register quickly if they wanted to be sure of a place.

> shouldn't the next thing be to announce that you're looking for a room
> much larger than 75 places?

I'll see Edi next Saturday and we'll discuss this.

There are a couple of reasons why we probably won't do this, though:

 - Finding a room takes about a day of my time.  I need to search
   on the internet, call people, go out and look at the room, make
   calculations to see if we can afford it, etc.

 - I don't have any experience in organizing stuff for big crowds.
   I /have/ organized a meeting for 33 people and I'm reasonably confident
   that Edi and I can handle 75 people.  I'm a bit less confident that we
   can handle 100+ people without making some stupid mistake.

 - Another question is whether we actually /want/ to handle a meeting
   that big.  We're not the ALU, this is not the ILC, and we're still
   two guys with wifes and kids who have to work to pay their rent.

> given that you can count on such many people, a large room should
> become affordable.

Yes, affordability doesn't seem to be the problem.  25 euro per person
seems to be (just) enough to cover the costs for the room and for
stuff like a beamer, a projection screen, etcetera.

> Or shall I know better the next time and proceed to early allocation
> of resources (I went to Edi's web site long before it was full), so
> as to be able to desist later? At least, then *I*'d get my seat if I
> come.

The best way of making sure you get a seat at a Lisp meeting is by
organizing one yourself ;-)

Arthur