[GTALUG] Flock bids are now open

[Charles Profitt]

Chris:

See my thought in-line.

On Wed, 2017-01-18 at 15:08 -0500, Chris Tyler via talk wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm personally very interested in bringing Flock to Toronto; I led
> the effort to bring FUDcon (the predecessor event) to Toronto in
> December 2009 and the success of that event, the first community-
> hosted FUDcon, led to the FUDcon bid process that in turn evolved
> into the Flock process. I've been thinking about a follow-up event
> ever since.


> However, I don't think the time is quite right yet, especially if we
> want to do this with support from Seneca CDOT...
> 
> - CDOT is a possible venue for a Toronto Flock, since we would have
> the space and resources (network, A/V, foodservice) available in the
> summer. However, the campus is still ripped up with construction, the
> subway extension is not yet open, and CDOT is undergoing some
> internal reorganization.
> - The last North American Flock was in this corner of the continent
> (just across the lake in Rochester, NY).
> - Tourism resources (hotel space, etc) may be impacted by the
> sesquicentennial this summer.
> - The bid time is short (~5 weeks).

I agree that the time may not be ideal given everything you laid out.

> If we put together a coalition of interested parties (GTAlug, CDOT,
> other groups) and aim at the next North American Flock (2019), we
> should have plenty of time to put together a really solid bid,
> including a nice new subway between accommodation, presentation
> venues, and social activities.
> 
> I'm very open to other perspectives and ideas on this, if there's a
> strong case for doing this in 2017 -- discussion welcome.

There were not a large number of bids for last year and I wanted to see
a solid slate of choices for Flock this year. I am from Rochester and
did not think they would choose the same location again. This led me to
think of both GTA and KWLUG as having the interest and strength to
organize a bid.

Charles