Hello,
> As a matter of facts, ArchConf 2020 was fully online [1]. But wasn't that because of COVID? I am sure if it was an option back in 2020 people would always pick in person, right? > While it's fair to say that socializing is a big part of events like > FOSDEM, organising such a "in person" event requires a huge amount of > money, time and human ressources that Arch may not have right now. Which is true. But you can always piggy back other conferences? Doesn't have to be something big, you could hire a venue for the day after FOSDEM, so that people who have travelled to FOSDEM only need an extra night's stay to be able to attend. And I am sure if the staff team put out a request for sponsorship someone would sponsor arch, its not exactly a small distribution after all. By venue, it could literally be a function room within a pub or brewery, in some cases the booking of such space is cheap because it is subisidised by the expectation of people spending lots of money on food and drink. Considering the size of Arch though I would assume if an irl conference was announced, it could potentially be hundreds of people, which means bigger venue requirements, and a lot more money to hire said venue. Another option is charging for attending, but this then has legal burden of handling money and afaik Arch doesn't even handle their own donations, SPI [1] handles the burden for Arch Linux if I understand correctly. Anyways my point is, it is not impossible. If there is enough support for it, I am sure Arch could find sponsorships to pay for a venue, and if done around a bigger conference which many people within Arch attend (such as FOSDEM), it cuts down on the costs of travel for attendees too. Personally I don't really care all that much, my reply was meant to be humourous although a very true observation about the nature of conferences. However, the thing I will ask, if you are going to go to the effort of running a conference, surely you would want to go all the way and have it in person? Take care, -- Polarian Jabber/XMPP: [email protected] [1] https://www.spi-inc.org/
