Hi Inkscapers,
today, I phoned Aude Poilroux, project manager working at k8, who had offered to help us with getting a space for the planned Hackfest before LGM.
k8.design (Institut für strategische Ästhetik) ----------------------------------------------
A non-profit company (gGmbH) owned by the Saarbrücken arts university. They do work on organizing events, art cooperations, digital transformation, supporting and executing projects that originated in the university, and many other things that the university itself isn't allowed to do, because it's an educational institution, and not a business. Their offices are at Keplerstr. 3-5 in Saarbrücken.
Meeting space -------------
Aude is offering us a part of k8's open-plan office for May 27th, 28th and 29th. The part is usually used as sitting area, but they want to put some additional chairs and tables in. She says the place can hold up to 20 persons (but then it will be a bit cramped). There is another adjacent office, that can hold about 10 persons, but it may not be available all the time. We could use it for discussing stuff, while working can be done in the larger room. I forgot to ask about whiteboard/blackboard/projector/flip chart or similar. There are lots of electricity outlets, but we might need to bring some German multiple socket outlets. They have WiFi. I'm not sure about wired LAN, but she says the internet connection is broad band and very fast.
We could use the space from ~ 9:00 in the morning, and if we can name one responsible person, she is considering to give us a key, so we can stay as long as we need.
There is no canteen, and no organized meals. However, the venue is located in a pedestrian zone with multiple places where one can buy food close by. One of them is a wholefood shop, which offers meals at reasonable prices. There are also a couple of bakeries, and then there's a microwave in the office.
She is asking us to let her know the rough number of attendees by mid May. We would then also need to name a responsible person, who would need to sign for the group, and would guarantee for us not wreaking havoc in their offices.
On the 29th, there will be an additional event called "From Code to Community", starting around midday, where local (as in ~ 100km radius) businesses and open source projects are meant to meet. The program isn't ready to be published yet, but it is planned that there will be keynotes by politicians and people from FSFE, talks about open source business applications, talks about open culture, a workshop on collaboration culture, booths from various open source projects (educational, LUGs, mapping, MSF, framasoft). The event is meant to attract students and businesses. It's going to take place in the same building where, at 18:00, the opening of LGM will take place.
Aude is asking us if we would be able to staff a booth there, to present Inkscape to students and small businesses. The event is mostly in German, but people from Luxembourg and France are invited to attend too, so it might be useful to also have one of our French-speaking community members there.
During LGM, they seem to have more rooms available than there will be conference tracks, so she says it should be possible to have a collaboration space for Inkscape. However, we probably won't be able to have the same place continuously, and we would have to ask when we need it. There is also plenty of sitting space available on the venue that is not in a separate room.
So Q1: Shall I confirm the dates as written above?
Q2: Would someone be interested in presenting Inkscape to local people before LGM on Wednesday? (I would be)
And Q3: Is there anyone volunteering to be the one who holds the key (if we get one) and to sign the agreement? I will probably not stay late, so I'd like that to be someone else.
It's probably not a problem to translate things to English, but someone from Germany would be preferred for this.
Thanks!
Please let me know what you think about Q1-Q3 quickly :)
Maren