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Revision as of 23:07, 28 November 2012 by Itamarjp (talk | contribs) (→‎Flights)

Organizing Team

Brief description of the city

Managua, is the Capital City of Nicaragua. The city was destroyed on the earthquake of 1972 and still the old center has not entirely been rebuilt. A new center has emerged South of the old city center, full of commerce and night life. It is a relatively safe city. The city has a few tall buildings and concrete cobbled streets. The city has been expanding with empty spaces in between, so there is no way of walking the city and in several places there is no side walks. It has the Managua lake on the north and hills on the South. The climate is warm all year round. In rainy season usually we got heavy rain for a couple of hours and the rest of the day can be enjoyed.

Major local airports and their distance from lodging and venue.

The major air port is Agusto Cesar Sandino and it code is MGA. It is located about 12 km East of the city center, this will be also more o least the distance to the hotel. The distance can be traveled on about 20 minutes or 40 minutes in rush hours (form 7 to 9 am or from 4 to 6 pm).

Most hotels offer shuttle, although some times payment is required for this service. Most time there is need to book those services.

There are car rentals and taxis available at the airport, as in any international airport.

Outline of local mass transit.

Public transportation does not meet the city demand, and buses usually circulate over their capacity. There has been a renovation on several bus cooperatives, but you can expect to see plenty of old yellow schooll buses de-comitioned from use in the US serving routes in Managua.

There is plenty of cabs and the fares are not that expensive, usually the equivalent to two or three dollars per ride within the city. There are no fare meters, so be prepare to be overcharged as tourist and also bargain over the price is expected. People usually call their destination and negotiate the price before taking the taxi.

Most people think that in Managua streets has no name. There are street names, the problem is that nobody use them. Managua address are based on reference to land marks, some of them long gone and only known to locals. Both, Hotel and Conference Venue are well known landmarks. Just saying the name taxi drivers will know the address (if not, better look for another driver that knows the city!)

Probably will be a good idea to hire a van.

Detailed description of proposed venue and estimated costs including room capacity and configuration.

The proposed Venue is Universidad Centroamericana, it is a catholic university administered by the Jesuit order. It is one of the best universities on the country and it is the only university with a FOSS community GUL-UCA. Among the private universities UCA is the biggest, having several conference rooms. It has several labs, one of them has already installed Fedora. Starting 2012, UCA is a smoking free area.

Conference Halls Prices by Hour

  • Aula Magna, 400p $120
  • Xabier Gorotiaga, 220p $100
  • Roberto Terán, 120p $75
  • Amando Lopez, 60p $50 (suited for video conferences)
  • Post graduate classrooms 40p $15

This is the top price, we have arrangements for discounts. We can expect to pay less. All the halls and classrooms have a computer and a projector included in the price. Halls over 100p have sound system included in the price.

Proposed dates

Mid July, 2013. The university will be on vacations, that will ensure that we will have conference halls and postgraduate classrooms available. Most important we can use the internet service of the university as there will be nobody else. Probably they will charge us for that, but will be a low charge.

We are planning for Thursday, Friday and Saturday event. The exact dates will be arranged at the end of the year when the University publish the academic calendar.

Weather

This will be within raining season. Heavy rain fall should be expected. Most times, it rains for a couple of hours and then you can enjoy the rest of the day. Umbrellas and rain jackets are no match, you need a water proof poncho or a rain coat... most smart people just wait and relax. Some times the moisture makes the temperature feel hotter than actually is. When it rains usually it cools a bit. This is tropic... bring light clothes, hat, sun block, be prepare for drinking a lot of water. Not sure if we will have time for swimming, but may be good idea to bring swim suit. Rain bring mosquitoes, so also bring repellent to be on the safe side.

Proposed Schedule

  • Thursday morning: Registration, Key notes and Barcamp preparation
  • Thurday afternoon: Barcamp
  • Friday morning: Barcamp
  • Friday afternoon: Hacking
  • Friday night: Fudpub
  • Saturday: Hacking
  • Sunday: Tourist trip (for those leaving late or staying over, but will be an extra outside FUDCon budget)

Fud-Pub

There is a popular Nicaraguan food for festivities called "Caballo Bayo". Food is serve in a buffet, clay pottery that holds ignited charcoals and on top there is a big clay plate holding the food hot. Usually there is shredded beef, shredded chicken, minced pork, plantains, cheese, cream, among other stuff. You take corn tortillas in a plate and serve whatever you like. We plan to host this dinner as fud-pub on the hotel. The quotation if for food and non alcoholic beverages for 100 people. The price in budget includes a 15% discount in Hotel Mansión Teodolinda.

Description of proposed lodging and estimated costs along with a written agreement from lodging specifying rates

Hotel Mansión Teodolinda is located in a residential area, close to banks, embassies and shops, which makes a quiet place but very accessible to several activities. It has some mid size conference facilities, that can be used for after hours activities like hacking or common room. There are several bed and breakfast in the surrounding area that can be arranged in case there is need for more rooms. The hotel is located about 3 km North-West of the University.

The hotel has 5 gallon dispenser of purified water on the corridors free of charge. Half litter bottle of water are for sale on the restaurant. Internet is complimentary for the guests. Rates include full breakfast. Taxes are not included. Nicaragua has 15% sales tax that will be added to all transactions. Additionally there is a Hospitality tax that is 2% charged only to room rates.

Room Regular price Fudcon price Price after tax
Single USD 60 USD 45 USD 52.65
Double USD 65 USD 50 USD 58.50
Triple USD 70 USD 55 USD 64.35

If 15 rooms are booked there will be a saloon free of charge to be used during night hours.

Estimated travel costs

Flights

The table below only shows direct flights. You will have to make connection in one of those cities to get to Nicaragua. (prices non-stop searched in orbitz for may 2013 as July is not available yet).

City Air Line Price
Miami American
Taca		 USD 389
USD 409
Atlanta Delta USD 627
Houston United USD 710
Guatemala Taca (1 stop)
Copa		 USD 445
USD 445
San Salvador Taca USD 336
San Jose Copa
Taca		 USD 424
USD 392
Panama Copa
Taca/Lacsa		 USD 552
USD 524
São Paulo - Brazil Tam
America Airlines		 USD 1100
USD 1200

Lacsa is owned by Taca. You can expect a flight from Panama to stop in San Jose for 30 minutes and not change plane.

Buses

Both way bus tickets to Managua

City Ticabus Transnica Cruceros del Golfo
Guatemala
(Overnight)		 USD 110 n/a USD 122
San Salvador USD 70 n/a USD 59
Tegucigalpa USD 46 USD 50 USD 82
San Pedro Sula USD 74 n/a USD 92
San Jose USD 58 USD 54 USD 79
Panama
(Overnight)		 USD 150 n/a n/a

Visa information

Most country does no require visa, people just need to paid for a tourist card at the migration check point (airport o border). However there is a short list of countries that require to obtain visa before traveling to Nicaragua. You can see the list here

Brief description of on the ground resources and their experience with FUDcon/other large events.

The local FOSS community has been awarded as best event for Software Freedom Day in 2007 and 2008. UCA has hosted SFD on 2008 and 2009. In 2009 there was an Central America Free Software Gathering. Another different event more complex on logistic was Librebus in 2011. In 2012 Nicaragua hosted DEBConf. The relationship with the FOSS community es very strong. We have a mailing list growing at every event that it is used only to invite people to new events. The link with news media can get us on national TV and National newspaper as news coverage as we have done in the past for large events.

Local Fedora contributors (alphabetically) German Ruíz, Joel Dávila, Lila Gutierrez, Neville A. Cross, Walter Danilo Vargas and Yader Velasquez have been working on organizing large events like FLISOL, Document Freedom Day, Software Freedom Day mentioned above, but also have helped on Fedora release party events.

Notation of internet connectivity options for both hotel and conference venue.

Hotel

Every single room has an Ethernet jack and there is coverage for wireless internet in the hotel. There is one Ethernet jack in every meeting room and they have coverage for wireless internet. The hotel capacity at the moment is two fiber optic of 2Mb each with load balancing (very unlikely that we will have failure on both providers). It can be expanded during this event. The hotel is accommodating on guest needs, to increase the number of access points, and also provide network switches on the meeting rooms.

Conference venue

Universidad Centroamericana has launched a wireless network across campus with a captive portal for authentication. They named their network RiUCA. There some spots out of the coverage. Conference halls have their own access points. Past experience has shown that in technical events, the current setup is overwhelmed. We hope, as we are planning for vacation time, that this will not be an issue for us.

On the go

Prices and services checked on 2012-01-20

3G modems can be acquired for about USD 40.00 and the air time cost about USD 2.00 for 12 hours, USD 0.65 for 1 hour and USD 0.44 for half hour. Prepaid services require to send an sms to activate the service.Prepaid service require activation using the company software suit that only runs on windows. Not sure if gnome-phone-manager is working again. Bug 723307

Wimax service sell modems for about USD 83.00 and the air time is USD 4.00 for 24 hours and USD 33.00 for one month.

Outline of proximate restaurant locations.

Hotel

Hotel Surroundings

The hotel has a restaurant serving from 6am to 9pm. If you are old enough you can order local rum and beers and enjoy those by the pool. Nicaraguan rum is really good, and beers are also great. If you are not old enough or not into alcohol, you should try a milk shake the local ice cream is really creamy.

There is a food court on Plaza Inter Shopping Mall less than half kilometer north east. In front of the Shopping Mall there is one restaurant offering national dishes for lunch and dinner, during night they perform live show with national music. There are one bar one block North (cheap beers), and another half block east (eclectic). There is a Lounge half block North (gay friendly). There is a Irish Pub about four block west (has the largest selection on imported beers of the city).

Conference Venue

Venue Surroundings

UCA has small cafeterias within the campus where sandwiches and hot-dog can be purchased. There is a small buffet place where more formal meal can be obtained. There is one coffee place where elaborate coffee can be obtained. National University Council has dictated that there is no alcohol consumption on campuses, and bars should be at least 100 meters away of Universities.

There are Pizza Hut and Macdonald's less that half kilometer East. Metrocentro Shopping mall has a food court and is located less than 1 km East. There are one sea food restaurant and two sport bars that serve lunch less than half kilometer South.

Budget

Item Description Price
Conference Hall Xabier Gorostiaga for the morning USD 400
Classrooms 5 classrooms for two and half days USD 1650
Rooms 15 double rooms for four days USD 3510
bus fares 20 bus fares (USD 100 average) USD 2000
fud pub rent and food (100 persons) USD 1662
t-shirts 125 persons USD 540
booklets 125 leafleats USD 28
Tags 125 Id Badges USD 45
USD 9835

Note: Badges does not include lanyard

Deadlines for event reservation, etc.

For Hotel depend on availability. Usually one month will be enough to secure the rooms. For big groups it is expected cancellation or confirmation within 72 hours.

For university there is no clear policy, the sooner the better. The academic calendar it is not published yet to look at dates.

People with intention of atending the event

  1. Neville A. Cross
  2. Aura Lila Gutierrez
  3. Walter D. Vargas
  4. Yader Velásquez
  5. Joel Dávila Balladares
  6. German Ruíz
  7. Eduardo Mayorga
  8. William Moreno
  9. Wilfredo Porta

Pros and Cons of the proposed location.

Pros

  • Centrally located in Central America. People can travel by bus.
  • Venue will be low cost
  • People has experience with events and links with local news media.

Cons

  • we haven't search for sponsors
  • Bad transportation within the city
  • Expensive air fares
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