GUADEC: Status of travel sponsorship requests

Boat at the dock
GUADEC 2004. Kristiansand, Norway.
Home lights reflected on the water
GUADEC 2004. Kristiansand, Norway.

The Travel Committee received 61 sponsorship requests (13 more than the last year). The information has been cross-checked (speakers, GSoC students and mentors, travel costs, arrival dates, etc.) and now we are working on the accommodation costs.

Statitics
18 Speakers
11 Google Summer of Code students
6 Google Summer of Code mentors
39 Members of GNOME Foundation (4 GSoC students)
7 Requested only accommodation
5 Requested only travel fare

In total, we were requested US$49,578.- for travel fares. However, we will not sponsor the train from Amsterdam (Schiphol) to Den Haag because it costs €7,60 (one-way) and we think it is an affordable amount of money. Hence, we can save €15,2 per every travel request (~US$1,100.-), which might help us to sponsor more people.

Having that in consideration plus better airfares we were able to find, we would need US$41,738.- instead of US$49,578.-

On the other hand, we would need around 28 double rooms. However, the accommodation costs this year are higher than the costs when the bid was presented. It would not be a big deal for 1 or 2 people, but it is different when you are booking for 55 people (5/6 nights each).

Every euro/dollar counts.