We’ve booked our flights and hotel rooms for GUADEC in July. I mean, our new administration person, Ekaterina (Kat) has. André, Karsten, Johannes, David, and myself will be there. Unfortunately, our other developers are too busy on customer projects to attend this year.

Most of us are only there for the core days. Well, it looks like Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday are core days, but the schedule is not as clear about that as it has been in the past.

It’s more expensive than I think we were promised when Gran Canaria was proposed as a venue – around 700 Euros per person for hotel and flight from Germany. After Istanbul this is becoming a worrying trend. And I find the vague referral to “the travel agency” rather distasteful.

On the plus side, the recommended Hotel Fataga is cheaper than stated on the website. They do have single rooms for 65 Euros per night instead of just doubles for single use at 84 Euros per night. Actually, I’m surprised that they aren’t booked out already. We couldn’t find anything cheaper closer that was not likely to involve annoying travel delays (remember the bus for GUADEC in Villanova?). I generally wish that the web site was a wiki like in the past, so we could question and correct the information.

Also, there is no charge for conference attendance this year, even for companies.