Hi Hannes,
Maastricht is definitely an interesting city and I'm glad I can say
I've been there (Aachen was cool too!). But the venue there sucked. It
was in the middle of a cultural dead zone (which says something because
Maastricht has lots to offer) and the hotels were all scattered around
town. My hotel was great and well situated from a city-center perspective
(I would consider staying there if I went back as a tourist) but to get
to the venue required a 20 minute hike or a bus. Coordination among people
to go out to dinner or meet up after dinner was a pain-in-the-ass because
everyone scattered out in a 5km radius to freshen-up/stow-bags/whatever.
And then there's the multi-stop cab ride back to everyone's dispersed
hotels, not very conducive to extra-IETF activities which are helped by
close hotel proximity.
Yea, I did see my fellow IETFers but that holds true anywhere (if you
hold an IETF in city X then there will be lots of IETFers in city X) so
that is hardly a "positive aspect" about the particular IETF venue.
Don't take it as a negative about the city. It's the venue in the city
and the displacement of hotels that matter. For instance, I've been to
San Diego, California, USA for different meetings and some were great and
others really sucked because the venue was not convenient and/or in a
cultural wasteland or to get to/from there was a pain-in-the-ass. Same
city, different conference, totally different experience.
Two hops plus a train or 3 hops or whatever may be a "negative" but
to me that's a one-off (actually a two-off since I have to leave too)
and I really don't care too much about that. More important, to me, is
the overhead required for day-to-day activities during the IETF-- effort
to get to the venue from my hotel, how easy is it to find food during the
day, what's required to coordinate extra-IETF meetings with fellow IETFers
in the city, that kinda stuff.
regards,
Dan.
And yes, I did see alot of my IETF friends again.
On Sat, August 28, 2010 12:54 am, Tschofenig, Hannes (NSN - FI/Espoo) wrote:
Hi Jordi,
Hi all,
I have not seen an IETF meeting where people have not complained about
the layout of the venue, how to get there, the city itself, the
proximity to some nearby countries, the weather, the hotel, the number
of offered hotels, the high crime rate, etc. etc.
The place that makes 95% of the typical IETF meetings participants happy
does not even exist.
Maybe it would be useful to highlight the positive aspects of traveling
instead. Maastricht is an interesting city and you saw lots of your IETF
friends again.
Ciao
Hannes
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