Greetings, and welcome to the very first YAPC::EU::2010 newsletter!

Summary

In this issue:

• Conference theme
• Conference dates
• Venue
• Tickets and availability
• Sponsors
• Contacts

So let's get started

Conference theme: The Renaissance of Perl

The conference theme is the Renaissance of Perl. This topic pays homage to Italy's role as the cradle of the Renaissance, and acknowledges how Perl is far from a dead legacy language, but is constantly being reborn with, for example, the parallel initiatives of Perl 6, and the Modern Perl 5 movement.

(Note: we know that these days it's the Perl Enlightenment, and that Perl Renaissance was around 2001-2004, but we're in Italy, not in France :) )

Conference dates

We are now able to confirm the tentative dates published on Twitter some time ago:

YAPC::EU::2010 will be held from 4 to 6 August 2010.

We expect sunny and warm Summer days, so don't forget to bring your solar protection!

Conference venue

Our primary venue turned out to be a no-go... but that's OK, because we had a Plan B! Our secondary venue turned out to be a no-go as well... but even this is OK, because we had a Plan C!

The conference will be held in:

My One Hotel Pisa Conference Centre (Rough map)

This venue also has 4-star hotel rooms at a reasonable price, many of which are reserved for the conference. It's therefore possible to sleep there, which - besides making the venue only an elevator ride away - is an ideal choice for after-conference BOF, hackatons, etc. On the other hand, the place is a bit outside downtown and uneasy to reach via public transport, so if your idea is visit Pisa and/or have some late-night fun you might want to choose a place to sleep closer to downtown.

Shuttles will be provided, running from downtown Pisa, for the conference. Hotel shuttles are available from the (nearby) airport.

Tickets and availability

This venue should be able to hold 400+ people, so there's no attendance limit at present time. Registration will be open on Act, as usual, as soon as we have a catchy website layout.

Ticket price will be announced in the next newsletter.

Sponsors

We have already had a great deal of fantastic initial support from some lovely people:

• Shadowcat Systems UK, agreed to support us even before our bid was accepted!
• YEF themselves have offered a "kickstart donation" to help with early-stage costs
• And the almost unfeasibly lovely hosts of YAPC::EU::2009 in Lisbon have also given a kickstart donation!

This really shows how organizations, both commercial and charitable, in the Perl world are dedicated to ploughing their time and money back into the community. YAPC::EU::2010 wouldn't be possible without help like this!

We'll be placing an official call for sponsors very soon, but if you can't wait for our next newsletter, please get in touch, and we'll be delighted to discuss!

Contacts

Twitter: http://twitter/yapceu2010

Website: http://www.yapceurope.org/2010/

E-mail: yapc-info [at] perl.it

All the best