The YAPC::Europe::2006 Backstage Pass
Bulletin 7.2
- A 'Behind The Scenes' missive from the organisers

"The Black Gate Opens"

Many thanks to everyone who submitted proposals, we were very impressed with the punctuality of submissions as well as the high quality of presentations offered to us. Despite several last minute (and last second) entries, we've been delighted to accommodate everyone.

The Organisers of YAPC::Europe::2006 spent the last few days discussing talks, and had a marathon session on Wednesday night trying to fit talks here, there and everywhere. There was a lot of healthy discussion and debate as to what should go where, but we were pretty much in agreement about what went with what, and common themes that should be kept together. As such it made a difficult process much easier than we expected. It was still a long task, as we had approximately 55 hours worth of talks to allocate.

We've now sent out the acceptance mails and are now awaiting all the speakers to get back to us to confirm their willingness to come along and present their talks, tutorials, workshops and hackathons. Once that all comes together we'll be announcing a preliminary programme for the conference. When the schedule does go public, please bear in mind that everything is subject to change, but we're hoping not too much. We'd like to keep our hair ;)

As previously, we want to make sure everyone who has been sent an acceptance, actually receives it. So if you submitted a talk and don't get your acceptance email within the next 24 hours, please get in touch with The Organisers as soon as possible. Note that the email address is [edited];. I printed a mistake in my last journal entry, and a few people had trouble getting through to us, so apologies for that.

"The Voice of Saruman"

For those checking the website now will notice that a Login link has appeared. At the moment only the accepted speakers have been given public access, partly to ensure we have got things right, but also to allow them to update their details before we open up the website registration to all. We'll be opening both website and conference registration very soon.

For speakers wondering where their login details are, read your acceptance email carefully. The email address it was sent to is your login, and your password is in the body of the email. You'll then need to go to www.birmingham2006.com and click the 'Login' link on the right hand side. If you have any problems please contact us and we'll try and rectify the problem as soon as possible.

There have been some glitches as some of the passwords don't seem to be recognised for some reason, but we're getting there. I can manually reset passwords, but it may be easier if you can select 'forgot my password', which will renew the password and send you a new copy. Apologies to those have been trying unsuccessfully to get logged in.

"Many Meetings"

We have a preliminary programme, which seems to fit well with streams and speakers. We realise we may not have it perfect, and there may be some disappointed speakers and attendees, who can't get to see some of the talks they really want to see. With 72 presentations and 46 speakers to schedule it's been tough. However, we hope we've managed to timetable everything to suit as many people as possible. We are anticipating some changes between now and the conference, but we hope they are minimal.

A wide variety of topics have been submitted, and several fit nicely into our theme of The Accessibility Of Perl. Presentations vary in their target audience right from the beginner to the expert, so whatever your skill level or interest in Perl, there are likely to be plenty of presentations to catch your interest.

"At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"

BOFs or Birds Of A Feather sessions are meetings of interested parties in a project or activity. BOFs have traditionally happened in the late afternoon moving on to pubs and bars during the evening. We're happy to accommodate the same for anyone planning to hold a BOF at YAPC::Europe::2006, however, we have also left the Workshop Room free on Wednesday and Friday mornings if there anyone requires a day session to collaborate on anything. Please add your BOF ideas to the wiki, and we'll help you schedule times and locations nearer the event.

"A Stab in the Dark"

We're still looking for "stuff" if anyone can help out. In particular we're hoping someone works for a company that has these sort of things to hand for regular giveaways at conferences and expos.

• Bags
• Writing Pads

Quantities should be about 250. If you or your company can help us out, please get in touch.

"All's Well as Ends Better"

More announcements coming shortly, so keep an eye out for them.

If you have any questions about the conference, the organisers can be reached at The Organisers, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Cheers,
The YAPC::Europe::2006 Organisers.

PS: This Bulletin was brought to you by the inspiration of J.R.R. Tolkien.