I am putting out some feelers for a possible SciMLCon in January (/February). If we are to do something in person, I am trying to find what the right venue would be. The possibilities are:
- The Azores, Terceira Island. I know some of you have heard of this place. It would be probably be around $100 registration, $250 roundtrip flights from Europe $500-600 from US, €431 for a week of hotel for a week on the ocean. Can tie it to be after JuliaEO so some folks already would be here. Pros is that it’s a really cool and unique location, and the accommodations are pretty cheap. Con is that it’s remote so everyone would have to fly in. But it’s the place in Europe that is closest to the USA (4.5 hours from Boston direct, directs from NYC and Toronto as well), has reasonably good weather (you can swim in the ocean or in volcanic hotsprings), cheap food and accommodation. I would think if it’s done here, matching the US flight schedule would mean conference / workshops from Tuesday/Wednesday to Friday, and then most people would fly back on the next Tuesday if they take the direct.
- MIT. We can get some rooms for free. But hotel is Boston prices, so for example Bookings.com is quoting me €1,720 for one week at the Marriott across the street from MIT. Also, it’s the middle of Winter and it’s so bad that MIT doesn’t even run courses for that month and tells the students to go home, so I can pretty much guarantee you the weather will be awful. But it’s MIT so it’s home base and there’s a certain charm to it being at the university. Also many people are having US Visa issues, or other issues with traveling to the US.
- Your venue? If you have a university that could host say 40-50 people (not looking bigger, maybe / hopefully for a first run) that could be worth thinking about as a venue.
Just floating the idea and if it looks like it has some traction then I’ll put together a CFP and get it rolling ASAP.
