Celebrating the 5th X2Go: The Gathering event, and the 7th annual X2Go meetup

Date: 2018-11-09 - 2018-11-11

Location: shackspace, Ulmer Straße 255, 70327 Stuttgart-Wangen, Germany (view on Google Maps)

Reaching shackspace:

• by car: Please do not park directly in front of the building - you WILL be towed and fined.
  • roads where you should be able to find a free parking spot are:
    • Viehwasen
    • Ulmer Straße
• by train/bus/subway/tram: nearest tram stop is “Im Degen, Stuttgart” (view on Google Maps) check for a suitable train/subway/tram connection on German Rail's web site
  • All ticket vending machines can be set to English by pressing the British flag on the screen. If you fear you might need assistance buying a ticket, E-Mail your name and mobile phone number to X2Go-ML-1@baur-itcs.de in advance.
• by airplane:
  • nearest Airport is Stuttgart (STR) - continue to shackspace using the subway and tram as suggested here - you will need to buy a separate ticket from a DB/VVS ticket vending machine for the subway/tram part of the ride.
  • international travellers might be able to get cheaper/better flights to Frankfurt (FRA) - continue to shackspace using the train, bus, and tram as suggested here - holders of DeutscheBahn BahnCards and buyers of non-rebated tickets may get the bus/tram part of the ride for free (please check if your ticket says “Stuttgart + City” somewhere in the destination field), everyone else will need to buy a separate ticket from a DB/VVS ticket vending machine for the subway/tram part of the ride.
  • All ticket vending machines can be set to English by pressing the British flag on the screen. If you fear you might need assistance buying a ticket, E-Mail your name and mobile phone number to X2Go-ML-1@baur-itcs.de in advance.

The following core team members have indicated their availability for the entire weekend:

• Michael DePaulo (via Skype/Hangouts, due to lack of funding for the flight)
• Mihai Moldovan (room reserved Thu-Sun) - late arrival on Thu, single room at hostel - separate toilet/shower (paying for the delta himself)
• Mike Gabriel (room reserved Fri-Sun) - arrival around 16:00-17:00, single room at hostel - sponsored stay
• Stefan Baur - will most likely be shuttling back and forth, so doesn't need a room

The following core team members have indicated partial availability for this weekend:

• Heinz-M. Graesing (room reserved Sat-Sun) - arrival around 15:00-16:00 on Saturday, single room at hostel - sponsored stay
• Juri Grabowski (not available on Sunday afternoon/evening) - doesn't need a room
• Ulrich Sibiller (not available on Saturday evening) - doesn't need a room

The following core team members will be unable to attend:

• Oleksandr Shneyder

• Jannis Halder (Plattsalat West UG/IT-EDV, Stuttgart, Germany)
• Thomas Morgenthaler (Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, Amsterdam, Netherlands) - arrives around 14:00 - has a hotel room from Friday to Monday at Aparthotel Wangener Landhaus
• Martti Pitkanen (APLcomp Oy, Helsinki, Finland) - arrival time TBD - hostel room with separate toilet/shower has been reserved from Friday to Sunday
• Richard Rafalski (Plattsalat West UG/IT-EDV, Stuttgart, Germany)

As always, we are open to sponsorships, and two have already found their way to us.

CFD.direct, who also co-sponsored our cloud-based macOS build servers - have agreed to sponsor this event with 500 EUR (plus VAT), like they already did last year. Their donation will be used for the lodging and dining costs of some participants.

Plattsalat West is offering us the same rebates usually only available to their members, when shopping there for our Saturday lunch or dinner.

Thinking of becoming a sponsor as well? Let us know! The more, the merrier! Of course, all sponsors will be named on our sponsorship wiki page, unless they wish to remain anonymous.

• most rooms have been reserved at Gästehaus ABZ Stuttgart
  • a simple single room (shared showers/stalls per floor) is roughly 31 EUR/night, so 62 EUR total (might be slightly more due to taxes)
  • more comfortable rooms (separate shower/stall per room) is roughly 50 EUR/night, so 100 EUR total (again, might be slightly more due to taxes) sold out!
  • It is a 20 minute walk (or 10 minute tram ride) between the event location and the Gästehaus ABZ Stuttgart, as you can see here
• If you're looking for an actual hotel:
  • Please contact Stefan (X2Go-ML-1@baur-itcs.de) for up-to-date hotel recommendation/availability info
  • There seem to be a few free rooms at Aparthotel Wangener Landhaus
  • It is a 24 minute walk (or 11 minute tram ride) between the event location and the Aparthotel Wangener Landhaus, as you can seehere

For those of you that signed up for accommodation, the following rules are part of the deal:

1. If you become sick, then please stay at home. Let us know ASAP so we can cancel your reservation/reassign your room.
2. If you've had recent contact with someone that has some contagious disease, and you are not 100% sure that you're immune - please, stay at home as well, and let us know ASAP so we can cancel your reservation/reassign your room.
3. If you know that someone has a contagious disease, and you've signed up for our event, please do not seek physical contact with that person before the event. If you have anything that needs to be discussed because you need it for the event, use e-mail, phone calls, whatever, but don't visit each other, the reason being rule #2.
4. If you cancel your reservation, it may mean we still have to charge you (exact terms and conditions depend on the hostel/hotel), if we cannot fill your spot with someone else. Of course, we will do our best to avoid this.
5. If you have any dietary requirements (vegetarian, vegan, no pork, no alcohol, …), please let us know when you sign up so we can prepare everything in advance. Same goes for any food allergies or other medical conditions that we should know of.
6. shackspace house rules are in full effect. An inofficial English translation will be provided $SOONISH.
7. The golden rule of previous X2Go: The Gathering events is also still in effect: Don't be a dick.
8. Taking part in the event means that while you are in the meeting room assigned to us, you are OK with being photographed, recorded (audio and/or video), and/or livestreamed, with the intent of making this material available to the general public. It also means you agree not to take pictures, record audio and/or video, nor run a livestream outside our meeting room (shackspace has many other rooms that you may visit during your stay), unless everyone that can be seen or heard has given you permission to do so.

Note that these times are not yet fully confirmed - we're working on it.

• Friday 14:00 CET (still waiting for feedback), 16:00 CET (confirmed) to 22:00 CET or 24:00 CET (confirmed)
• Saturday 09:00 CET to 22:00 CET or 24:00 CET (confirmed)
• Sunday 09:00 CET to 16:00 CET or 18:00 CET (confirmed note: “cleaning rage” needed)

Confirmed shackspace keyholder: Jo (AKA 0x4A6F) Backup shackspace keyholder: r0zzy - might not be able to make it that early on Friday, but is available Sat/Sun

• arrival: 14:00h-18:00h local time (CET - Central European Time)
• check in to hotel/hostel
• shackspace will open by 16:00h CET
• set up equipment
• Stefan#1 + Mike#1 + Mihai need to go grocery shopping for Saturday - probably using Mihai's car
• order Pizza once we've all gathered
• official welcome speech and announcement of house/event rules
• “Tour de shackspace” for all first-time visitors?
• get-together in the conference room (there's Wi-Fi and power, so if you want to code away, feel free to do so)
• Open Coding until bedtime

Alternative for Saturday: Breakfast maybe more brunch-like, skip lunch, cook dinner? In that case, cooking dinner together on Saturday would be ~ 17:00 or ~ 18:00

Optional evening entertainment, if schedule and budget allows:

Saturday - maybe a trip to the TV tower's viewing platform? (7 EUR p.p. plus VVS ticket; last elevator up: 22:30)

• This is the annual meeting (“Jahreshauptversammlung”) of ORCA e.V., a German public-benefit nonprofit association
• ORCA
  • stands for Open Remote Computing Association
  • has been founded at X2Go: The Gathering 2017
  • includes members of several open remote computing projects, like Arctica and FreeRDP, not only X2Go
• Donations to ORCA are tax-deductible in Germany (and maybe in other countries as well)
• To remain recognized as a public-benefit nonprofit association by the tax authorities, certain rules have to be followed, one of them is that we need to have these meetings about once a year.
• As X2Go: The Gathering is an event where the majority of ORCA members tends to take part in, it makes sense to hold the required annual meeting as part of the X2Go: The Gathering event. Also, as these events are open to the general public, doing so might attract potential new members.
• The meeting will take place on Sunday, 10:00-12:00 CET. Current members have been informed of this date in advance.
• The language of this event item is German.

This event item has its own sub-agenda:

1. Bericht der Vorstände
2. Entlastung des Vorstandes (gesamt; im Verweigerungsfall einzeln)
3. Bericht des Kassenwarts
4. Entlastung des Kassenwarts
5. Entscheidung über Höhe und Fälligkeit der Mitgliedsgebühren
6. Anträge
7. Sonstiges

→ see lists from previous years as well

More Info to come!