[mdlug] Ohio LinuxFest 2008 plans

[Jeff Hanson]

(cross-posting to the big three Detroit-area LUGs and Ubuntu LoCo)

It's being held Oct 10-11 in Columbus:  http://ohiolinux.org

It was good last year but some last-minute speaker cancellations
annoyed one of the guys I was with.  I helped out at the FSF booth and
skipped some presentations I would have seen otherwise.

There are three admission levels - free, $65 supporting, and $350
professional.  The first two are both for Saturday while the
professional includes the Friday LOPSA sys admin training classes.

Since it's about 200-250 miles from the Detroit area it's reasonable
to car pool and drive there, splitting gas and hotel costs.

I'm not interested in the admin classes on Friday.  I would prefer to
stay overnight Friday and Saturday.  I don't want to try getting up at
3am to arrive at the convention center by the 8:30am opening time nor
drive back to Detroit early am Sunday (which I did a couple of years
ago.)  There is usually a reception and some parties Friday night and
of course the big one Saturday night.  TLLTS (http://tllts.org) hosted
another party Friday at Barley's Brewing Co.
(http://www.barleysbrewing.com) across the street from the convention
center last year.

Last year I stayed in the Drury which is attached to the convention
center and convenient but it's also expensive.  The year before I
stayed at a Days Inn Columbus North which was a lot cheaper.  It was a
little run-down but I didn't hear any gun battles:
http://www.daysinncolumbus.com/hotelhome/

I'm willing to share a room but it has to be non-smoking as I have
allergies.  I don't know if I'll be working in Detroit that week or be
driving straight down from the Alpena area but I'll be leaving from
Redford regardless.  I can drive my car which seats 4-5 total but it's
getting old and is not the most comfortable for passengers on long
drives.  If we can get enough people maybe we can fill a van and save
more gas.

There are some restaurants in the convention center and more around
it.  Since it's October the vendors at the show will be handing out a
ridiculous amount of Halloween candy on top of all the other swag.
Google had a room full of free T-shirts.  You also get a LinuxFest
T-shirt with the $65 optional "supporting" admission.