fp:ChangesIn2014

Berlin Web Week takes place at the venue from May 05 until May 10, 2014. This means that several conferences run during that week in the different halls of the Station. re:publica takes place in the hall next to LinuxTag until Thursday. The Media Convention Berlin takes place until May 07 in the halls that LinuxTag uses, so setup for our exhibition booths can only start once the exhibition for this event has been torn down, which means that setup is on Wednesday evening not before 7pm!

Partnering with droidcon means that we share the same exhibition and lecture halls. We will have 7 lecture halls, so during the day LinuxTag can run 3 tracks in parallel and use one more hall for half of the day. Thus we are introducing the evening sessions this year, so that we can run tracks in all 7 lecture halls in the evenings until 10pm on Thursday and Friday.

re:publica is having their party on Thursday evening at the Station, so there is a chance that we will join them with our LinuxNacht. This means that the party in the courtyard will run in parallel to the evening sessions on Thursday. Right now it looks like there will be no expensive tickets and buffet like in the years before but drinks and food will be for sale at various booths outside.

Partnering with droidcon means that we will have the same ticket options. Tickets for the day sessions include food from a professional caterer, thus they are more expensive than in the previous years. This also means that each exhibiting project will only receive 2 exhibitor passes. Additional "food-only tickets" may be bought for project members. To be decided: evening sessions will either be free for all (no tickets needed) or accessible for a very small fee. There will be no eTickets this year, but we will have a scholarship program where people can apply for a free ticket for the whole event. More details on this will follow as we get closer to the event.

We will be using halls 4, 5, and 6 for droidcon and LinuxTag. Rooms are very limited. We only have 2 additional rooms (accessible from the courtyard) for special events (meetings, exams etc), but they are already nearly booked. So any project workshops need to take place in the evening in the regular lecture halls. Due to the limited room availability we will not have a dev center this year, but there will be wifi available everywhere. Since there is no kitchen (no "Zille"!) in the halls at the new venue, we need to rely on an external caterer.

Leaner exhibition: exhibition space is shared between droidcon sponsors, LinuxTag sponsors (= commercial exhibitors), and free software projects. Thus we will probably not be able to accept as many projects as before. There will be no octanorm-booths with cabins. Each exhibitor gets assigned a space and has to bring a rollup and/or banner. If you have, you can bring your own booth equipment (let us know this beforehand - booth furniture needs to be approved by the fire marshall!). We will provide tables and chairs, while other furniture is available only by special request and if budget allows. Larger space is only available with an appropriate concept proposal - please send your sketches and photos to projects@linuxtag.org.

.org projects from .com companies: each year free booths are requested by companies that want to present their free software projects. For the sake of fairness, we ask these companies to at least sign up for a bronze sponsoring package. More infos about sponsoring opportunities can be found at our sponsoring options pdf. LinuxTag is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit event, thus we rely on sponsors to help us pay for the venue, catering, network, and all exhibition furniture. Free project booths are for community projects. There are no price lists, flyers, posters or T-Shirts for companies allowed. Unless the sponsoring company funds the booth of the project by signing up for one of our sponsoring packages. We often get requests from companies like "abcd.com" who want a free booth for their project "abcd" because they have a small community and the repository available at "abcd.org". At "abcd.com" they "only sell services" but the project "abcd" is free. We think it is very difficult for visitors to understand this and it is unfair towards the community projects to give projects like "abcd" a completely free booth. We reserve the right though to award a booth to a new startup that convinces us with a cool and exciting concept to give them free booth space. But please note that community projects will be considered first.

Exhibition is only open during the day sessions (9am to 6pm). In the evening the exhibition will be roped off. A few booths will be located near the stairs and thus cannot be roped off - people will pass it when going to the lecture halls during the day and in the evening. If you want to staff your booth also on Thursday and Friday evening, then let us know so we can try to position your booth in that area!

Project workshops can be held in the evening. Please submit your proposal for a workshop until March 5th in our virtual Conference Center (vCC).

Booth parties realistically can only take place at booths near the stair cases, as the rest will be roped off during the evening sessions. Since the big party takes place on Thursday, this only leaves Friday for any party activities.

If you plan to sell something at your booth, please be aware that there will be no lockable cabinets or cabins this year. Therefore one idea for "booth decoration" would be to bring a big tablecloth that goes all the way down to the floor so that you can stash your merchandise materials underneath the table. Items at the booths will not be insured. If you need insurance, you need to take care of this yourself.

Bildungsurlaub: we have filed the paperwork and expect to be accepted again as Bildungsurlaub.

Subject to change without notice. Registered projects will be informed of changes.

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