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A while ago I came up with the idea of doing a multi-national conference here.

‘Here’ means southern Austria which would probably be a good place to do such a conference. Both the Italian and Slovenian borders are just a few minutes of driving away from here making this place a perfect location for something like a multi-national conference. As Stefano Mafulli does also have contact to the Croatian community they should be asked whether they want to contribute aswell – and I would gladly appreciate that.

The idea behind it is well known to regional organisations. There are quite a few events involving all three countries so why shouldn’t there be something like a free software conference involving free software people from all three countries?

On the third Austrian fellowship meeting last week in Vienna I presented this idea to both Karin Kosina and Reinhard Mueller and both seemed to like it and asked me to inform the Italian team about it.

So I sent an email to Stefano Mafulli and after talking to him I realized that the idea seems to be quite good.

This shouldn’t be a ‘normal’ meeting like the local fellowship meetings but is rather meant to be something ‘bigger’. I can even imagine having a full-blown conference including workshops and seminars.

The most important reason for doing this conference is bringing together the ‘neighbours’ (geographically), have them meet up, discuss and maybe even start new projects together – we are one fellowship and all interested in one topic in particular, aren’t we?

If the first conference is a success I can also imagine doing follow-up conferences in the other countries involved.

There is nothing like a ‘big plan’ for doing an event like this one yet, but it should be discussed on discussion@fsfeurope.org to get to know who is intersted in such an event and what those people can contribute (this includes constructive critism).

I hope I didn’t forget anything and am waiting for your contribution.

*UPDATE*

With full blown I’m more referring to having workshops and seminars. This  imho does already make sense with about 20 people participating. Just to avoid misunderstandings.