About Drupal and Drupalcon

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a wildly popular social publishing system that blends web content management and social media capabilities with a massive library of powerful extensions - all supported by a thriving open source community. Read more on http://drupal.org

What is Drupalcon?

The twice-yearly gathering of Drupalers to learn about, discuss and advance Drupal, and to network with other Drupal community members. By tradition, Drupalcon is in North America in the first half of the year and in Europe in the second. Previous Drupalcons were in Boston (Mar 2008), Barcelona (Sep 2007), as part of the OSCMS in Sunnyvale (Mar 2007), Brussels (Sep 2006), Vancouver (Feb 2006), Amsterdam (Oct 2005) and Antwerp (Feb 2005). Check out our photo gallery of previous Drupalcons.

Why is this Drupalcon in Szeged, Hungary?

Drupal is thriving in Hungary and the region as a whole. We realized that at the rate these conferences have been growing this was probably our last chance to host a Drupalcon in Hungary. We started working on the event last year, submitted our proposal in January this year and got selected by the Drupal Association.

Szeged has a very nice venue, and is a great town with a good atmosphere. This will also be the first ever Drupalcon in Central Europe.

What is Drupaltown?

Szeged is big enough to host our event at our one thousand attendee target, but would not be able to host a bigger event, so we are basically taking over the city (hotels and restaurants). Everything is walking distance in Szeged, so you’ll easily find Drupal people as you are around the city. We think that taking over the city is fun, and really enables you to connect with the community, so we decided to also dub the city Drupaltown for this occasion.

But it is so far away!

Well, the globe is quite big, and not all Drupalcons can be close to everyone. If you consider the value of attending a Drupalcon however, the distance might be a smaller problem after all. Meeting with the big names, working together on issues, getting your pet bugs fixed or just drinking out with friends from around the world is all too big fun to miss. We will do our best to make it easier for people that come from farther. Budapest airport is well connected to other airports, there is a direct flight from New York for example. Also see our travel page.

Dates

Why did you pick this date? It is in conflict with (X)!

Well, we needed to consider a lot of things. The olympics ends before our event, so you can attend both, if you want. The Szeged open air theater festival also ends before our event, freeing up hotel rooms we need to house you. However, there is going to be a “Woodstock style” youth music festival with a few well known international names and lots of well known local names preforming at the same time for extra fun.

We picked the end of summer so that the weather is still (expected to be) very nice, the city has enough space for us and we don’t conflict with some of the major events around the globe and major religious holidays. This is also a nice time to tour around in the beautiful countryside of Hungary and the region before or after the conference.

What about side programs? Will there be a code sprint?

We organize the main conference to take four days just as it was in Boston with sessions and BoFs and numerous side events to help you get to know people from the community and build your social network. We are in the planning stage with pre-conference and post-conference events. One post-conference event will be the usual code sprint where developers gather to reach goals together. These programs mean that the conference dates of August 27 to 30 are only for the session program itself. Check back for more information on side programs!

Location

Can you tell me more about Hungary?

Hungary is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest, and the country is a member of the NATO, the EU and is a Schengen state, with around 10 million inhabitants. Hungary is one of the 15 most popular tourist destinations in the world. Despite its relatively small size, the country is home to numerous World Heritage Sites, UNESCO Biosphere reserves, the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grassland in Europe (Hortobágy).

Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary and check out the map we plotted Hungary and Szeged on:

Do I need a visa, what kind of restrictions apply to traveling to Hungary?

Hungary is a member of the European Union, and a member of the Schengen region, so people coming from the EU will not even need to go through border controls. People coming by car will experience this comfort at the border, attendees coming by plane will see that EU flights arrive at terminals without border controls. Regular Canadian and US citizens are not required to hold a visa to come to the country. Everybody else: make sure you examine your visa requirements!

Can you tell me more about Szeged?

Szeged is the fourth biggest city (around 180 thousand inhabitants) in Hungary, approximately 180km from Budapest. It is dubbed as the city of sunshine due to the great amount of shiny days all year compared to other Hungarian cities. The main river of the city is the Tisza. The most spectacular view you can’t miss is the Szeged Dome (on the right) which is also a great bearing point due to the fact that this is the tallest building in the city. Szeged is also well known for its fish soup, paprika and Pick salami.

• Check out our gallery at http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/gallery/szeged
• More tourist information on Szeged is available at http://tip.szegedvaros.hu/start_en.php
• A relatively short city summary is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szeged

How should I pronounce Szeged?

The Wikipedia article has this helpful information included: [ˈsɛgɛd] There is also an OGG file to help you practice: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Hu-Szeged.ogg

How will I get there?

Check out our detailed information on the travel page.

How can I communicate with the locals?

Generally people in the accommodation and catering sector speak English and/or German. Also Szeged is a very young city in terms of population and the youth easily speaks English and often various other languages.

What are the most important words or phrases I should know?

We will try to give you some advantage over the people who usually do not read the FAQs by providing some words and phrases you can impress you colleagues with:

• egészségedre! - cheers (right before you taste your drink)
• egészségedre! - god bless you (for example when somebody sneezes)
• jó étvágyat! - good appetite
• Mennyibe kerül ez/az? - How much is this/that?
• sör - beer
• (fehér|vörös) bor - (white|red) vine
• pálinka - a very famous hungarian spirit, which is also a hungaricum
• Mondtam már hogy milyen szép vagy? - Did I tell you how beautiful you are? (You should never know when you meet one of our beautiful hungarian girls ;))
• A Drupal konferenciára jöttem - I came for the Drupal conference

We recommend the Sztaki dictionary which has audio functions. Listen to the word “étvágyat” as an example.

Accommodation

How will I find a hotel or hostel suitable for my needs?

With our organization partner company, C&T, we looked at hotels and hostels in Szeged, and decided to reserve hundreds of rooms and beds in advance, so that we can ensure you are getting the accommodation that fits your needs and that you are close to the action. Because we reserved most of the major hotels already, it is unlikely that you will easily find the right accommodation yourself.

So this means that we will have an accommodation selection form as part of the conference registration, which will allow you to choose the right place for your needs. We will also provide ways to share rooms and specify when you’d like to be housed with a certain group (eg. others in your company). This should lift up some burden from your shoulders.

The reserved rooms are only on our list for a limited time though, the rooms we are not filling in will get back to circulation for the hotels. So make sure to register on time to get your accommodation secured.

Registration

When are you going to start the conference registration?

We are planning on opening the website registration first to gather more feedback and discuss particular aspects of the conference, to start a logo contest and gather session and BoF ideas. This already requires a possibly complex setup for user profiles and content management, and we are onto making it as painless as possible.

After registering for the website you will need to pay the conference fee and complete the conference registration form to be registered for the conference (this will be opened later). Watch our announcements!

Money

How much will this cost to me?

See our travel page and the accommodation details above. The conference registration price is not set yet. In Barcelona it was 50 EUR, in Boston it was $195 (around 130 EUR). We are not going above this price, but we are still working on a sponsorship target, so as soon as we matched this with our budget we will announce the attendance pricing.

What’s included in the registration price?

Attendees paying their fee will be able to visit all of the the four conference days and of course the code sprint. We are organizing side events that might or might not be free. Watch the announcements! The conference price also includes lunch for all attendees as well as coffee and water through the day. You need to cover international, national and local travel, hotel costs and any other expenses yourself.

Can I use my dollars, euros, credit/debit cards?

Only a limited number of shops accept euros and a few accept dollars, so you will need forints (HUF, Hungarian forints, our local currency) for most of your expenses. You will probably get the best exchange rates in the exchange offices in the city center (e.g. if you bring cash in dollars or euros). Exchange rates at the airport and in banks are lousy. You can also pull forints from any ATM with your credit card. Check out approximate exchange rates at http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic?lang=en&exch=USD&expr=HUF (choose your currency in the select box on the left).

Lots of restaurants (stay tuned for a detailed guide of restaurant in Szeged) and hotels accept credit cards, so you can rely on credit/debit cards mostly.

What about living costs?

It depends on whether you plan to buy a drink all four nights for the organizers or not. :) Beer prices are steady, in general you can get a 0.5l “korsó” for around 300-500 HUF (~€1.20 - €2 and ~$1.90 - $3.20), a 0.3l “pohár” for around 160-300 HUF (~€0.6 - €1.20 and ~$1 - $2.10). Wine prices however vary greatly. From 1000 HUF to 18000 HUF / bottle (~€4 - €72 and $6.25 - $112.50) you can taste wonderful lowland and hill wines that Hungary is famous for.

You can have a fulfilling dinner at 2000 HUF / person (~€8 and ~$12.50), a breakfast or quick brunch around 500-1000 HUF (~€2 - €4 and ~$3.20 - $6.25). A liter milk is 250 Ft.- (~€1 and ~$1.50), a 1kg bread is 200 HUF (~€0.80 and $1.25) just to get your bearings up to date.

Compatibility

Will I be able to use my power plugs to charge my laptop/mobile?

Electrical sockets (outlets) in Hungary are one of the two European standard electrical socket types: The “Type C” Europlug and the “Type E” and “Type F” Schuko. If your appliance’s plug doesn’t match the shape of these sockets, you will need a travel plug adapter in order to plug in. Electrical sockets in Hungary supply electricity at between 220 and 240 volts AC. If you’re plugging in an appliance that was built for 220-240 volt electrical input, or an appliance that is compatible with multiple voltages, then an adapter is all you need. Otherwise you need a voltage conversion appliance too.

More information and picture illustrations at http://www.adaptelec.com/index.php?mainpage=documentgeneral_info&cPath…

Will my mobile phone work?

Hungarian carries use the 900 and 1800 Mhz frequencies. If your mobile phone supports these frequencies, then you should be good to go. There are three carries in Hungary: T-Mobile, Pannon (a subsidiary of Telenor) and Vodafone.

Extra fun

You tell me Szeged is a small town, so what about going out at night, bars and parties?

The SZIN Festival (a youth music festival) that is taking place during the conference should be a nice option for any of the evenings. We’ll also have some further information on different bars and restaurants that we suggest. But again stay tuned for further announcements.