Drupalcon Szeged last minute updates

Dear Drupalcon Szeged attendees,

Drupalcon Szeged is fast approaching, with only two days left before the conference opens. We collected a quick checklist with items you should think about to ensure a happy Drupalcon experience. We were trying to cover so many things for you that through editing the checklist it turned out to be a much longer email. We hope you'll still read it from start to end, since it is full of important information for you. Please do.

A WORD FROM OUR PLATINUM SPONSOR
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We would like to hereby thank all our sponsors, including Acquia, our platinum sponsor, who has this message for you:

"The Acquia team is excited for Drupalcon Szeged – it’s going to be a great week in a beautiful city. We're participating in eleven sessions and BOFs currently on the program (http://acquia.com/events/drupalcon-szeged-2008), and we hope to see you there. You'll definitely want to sign up for a hands-on test drive of our Carbon and Spokes products at the Acquia Beta Test Kitchen scheduled for Friday afternoon in the Sponsor Lounge. We’re also hosting an Acquia Partner Program Overview event on Sunday morning, so contact Chuck D’Antonio (chuck@acquia.com) if you would like to attend. And don't forget to stop by our table in the exhibit area during breaks to introduce yourself, explore our job openings, and sign up for the Beta Test Kitchen. Safe travels; we’ll see you in Szeged."

DRUPALCON TICKETS
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Most importantly check and make sure that your "Registration status" page (in your profile area at http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/user) says you paid your fees, and (if you bought a room on our site) you know your hotel location and exact booking dates (checkin and checkout). If you did not buy a Drupalcon ticket yet, you'll be able to buy one for 200 EUR at the entrance.

WEATHER
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Pack according to expected weather. http://koponyeg.hu/ has a nice two week lookahead graph, which as of this writing shows 14-30 degrees celsius expected for the conference days, with a little bit of windy weather at the end of the week (no rains). Our website has a weather block showing current conditions and two day forecasts.

ARRIVAL, SHUTTLE and TRAIN information
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The Drupalcon crew is happy to help you at the airport terminals. Two welcome delegations one at Terminal 1 and one at 2A on the arrival side will be there for you on 26th of August. If you forgot to check how you will end up in Szeged and do not have a shuttle ticket, they will help you. Look for people with t-shirts with the Drupalcon Szeged 2008 logo. Of course it is best to be self informed as well, especially if you go by car: http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/travel Just to strengthen for those going by train, you can buy train tickets inside Terminal 1, not at the train station.

If you bought a shuttle ticket, make sure that you turn up at the welcome delegation, from where you will be guided to your mini bus. Do not wander in the parking area of the terminals. If your plane is delayed and arrives later than your shuttle is due, we might offer you a seat on the next shuttle. However, please note that the timetable was set up according to your requests (and you should have received a confirmation mail about it with timetable information). If there is no empty seat on the next shuttle, you will be kindly asked to travel by train and you'll receive an onsite refund. - PLEASE NOTE THAT SHUTTLES RUN ONLY ON 26/08, 31/08 and 01/09. If you bought a ticket for a different day, please ask for onsite refund on 26 or 27 August.

COMPATIBILITY: currency, phones and plugs
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Make sure to have Hungarian forints (local currency) by the time you need them. If you take the train, you'll need them to buy tickets. If you take the shuttle, you'll only need forints in Szeged most probably. Read the corresponding entry in our FAQ for more information (http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/faq#currency). For local communications, make sure your phone is compatible, or you are prepared to buy a cheap prepaid phone in Hungary. Read the corresponding entry in our FAQ for more information (http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/faq#phone). Check that you have the right power plug converters for your mobile charger and laptop. Again, we have more information on this in our FAQ (http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/faq#power-plugs).

LOCAL TRANSPORTATION
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Finally, although in Szeged lots of places are in walking distance, we published a public transportation city map for you in the FAQ (http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/faq#public-transport), and given that there are some detours around the conference venue area, we translated the detour map for you for better understanding. The most important information is that you'll find a 1V tram supplement bus instead of tram 1 at the train station, if you'd take public transport from there. For further details, see http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/node/1628. For parking information, see http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/node/1633 also in the forums.

FOOD
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When safely arrived, cheer up and eat something delicious, see http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/node/1630.

DRUPALCON REGISTRATION
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Once you are all past the initial hurdles and fun of a new country, currency, transportation system, we welcome you right at the first morning with the registration desk at our venue, the József Attila Study and Information Centre at Szeged, Ady Square 10. The registration starts at 8am each day. You will receive a conference bag and your badge. Make sure that the badge is always with you as you will be allowed to certain parts of the venue only if the "security staff" sees your badge. Your badge holder will contain your lunch tickets, your welcome drink ticket for the welcome party and your invoice. Make sure that the tickets are with you when you would like to grab your sandwich or drink your cocktail. We have a pre-registration option at Novotel Hotel between 5pm and 7pm on 26/08 for anyone who does not want to queue on the first morning. We suggest you come by and get registered, so you can wake up later on the first day.

SCHEDULE
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Make sure to arrive on time on Wednesday though, since our opening keynote with "State of Drupal" from Dries Buytaert starts at 9am. You should not miss that! You'll find the schedule handy all throughout the conference: http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/schedule which has a personalized version and can even be exported for use in your desktop calendar tool. Drupalcon is in a big part powered by attendee participation, so if you have a BoF idea, please submit that at http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/propose and schedule to one of the available BoF spaces yourself, once submitted. If you have yet unscheduled BoFs, please schedule them to slots fitting your plans (look at the "Schedule" tab on your BoF page).

INFORMATION DESK
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The Drupalcon crew is happy to help you at the Information Desk in the venue. Should you have any problems or requests, feel free to contact them. This desk will also serve as a gathering point if you register for sightseeing events or wine tasting.

THE WHITEBOARD
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Since we are going to use several floors of this venue for Drupalcon, we decided to try out a digital whiteboard solution instead of an analog whiteboard at the registration desk, where you'd need to walk back each time to get to know about new sticky notes added. We hope it works out well, and set it up just like an analog whiteboard, so that you can go to http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/whiteboard and can see existing whiteboard notes. You can go in and edit any existing note or add a new note.

INVOICES
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Unfortunately Hungarian tax laws are very rigid and complicated, so please read through the following few lines to understand the invoice you get:

The invoices are issued according to the Hungarian VAT and Accountancy Law, which were to be followed and respected when issuing sponsorship or registration fee invoices. We issued two types of invoices:

- Advance invoice („L” or „D”): an invoice which confirms the arrival of your payment before the conference
- Final invoice („P”): an invoice which is issued based on the advance invoice on the day of the conference; no payment is required

The advance invoices were issued in three currencies - HUF („L”), EUR, USD („D”) - depending on where your money arrived, which currency account was used. The total amount, regardless of the currency, indicated on each invoice is the amount that actually arrived on our bank account. Paypal payments were withdrawn to the HUF bank account as payments can be withdrawn to the local bank account in home country currency. For this reason, if your money arrived on our Paypal account, you will receive an invoice issued in HUF taking the Paypal exchange rate on the day of the withdrawal into account. If your payment arrived at one of our foreign currency accounts, the total amount indicated on your invoice is the amount we actually received. In case the original amount of the transfer differs from the amount we received, the invoice was issued based on the original amount.

Both the due date and the payment date indicated on the invoice are the date when your money arrived on our bank account. The final invoice was issued with a reference to the advance invoice; the reference is indicated in the comment field. The total amount is always zero, as no payment is required after its receipt.

The buyer indicated on each invoice is the owner of the bank account from where we received payment. If you wrote a company name in your bio and your invoice is issued to your name, it is not a mistake. We issued the invoice to your name and not the given company name as the payment arrived from your personal bank account and not the company’s business account. In this case, we are unable to re-issue the invoice for you.

Thank you for understanding the rules and principles we needed to follow when your invoice was issued!

We wish you a happy Drupalcon experience. If you have any more questions, volunteers in "Drupalcon crew" shirts will be around the venue and at the information desk to answer your questions.

Yours,
The Drupalcon organization team