Important 5th ConTeXt meeting news

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com>]

Hi all,

== Location change ==

Let's do the most important news first: The 5th ConTeXt meeting has
been relocated to Belgium (due to other obligations by Arthur,
southern France turned out to be near impossible to get organised).

The new location is Charneux, Belgium, geographically in the middle
of the triangle created by Maastricht (NL), Aachen (DE), and Liège (BE).

We will (as always) pick up people from various important public
transport spots during the Monday afternoon & evening, and try
our best to do timely drop-offs on Saturday as well.

== Registration / Bursaries ==

Perhaps it is the fine weather that makes people hold off, perhaps it
is because of Southern France sounding more attractive and the end of
summer, or maybe we simply have not sent enough reminder emails to the
list yet, but it is noticeable that the number of registrations is a
little less than usual around this time in the process. If you are
planning to attend, please register soon. Around August 20, the
caterer has to be informed on the number of people that need food,
so if you register any later than that you may run the risk of having
to eat scraps ;)

Joking aside, it goes without saying that we look forward to seeing as
many ConTeXt users as possible!

On a related note: we have received limited but firm commitments for
bursary funds from various LUGs, so even if you cannot afford the new
(reduced) fees, it may still be possible for you to attend. Just drop
us a message explaining how much funding you would need to be able to
attend and why we should give it to you, and we will see what can is
possible.

== Fee changes ==

With the location, also the fees have changed. What used to be the
'early bird' rate is now the 'normal' rate. Consequently, the normal
rate is now a lot lower than it initially was: down to 370 EUR.

Early bird registrations are now closed, but a discount of 100 EUR
will be retroactively applied for people that have already registered
until now.

There is now a fixed fee for accompanying persons of 300 EUR
(includes lodging and all meals, but no conference materials).

It is also possible to extend your stay until Monday morning 26/9,
for an extra fee of 30 EUR per day (but you will have to scavenge
your own food).

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, it is now actually possible
to pay!

Details are on the http://meeting.contextgarden.net/ website, on the
'fee' page. As your new main organiser and recipient of these funds,
Taco urges you to pay up sooner rather than later. If you cannot find
out how much you are due, just send a message asking for clarification.

== Registration changes ==

Besides a few changes resulting from the change in venue and 
consequently the fees, there is also a new field for Passport/ID Number
(which is required for some tax thing).

If you have already registered, can you please either fill in the form
again, or send the required number by e-mail to Taco?

== Programme ==

As we have booked the venue for the whole week from 19/9 to 26/9, we
have a few extra days that will be spent by Hans, Taco and any other
interested people for developer/development meetings, More on that
later.

There are already some talks and abstracts online, but no official
programme yet, more on that later as well.


Hope to see you in Charneux!

Taco Hoekwater, also speaking for:

Willi Egger
Hans Hagen
Mojca Miklavec
Arthur Reutenauer



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