hi everyone

as you might have notices, our next event is SwiNOG-20 - which is supposed to be a special event. SwiNOG-20 is the possibility to celebrate 10 years of SwiNOG! SwiNOG-1 was on October 18th 2000

according to our researches, the first email on the mailing was today, 10 years ago!

we're planning a special event for the last few months, but we need the help of the community today.

as of now, we don't have enough sponsors (and/or funds) to organize the next SwiNOG event. during the last months we've been negotiating with several companies. most of them told us that it's not possible to sponsor for this year. at least one long-term sponsor offered us to help.

we've wanted to plan a special event in April for SwiNOG-20 to celebrate it's birthday in a special location we've not been yet ,) now as finance is not yet ensured, we need to go for "plan b", which could be:

1. find a sponsor which covers the cost for a special event

2. cancel event in April/May and hope we find sponsors which enables ONE event this year

3. smaller form of event - means: tramdepot again, limitation to 100 people, no special event

4. increase the costs per participant (to CHF 100.- or even more to cover everything) to: 4a. do at least an event in tramdepot (see # 3) 4b. plan a special event (sponsor would only cover apéro; rest would be covered by participants)

5. do the event in the tramdepot (our sponsor would cover location/coffee breaks). but no apéro would possible.

we would like to go for option 1, but if it's not possible, we would have to decide. your input is welcome.

either way, planning for April is not feasible anymore. if someone want to sponsor we would to for an event in may.

just one side not about the costs we had in the last few years. the location tramdepot is and was a very cheap solution for SwiNOG, but the limitations are well known: - place small and cozy, but limited for participants (# of seats) and sponsors (they would like to get some extra-space) - food is ok, but not outstanding

we've been looking for bigger locations over the last 6 months. unfortunately this means: if we want to have 30 more participants, our costs will double. there are not many locations in Berne, where you can have 130-150 participants AND people can sit during lunch. it's limited to 2-3 locations... (which are payable).

so, if you're really interested in sponsoring SwiNOG, please get in contact with us (swinog-core@swinog.ch).

greetings

-steven on behalf of SwiNOG Core

ps: for those interested in history - the first mail on SwiNOG ML:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Feb 2000, 17h08, from Philip Bridge:

... It is a majordomo list called 'sof@bridgenet.ch'. I suggest 'Swiss Operators Forum' as the working title, until we all agree on something final. (Swiss Network Operators Group (SNOG) does not have a very suitable acronym for English speakers!). ... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------